Dressing the Men

With a black tie (optional) wedding, tuxedos for the men seemed to be a bit of a no-brainer. As much as I love the mismatched look for bridesmaids, there's just something about men all fancy in black tuxedos.

Mr. Turkey rockin' the tux - sometimes with a bow tie, others with a vest, and once with suspenders

Yes, there are options to mix up the look with tuxedos (gray, colored, etc), but we were hoping for a classic look that wouldn't date our wedding.

Turkey Mom & Dad walking down the aisle - beautiful, but VERY trendy menswear choice

However, we did decide to throw in something a little different than simply black and white.

Now, I highly doubt any of our groomsmen read this blog, but just in case they do:

Turkey Groomsmen...please walk away!

We started by choosing a location for tuxedo rentals and since we're in a big city, there were plenty of options. Based on previous (disappointing) experiences with tux rentals, we decided not to go with Men's Wearhouse. Instead, we chose Jos A. Bank, famous for their frequent, blow-out sales and a favorite of Mr. Turkey's. Almost all of his work clothes come from there, often purchased as part of a crazy deal (buy one suit, get an entire wardrobe free). 

We were basing our rental decision on the fact that their service and quality would be similar to the usual Jos A. Bank retail experience. So far, we've been happy with the decision (the local store manager has been extremely helpful managing rentals that span coast to coast), but we'll reserve judgement until wedding day!

Since Mr. Turkey owns his (Jos A. Bank) tuxedo, we went in and asked for the rentals to be the closest possible version. In addition, since his tux is still sold in stores, the men had the option to purchase if they wanted to take advantage of a sale (Brother Turkey and one other groomsman did).

With the "body" down, it was time to choose a shirt. Although I do like wing tip shirts, Mr. Turkey is more comfortable in a point collar, so we went that route.

Source

Also, the point collar tends to look nice whether you choose a bow tie or traditional tie...and that's where we were planning to do some mixing! Instead of distinguishing with color, we decided that Mr. Turkey will be wearing a bow tie, while his groomsmen (and the ushers) will be wearing ties that we are gifting to them.

The groomsmen tie - a black & silver paisley pattern

The usher tie - a silver / black geometric print

As you can see above, the groomsmen and ushers will also be wearing vests...and hopefully they'll actually knot their ties versus just sit them in the collar like we did for the photo shoot. We debated suspenders, but Mr. Turkey found them uncomfortable after wearing them in a wedding this past summer (and some of his friends felt the same). We hope that this combination will be comfortable for the guys and they'll use their tie again!

For the dads, we didn't ask them to rent (that seemed unnecessary) and told them they could make any decisions around tie, bow tie, vest, etc. Turkey Dad decided on a vest and I received this picture from him the other day when he picked up his new tux.

Note that his pockets are turned out - this was to indicate the wedding taking his money!

But what about the groom? 

I mentioned above that we decided he will be wearing a bow tie, but we can't seem to decide on his final look. At this point, we actually have 3 options!

Option A - vest and bow tie

The vest matches the groomsmen

Option B - paisley bow tie and cummerbund

The paisley pattern, although all black, could complement the groomsmen's look

Option C - solid black bow tie and cummerbund

The bow tie here is a self-tie bow tie

We're totally torn. We love the paisley option, but Brother Turkey swears that a self-tie bow tie will look best (and he can tie it on the wedding day).

Silly photo of Brother Turkey - proving his self-tie bow tie skills

Unfortunately, Jos A. Bank does not carry a self-tie black paisley bow tie, so we'd need to look around for another set if we go that route.

If you were us, which option would you choose for Mr. Turkey?

Option A

Option B

Option C

Other (hit the comments)

How did you make your menswear decisions? Did you choose any "trendy" options?