From classic looks to custom suits, we work with men who have some killer attire and today, we have three grooms who are here to share their wedding day style. Brides often get all the limelight when it comes to wedding day attire and that’s just plain wrong! Today, we’re hearing from seriously dapper men who slayed their wedding day attire and are sharing insight into what they wore and why.
AARON, ON KEEPING IT CLASSIC
I’m a guy who knows what he likes and doesn’t like with clothes. I think it’s important for clothes to be an extension of your mood for the day, and your closet should reflect that spectrum – everything in between bold, happy clothes for social events and comfy, muted clothes for grocery shopping, you know?
That being said, the big wedding day doesn’t allow for a full spectrum, you only get one chance to nail it. How formal you get depends on your wedding, but my wedding was a pretty classic 120-person wedding with church and reception. I knew I was going to be wearing a tuxedo or at least a suit and tie, but that still leaves many options of color, fabric, ties vs bowties, accessories, etc. I didn’t want to make the wrong choice for such a big event.
My philosophy on fashion is that classic is always cool. Trends come and go (chunky shoes make me want to barf these days), but classic is always acceptable for a reason. Watch an old Marcello Mastroianni movie and tell me he doesn’t still look great in a black tuxedo. I personally chose a classic black tuxedo with a modern slim-fit alteration for the best of both worlds. I wore black shoes, black socks, black bowtie (clip on!), black Ray-Bans (during cocktail hour) and a boutonnière from our florist. To some, that may be boring or not thinking outside of the box, and I totally get that. But for me, I didn’t want to look back on my wedding photos in 20 years and have regrets about wearing what was cool at the time I got married. And thankfully no one showed up to our wedding in chunky shoes! ;)
DREW, ON INSPIRATION FOR A CUSTOM SUIT
The design for my outfit really started once we decided on Los Poblanos as the venue for our destination wedding. I also wanted to balance my color scheme against Kate’s dress. I really had three elements working together; one being Kate’s dress, two being my outfit, and the three being the environment, and I think it’s important for it all to flow together seamlessly.
As far as the style goes, I really like European Riviera style. It’s timeless, classy, and also comfortable. I’m kind of built like a block and I have a beard so I was shooting for a Hemingway or the World’s Most Interesting Man from the Dos Equis commercials look. For whoever needs to hear this, you can get away with not wearing a tie, make the look your own. I looked at espadrilles and velvet slip ons for footwear as I was thinking about going sockless, but ended up with yellow, ochre Mezlan shoes that still evoked the slipper look and got some sweet socks to bring the look together. Finding the right shoes and socks actually took a lot of digging but it was worth it.
Making a mood board helped me bring my look together. Our New Mexican venue had so much I wanted to represent. I absolutely loved the yellow from the honeybees, violet from the lavender fields, orange from the terra cotta, and of course, the ubiquitous turquoise from architectural elements. Putting all of that in a mood board gave me a really good place to start from and helped communicate what I looking for when I went to my tailor for a completely custom suit.
I had my suit made at Wildwood in Portland, Oregon, which I highly recommend. They were awesome and made the process really fun. I chose linen which actually made the suit really comfortable even though it was 104 degrees on my wedding day. Also, having a suit made is really cool process, I loved making the choices from the fabric of the suit jacket to the pants pattern, and even the lining. When it all came together, looking really good at my wedding made me feel like a boss which is how you should feel on your wedding day, right?
BRIAN, ON WHY THE TAILOR IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE SUIT
It was important to me that I buy a suit, not rent. Unlike a wedding dress, a suit can be worn again so investing in I loved and a tailor I trusted was key. Tailoring is more important than the suit itself, really. You want it to fit well, you want to feel comfortable and confident. One quick note, don’t forget about also tailoring the button down. A Seinfeld puffy shirt situation is the last thing you want when you whip your jacket off on the dance floor.
Quick story on a great tailor. My brother is diabetic and wears an insulin pump, the tailor recognized this and had a discussion with him about how he can tailor the suit to hide it well so he didn’t have a weird bulge in his jacket. Find an awesome tailor like this. I’ll say it again. Tailoring is more important than the suit!
On to choosing the suit itself. My only requirement was a 3 piece suit, no reason, I just wanted a 3 piece. Every color was on the table, I just went in and found something that stood out to me. The suit I chose kinda just called my name. It was the only one I tried on at Suit Supply. Shopping there was super fun, they have a guys version of wedding dress shopping where we drank scotch and had a good time.
Once I figured out the suit, Paige and I worked on incorporating wedding colors, which is where we got the pink bow tie color, and the off white pocket square which we ordered from Tie Bar. The button-down was actually the most difficult. We wanted an off-white button-down to match Paige’s dress color. You don’t want to wear clean white shirt if the dress is off white or the dress will look really yellow.
A big thank you to these three grooms who came to share their wedding day style! If you’re looking for more inspiration, check out Chris’s fresh style for his polo field wedding here.
