you guys are driving me crazy...

i mentioned before that the whole guy's suit situation was one of the points causing me some major stress in this wedding planning affair. once we got mike his suit and decided what we were going to get the guys ( my brother, his brother and his best friend) i felt a lot better about the whole thing for a while, we had even stumbled upon a fantastic tie, below for those who might not remember.

the plan was for mike to pick up the other 3 ties, just like his, when he went to pick up his suit after it had been tailored. road block. the store was out of that tie. not just the harvard square store but all of the stores in all locations, the tie was completely sold out and unattainable. cut to bride spewing profanities - why on earth did we not get all 4 ties when we were there a month before? and if the ties are selling out we have to get these boys to buy their suits asap because i may have a break down if god forbid a similar situation happens with them. yeah i know - it's not good for my health to stress out about these small things but adding extra steps at this point in the game just equals stress to me.

stress. a mad search commenced for suitable replacement ties that could coordinate with mike's tie but not match exactly. i like the idea of him being a little different anyway and nothing else in this wedding is going to be matchy matchy so whats the big deal. oh yeah and we need to get something for the dad's too. am i really running around stressing over ties? oh boy it's time to get married already...

after a fruitless search for an easy order replacement i stumbled upon etsy seller hand made by emy who makes custom ties for wedding parties and has a really nice selection of fabrics. after contacting her to pick her brain about some fabrics that might mix in with our orange and blue madras design it was clear we were in good hands. i choose an orange gingham, a little bit country, a little bit casual, and a little bit funky i think for the 3 boys. i just received them in the mail today and they are beautiful. they are so well made, beautifully lined, and even wrapped in perfect little packages...oh and did i mention extremely affordable? emy really saved my day and i very highly recommend her.

we ended up ordering black and white piccolo gingham for the dads from j.crew, the orange seemed a little too young for them, and now that i have them all here i think it makes a pretty nice picture.

i have to say i do feel relieved to have one more piece of the puzzle accounted for, less than 2 months out my check lists are running long and every item taken off the table is like oxygen to me.

we now have all but one of the guys ( ehem...) suited up but it wasnt without a little extra leg work. as i had feared i went to an express to check on the vests and slacks and they did not carry the gray any longer - they were switching it out for black - the fall lines were coming in, i almost lost it. luckily we found a store in the area that still had them and walked mike's brother - his best man - in to buy it immediately. they look super cute on and i'm a happy girl - well i will be once the 3rd guy gets his but i'm on my way.

the final huge road block was the off white dress shirts. are you guys encountering any of this? since my dress is an antiqued white everyone is telling us the guys need to be in ivory or off white otherwise my dress will look dirty. great, another search. have you tried to google an ivory dress shirt? or an off white dress shirt? or even eggshell or ecru? the results are few and far between, i checked retailers, designers, even wedding message boards and forums for advice. i was pulling my hair out and about to say - screw this a white shirt is a white shirt when at express on our suiting excursion we found a perfect solution, beautiful off white shirts - called "stone" - that work perfectly.

so yeah, i can't count the times "why didnt we just rent tuxes" whispered through the back of my mind.* this part has really been a lot of work and energy for me. anyone else having any suiting troubles? the saving grace is that they do look darn cute but really, there needs to be a place that does suit rentals for the modern groom already, they could make a fortune.

* i have a friend who is getting married this weekend and when the guys went to mens wearhouse to pick up their tuxes a few days ago they all had gray jackets and black pants, so i know that a rental wouldn't necessarily mean less stress.