So seriously…my fiance is a diva.  So much so, that when it comes to the topic of tuxedos, it’s been kind of a running joke between he and I that he says he wants ‘a white suit, white tails, white gloves and a cane or top hat.’  Seriously?  I kept trying to convince him that he is a white boy and that I will not have him looking like a butler!  I thought it was a joke…but….

When we stepped into Men’s Wearhouse mid-December with his brother (and best man) and his nephew (our junior groomsmen) I couldn’t believe that we spent more time in that stupid shop than I spent at ANY of the bridal salons I visited while shopping for my gown.  Two hours at a Men’s Wearhouse?  Seriously?!?  What a diva!

I snuck in ahead of the guys and found a tux rental associate.  I told her I was hoping to just keep the entire wedding party in classic black tuxes with black vests and white shirts or even all black and then have the groom stand out in an ivory or white vest and tie.  (I knew Mr Fix It was not in love with our wedding colors of aqua/turquoise and deep cranberry so I wasn’t even going to try to incorporate those colors into the guys’ tuxes other than maybe via the boutonnieres). 

So what’s the first thing Mr Fix It asks to see?  A black jacket with tails!  He put it on and it went something like this:

Him:  What do you think, babe?
Me:  (Grinning sarcastically trying not to laugh)
Him:  You’re smirking…what’s wrong?
Me:  Nothing, you just look like a circus ringleader!

Source
So that immediately nixed the tails idea.  Thank God!  Then the associate showed him the classic two button Calvin Klein modern jacket.  Very nice…perfect.  Just what we needed.  But no, Mr Fix It proceeds to ask about the white suits.  To which the associate politely provides him photos of the suits in their catalogue.  I quietly sit and say nothing hoping that Mr Fix It will figure out all on his own how stupid he would look in a white suit!  They ask me what color my gown is.  I tell them it is white but not stark white…an ivory white.  I tell them it is very formal and I am concerned that his white suit will not match the color of my gown or look formal enough.  We move on to the groomsmen tuxedos.
This process went fairly smoothly and much to my surprise, Mr Fix It and his bro decide to incorporate vests and ties that match the ladies’ bridesmaid dresses.  Mr Fix It apparently believes his brother is somewhat of a fashionista and values his opinion so when he says it would look nice to have the girls and guys match, Mr Fix It is fine with selecting vests and ties in a red and turquoise color scheme.  We opt for black shirts which I actually really like, especially since the girls will be in red gowns with black heels.  And it just so happens that I brought my sister’s matron of honor dress with me so we were able to easily match up the colors.
We came up with this (please ignore the silly smileless face of Best Man Keith):
We then thought about the junior groomsmen and four (yes, four!) ring bearers.  I proceeded to tell the associate and the guys about how my daughter (15 at the time of the wedding and so a borderline junior or regular bridesmaid) will be wearing the turquoise blue color in a dress very similar to the bridesmaids.  So we thought it might be cute to match up the junior groomsmen (10 years old) who will be walking her down the aisle and the little four nephews in a blue like hers.  So we came up with this for them (little Jr GM Josh of course smiled in his shot holding the vest up to him):
 
So these seemed so great to match my little girl’s gown and probably the flower girl dress as well which has some ribbon embroidery of an aqua shade in it.  Sounded great:  big guys (GM) in red to match the big girls (BM) and little guys (Jr GM & RB) in turquoise to match the younger girls (daughter & FG).  Nice. 
We opted for a simple vest in black to match the pattern and style of the big guys’ red vests for the two fathers and gave them white shirts instead of black so they’d still look like classy dads but separate them a little from the groomsmen in wedding party pictures:
 
Now I know they say you should have the ring bearer’s in the same thing as the groom, but that just didn’t seem to feel ‘right’ to us.  We loved the idea of the younger members of the party being in one shade of turquoise and the older members representing the red shade.  So all that was left was to finalize the groom’s gear. 
We pulled out some vests in ivory, white and a platinum (silver) type shade.  Mr Fix It kept saying that he just really wanted to stand out and be set apart from the rest of the guys.  I understood that this was his moment and his day, too but I kept trying (with the help of the sweet associate lady) to remind him that he still needed to keep the wedding party looking uniform and consistent.  We already had two similar but different patterned textures for the red and turquoise vests.  So we didn’t want to stray too far from that for him.
He took the black jacket over to a mirror and I glanced over to see him and his bro whispering in the corner.  They called me over and it went something like this:
Him:  Honey, I’m just not feeling the black.  I just think I need something different.
Me:  Like what?  (My hand was now on my hip and I kept still staring back and forth from Mr Fix It to his brother)
Him:  I don’t know.  Maybe tan?
Me:  (Blank stare)
Him:  You’re not feeling tan?  What about navy?  Navy might be good?
Me:  (Long pause)  Are you trying to make me cry?  (Yes, I seriously had tears welling up in my eyes)
Him:  No navy?  But I want to look different, babe.
Me:  Oh, you’ll look different all right!  You’ll look like you don’t belong in the wedding party!  You’ll look like a guest!  It’ll look like one of the groomsmen is marrying me!
His brother:  That’s true, you don’t want the groomsmen to look better than you do.
Him:  Alright, I guess the black is fine.
Seriously?  What the hell?!?  I’m going to kill these guys!  I get that some guys like white suits and tan suits and navy or whatever.  I get it, I do.  There’s nothing wrong with those.  But if you’re going to do that, then the whole wedding party should be wearing something similar.  But no, my guy wants to ‘stand out’…and not in a good way.  And I wanted timeless, simple, classic black next to my big ole formal extravagant light ivory gown.  Why the heck does he have to make every single aspect of the wedding plans he is involved in such a nightmare to finalize?!
We finally settled on this for Mr Fix It and he looks HOT in it!
 
So all together, the three vests and ties look like this:
I think even though they are slightly different patterns, they still look nice next to each other and have similar styles and shapes (the little round circles).  But of course, after we left, Mr Fix It commented that he is still not sure about his selection and may be going back to make some ‘revisions.’  I’m gonna hurt him….seriously!