Formal Wear, Trip 1

Since we have less than three months, we thought it was about time to arrange for the tuxedos for Andrew, Greg, and my Dad. Here’s my problem: the colors I chose were yellow and navy. Navy. What an assinine choice. “Why?”, you ask? Because navy and black do not go together. Especially the navy on the bridesmaid dresses that we chose.

So, the solution to the problem is to have gray tuxedos with navy or yellow vests and ties (navy looks better with the gray). So, we started at Fair Oaks Mall, but the formal wear place only had one gray tux, and it had four buttons, which I don’t really like — it looks too much like a regular suit, and what’s the point of that? Our next stop was the formal wear place at the Sears (not Sears itself, but some kind of contracted out space inside the Sears). They had a nice looking Oscar de la Renta set with tails that was charcoal gray, but I didn’t like any of the vests that they had (plus the rental for just the tux was $130, that’s not including the shirt, vest, and shoes).

Our final stop was the Men’s Wearhouse across the street from the mall. When we walked it, a very tall blonde woman called to us, from a table where she was folding shirts, “Can I help you?”. I said yes, that we were looking for tuxedoes to rent for our wedding. She continued folding while I told her what I was looking for, explaining that our colors included navy, which I didn’t like with balck. I also told her that I had a print-out of something from their web site that might do the trick.

Finally, she stopped folding, deigning to give us a small bit of her attention. She walked back to the rental desk and pulled out a book, and found the page with the one set of tails in gray. Unfortunately, the pants that came with it were striped. Not pin stripes, but more what I would call clown-pants stripes. “No,” I said, “that won’t do it.”

She asked how dark the navy was, and I produced a swatch. “That’s not too dark,” she says, and unzips one of the suit bags containing a rental tux. “See, that’s not bad against the black.”

Had I not just said that I didn’t like navy and black? Did she think I was kidding? Hello?

“No,” I said, “I don’t like that. It won’t work.”

I believe she mumbled something about the fact that I wouldn’t be able to find what I wanted. I remember thinking that I had seen what I wanted but without a good vest at the formal wear place in Sears…she was sounding like the car salesmen I’ve dealt with. Needless to say, Andrew and I left, though a bit crankier for the experience.