Dressing the Boys

Fiancé and I knew early on that we wanted a "preppy-ish" type wedding. It wasn't going to be black tie optional, but it was going to have just enough class to make it us. We're not fully "preppy" but we try. We decided early on that it would be cocktail attire - which I think is easy considering our ceremony is mid afternoon and our reception starts around 5ish. There's a short 2 hour gap (more than we had wanted) between the two but that's enough time to get everyone across town from the church and get pictures taken.

So we knew early on that the groomsmen would be sporting Vineyard Vine Bowties. A friend of ours told us how fab they were, and when we told him he and his wife were invited, he was stoked because it gave him another reason to pick up another vineyard vines bowtie.

I was pretty stoked last night when I saw this gem while doing some online shopping last night in preparation for our excursion this weekend to the Woodbury Commons Outlets (home of the ONLY Vineyard Vines outlet store in the nation I believe)


Nice!!! This means we need six ties - five groomsmen and a ringbearer (though his is probably not on sale) and Fiancé - so we'll get two of them for free! Bowties, as we've decided they'll wear, are cheaper than regular ties at a nice $45 which is not too shabby for Vineyard Vines!

The ones we're trying to decide between?

whales, in our colors.

bloody mary - also in our colors.

Fiancé saw this one last night but it looks like they only have it in the regular neck tie not the bow tie...it would be very suiting if we could find it in a bowtie though.

Elephants necktie. $75.

We're going to wait to see: 1. if this sale is applicable at the outlet, 2. if not are the bowties cheaper at the outlet? 3. if yes - what styles do they have there?

Unfortunately, the tricky part about this is that we don't know what color suits we want the boys to wear - likely either navy or grey. But my FMIL and Mother are all "well won't navy clash with the dresses? You should bring a suit with you when you pick out dresses" and yadda yadda yadda. I personally am rooting for the navy suits - I mean name a dude that doesn't have a navy suit and how flipping hard is it to really see a discrepancy if the navy's don't match? Not to mention most navy suits look black so will those clash with blue dresses? I don't think they will, of course I could be wrong. But I think grey would be worse and while tan would look the best really? I don't want my boys to have to buy a tan suit that they'll never wear again. Plus it's a nighttime wedding - well afternoon/evening. I don't foresee tan doing well at an evening reception.

Thoughts? Suggestions? How are you taking advantage of super awesome sales for your bridal party??

[all images from vineyardvines.com]