Image by Aga Tomaszek from Rachel and Alex’s Jew-ish wedding (florist Mary Jane Vaughan and videographer HD Moments are STG Recommended Vendor)
About Blogging Bride Clare: She will be marrying Chris on 5th May 2018 at Laura Ashley The Manor in Elstree, UK.
THREE FACTS: (1) Clare is not Jewish but discovered Smashing The Glass via her Jewish sister-in-law and during her wedding planning journey it has (in her own words!) became her favorite and most useful wedding blog (2) She finds STG refreshing in a sea of wedding blogs as she loves reading stories of couples for whom the ceremony itself is as pivotal as all the other details. (3) Due to falling in love with so many amazing Jewish weddings through the blog, and then booking a wedding consultancy session with STG founder, Karen, it confirmed to her that there were a number of Jewish elements she was going to bring into her wedding that symbolise a lot of things that are very important to her and her fiancà© in their future marriage – she will be having a ‘Jewish-inspired’ wedding!
With TV shows like Say Yes To The Dress and numerous amount of time in wedding magazines and blogs given to brides finding the perfect dress, it can somewhat take over the wedding preparations.
Any engaged girl will know that the amount of times you get asked ‘Have you got the dress yet? ‘or any number of other dress related questions just never stops! So what about the men in the wedding?
I found that as we went through our long list of ‘to-do’s’ for the big day, choosing my fiancà©’s outfits and the groomsmen attire was getting pushed until quite near the end. For many brides, this may be an area they are happy to hand over to their man, but as a little bit of a wedding control freak (different to bridezilla I promise!) I definitely had to be involved in ensuring the overall look would suit the rest of the day.
When choosing outfits for the males in the wedding party there’s actually a lot more choice than I first imagined. The decision of black tie, morning suits or lounge suits before you even factor in colours and fabrics…
Image by Blake Ezra (STG Recommended Vendor) from Sam and Jonny‘s Jewish wedding
I love the look of a black tie wedding, and our day having a fairly ‘glam’ feel, this seemed like the best option. However, given the time line of our day and our ceremony being quite early on at 2:30pm in the afternoon, we felt that perhaps black tie was better left for the evening. So we set our sights on lounge suits for the day and then Chris and his groomsmen to change into black tie later on.
With six groomsmen to find suits for we felt that hire would be best. This would be easy, I thought and I didn’t give it too much thought. However when it actually came down to securing the dates for choosing the suits, I found that lounge suit hire in London was near on impossible to find!
There was an obvious high street option but when I popped in and saw the quality, particularly in relation to the price, I really wasn’t sold. Not to mention the limited choice for navy lounge suits and the fact that a friend of Chris who married last year had the exact colour and style suits we would be after. (I had a mini freak at the wedding that they also had the same colour scheme and flower choices as us – so this was a no go!)
Most of the hire stores I found catered only for black tie or morning suits so we were beginning to contemplate options, until I found Tux Lux in Mill Hill. Having noticed their name pop up several times here on Smashing The Glass, and our wedding venue recommending them, I gave them a call.
As soon as it was confirmed on the phone to me that yes, they did lounge suit hire I was sold and we made an appointment to go and choose Chris’s outfits, followed by an appointment for him and his groomsmen to go the week after.
Oya at Tux Lux could not have been more helpful. She was instantly approachable and friendly, put us both at ease and took the stress out of the decision making.
Not only are all the suits in store available for either purchase or hire (a win for those, like us who wanted to buy the grooms but hire the groomsmen) but the range of choice is amazing! I never knew I could have so much fun purchasing men’s clothing!
Image by Milton Gan from Stacey and Michael‘s Jewish in Australia
Being a smaller store, we were the only people in there during our appointment time which made me feel like Chris got an experience as special as my dress buying (though perhaps minus the tears…)
We went through numerous options and Oya was so patient as we deliberated over colours and I pulled up pictures of my bridesmaids dresses to compare against ties and pocket squares.
We ended up choosing an amazing navy suit for the day, far better in quality than any we had seen elsewhere and that will be worn many times again after the wedding. Being able to hire the exact same suits for the groomsmen took all the hassle out of trying to coordinate options and, I must say, they all look rather dapper!
When it came to the evening look, we went all out and a little bolder! I never knew there could be so many tux options and it was a hard choice but in the end we have gone with something very unique I’ve never seen before. Just because I feel like the men of the wedding really don’t get the outfit glory of the bride, I am not going to reveal any further details of said tux, until the big day!
Image by Philippa James from the Jew-ish wedding of Caroline and Robbie, one of Karen’s consultancy couples (STG Recommended Vendors The Function Band, Philippa Louise Makeup and Rabbi Paul Glantz
With six groomsmen to accommodate we were so grateful that Oya was super flexible with appointments and allowed them to come en masse to get measured for their suits. With such great prices too we really couldn’t have asked for better service.
Even our groomsmen who had to schlep to Mill Hill from South London (oh the horror!) concurred that it was definitely worth it. Everybody has been left very happy with the whole experience, and I am almost as excited to go collect the suits the week before the wedding as I am my own dress!
For any couples based in London or surrounding areas I cannot recommend Tux Lux enough, but wherever you are based I do highly recommend investing the time to enjoy the grooms outfit choosing fully.
Sometimes the boys can be a bit overlooked amidst all the other more ‘girlie’ elements to the day and traditionally I don’t think anybody really cared what the groom wore; but now with so many more choices available and our bid for equality, let’s make the men’s outfits more a priority! Perhaps a new TV show – ‘Root For The Suit’, anyone?!
Image by Michael Segal from Eden and Matan‘s Jewish wedding in Mexico
Click here to read all Clare’s planning posts to date.
Clare & Chris’ Wedding Vendors booked so far:
Photographer — Catherine Carter
Videographer — Jeff Woods
Venue — Laura Ashley The Manor
Dress – purchased at The Wedding Club
Celebrant – Mark Townsend
Groom and groomsmen’s suits and tuxedos – Tux Lux
