a small town wedding: guys get ready, and a gift for the groom.

Wow, has it really been a year since my last wedding recap post?  So much has changed since then!  I promise the rest of the recaps won't be so sporadic.

Last time I posted about the girls getting ready, so naturally this post is all about the guys.

My soon-to-be husband and his groomsmen were busy getting dapper at the best man's house while we were at the salon.

I could not find olive green ties anywhere for our wedding, so a family friend made the groomsmen's ties for me!  They looked great!

Here's the man of the hour all ready to head to the church.

He's not a groom until he gets a boutonierre, right?  Doesn't he look excited?  

After they were all ready, the guys took some pictures outside of the church.

When the photo ops were over, his wedding gift was delivered.

He opened the box...

and put on his new watch...

All images by Deborah Cull Photography

It was time to get married!

Previously in our wedding recaps:
Mascaras Get Married: The Beginning
Mascaras Get Married: Giving Gifts
Mascaras Get Married: Girls Get Ready

the bout' test.

As I mentioned previously, I have been considering making the boutonnieres for the groomsmen. I had bought some flowers last week to have around the apartment, and since they are on their last leg, I thought I'd use them to test out my bout-making skills. I had some fake hydrangeas as well from some of our other wedding projects, so I used a stem of the flowers and a leaf to supplement the real button mums. After about 2 minutes, here's what I came up with.
It works, but I think it needs some more color. I tried adding a fuchsia feather. Still not loving it, but it proves that more color is better!
I think I'll do another trial, next time with purple button mums. Possibly two mums and less hydrangea, with some hypericum berries if I can find some. I'll leave out the feathers.

What would you do to improve the bouts'? Do you think they have potential?

my first DIY donation.

I have a ton of DIY projects finished for our wedding, with plenty more to go in the next few months. But this weekend, I made my first DIY donation. That is, someone else is going to DIY it for me!

You see, we've been searching for green ties for the groomsmen for a long time now. The tuxes for the boys have pinstripes, so I don't want anything crazy going on with the ties. Just a plain tie in a mossy green color will do. Finding plain green ties is a lot more difficult than I thought it would be! We're looking to give the ties to the groomsmen as a gift, along with some green socks and another rather large surprise (that will be the topic of another post), so while we want them to be nice, we do not want to spend a ton of money on them. As you can imagine, finding nice quality, inexpensive, plain mossy green satin ties is an even more difficult task!

(source)

Since I like to sew, I decided I'd find a pattern and make the ties myself. I deconstructed an old tie to use as a pattern, found green fabric at JoAnn's along with the rest of the supplies and went to work. Sadly, the my first tie did not look at great as I'd wanted it to. So I tried again. That one didn't turn out either. It was stiff (which I could fix by changing the interfacing) but I also couldn't get the lining to look like I wanted it to, which bothered me even though no one would know by looking at them from the front. Plus, making the ties was not fun AT ALL. I don't have a long enough cutting mat, which made the tedious task of cutting the fabric even more annoying. The fabric was nearly impossible to fold in a straight line to make nice lines along the sides of the tie. The entire length of the inside of the tie had to be hand sewn. Did I mention yet how much I hate hand-sewing? I hate it! Overall, the ties were a huge pain in the you-know-what to make, and in the end they didn't even look very nice.

My future mother-in-law was visiting this past weekend for Easter, and asked how the ties were coming along. I showed her the two that I had made, and expressed to her how much I did not enjoy making them. Then she suggested we talk to a friend of hers, who is a retired seamstress and is also doing my dress alterations. She called her up and asked if she would have time to make the ties for us. Luckily for our groomsmen (and for my sanity), she said YES! I am so happy to have this project off my plate! And I can't wait to see how they turn out when made by a real professional!

Did anyone else struggle with a DIY project and ultimately give it up to a professional?

boys need flowers too.

In the form of a boutonniere, that is! I'm a fan of simple ones with green hypericum berries for our ringbearers, because you know they are going to destroy them by the end of the night anyway!

(source)

Next up, the groomsmen. We'll be keeping it simple for them too, adding in a few button mums (possibly in purple, green, or a mix) to add some color. Nothing too elaborate, just something to dress us their collars a little.

(source)

Lastly and most importantly, we have the groom of course! The Mr. will be wearing a different bout than the rest of the gents, containing a purple dahlia and probably more of the same hypericum berries to tie them all together.

(source)

All that's left to decide is who will be making them! I have a florist, but I feel like these would be so simple to make. And with an estimate of around $12 per bout from our florist, it's worth it to try. I'll be sure to post an update when I do.

Is anyone else considering making their own boutonnieres?

sister shower and some socks.

My future sister-in-laws informed me this week that they'd like to throw a shower for us. We figured out a date that would work best and now it's official. They've asked me to put a list together of girls I want to invite, so that's on my to-do list in the next few days. Is it bad that I don't have a guest list yet but I do have a dress to wear? I picked this up at Banana Republic, it was on sale! It was originally $150, on sale for $69.99. Add 10% off for using my BR card plus another 15% off with my "pick your own sale" card, and I paid under $50 for it. Not too bad! I wish I would've been able to get there last week when they had their friends and family sale, but that just didn't happen. Now I just have to find a cute pair of shoes and some jewelry to match and I'll be all set!

The boy also picked up some socks for himself and his groomsmen in a super sweet shade of green.

The socks will be part of the gifts for the groomsmen. We've been searching for socks to match our color scheme for a few months now, so I'm glad we finally found some that will work!

dress dilemma.

I'm having trouble deciding which route to go with the bridesmaid's dresses. I had everyone pick their first and second color choices out of the three, and it ended up as alternating blue and purple. So I'm considering just using the 2 color dresses and then having the guys wear green ties. The other option is adding a couple green dresses in the mix and having the guys wear purple ties. I'd like to get the dresses ordered ASAP so I need help making this decision. Which do you prefer?

Photoshopped images by my lovely sister Dani, or "MOH" as she likes to call herself.

groom's attire.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We've been making a lot of progress on the wedding plans while we've been home. Here's what Adam will be wearing on the big day.It's got subtle ivory pinstripes, and will be worn exactly as shown with a white microfiber shirt, a black satin vest and an ivory satin tie. The rest of the guys will be wearing a different color tie that we will be purchasing for them, possibly in purple.

I'm excited we can check something else off the list!

Tux from Joseph Abboud. Photo from DuBois Formalwear.