Suit Up!

A while back, I mentioned that The Backyard Groom wanted to take some style cues from the Sterling Cooper executives over on "Mad Men," but I think he also wouldn't mind finding a suit like the ones Barney Stinson wears on "How I Met Your Mother" while coining catchphrases (like this blog's title) left and right.

The first time we went suit shopping for the wedding, we hit up Banana Republic's "Mad Men" promotion. The suits were sold in separates and all very picked over, so we had a hard time finding anything that either (a) fit or (b) matched.

Next we tried Macy's. The suits were more plentiful than Banana Republic, but there was still a somewhat limited selection in his size. (The Backyard Groom wears Long sizes because he's so tall.) But on only his second attempt in the fitting room, he stumbled on a suit that suited him perfectly. It's black with black shadow stripes, narrow lapels and two buttons. And flat-front pants, which was my main hope for the new suit since his other suit has pleated pants. Unfortunately Macy's makes it very difficult to steal images from their site, and I forgot to take my camera on the shopping trip, so this is the best photo I could find online of the Alfani suit.

From the beginning, The Backyard Groom said he wanted a blue shirt, so we found him a Calvin Klein dress shirt in just the right shade of blue to make his eyes pop. Next, our very helpful Macy's sales associate helped us pick out a coordinating tie. We looked through about 20, from stripes and dots and crazy patterns to paisleys, which is what we ultimately chose. I couldn't find the exact Michael Kors tie online that we ended up with, but here is a similar one also from the Michael Kors line.

Then we picked up a couple other ties for him to wear with the suit in its post-wedding days, a new pair of dress shoes, socks and a belt. And we thought guys had it easy! Well, I guess compared to the big wedding dress hunt they do, but there were more components and choices for dressy menswear than either of us thought.

In case any of you are shopping at Macy's for anything wedding related (or just for fun!), they are running a really great promotion right now. You spend $25 for a special card, a percentage of which goes to charity (for our store it was the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas), and then whenever you show the card from now until December 31 (that means Black Friday and Christmas shopping, ladies!), they put 10% of each purchase on a gift card that you'll get at the beginning of 2010.

Now The Backyard Groom has to get his pants hemmed (glad I'm not the only one going through alterations) and then I can't wait to see him all suited up on the big day!

Did you strike it lucky with a suit?