Tuxedo Basics

Welcome brides & grooms! For me, choosing a suit was fairly simple as I knew from the beginning that I wanted to look like a baller – so it had to be a tuxedo.

However, it’s not that simple…who knew that 007 wasn’t rocking socks and sandals.

I’ve learnt a few things about the tuxedo from my big day and as I’m writing this I’m starting to think I should have called this blog ‘Tuxedo – Stating the Obvious’. Oops.

SHOES

This was news to me, the traditional type of shoes to be worn with the tuxedo are patent shoes, AKA shiny shoes. My wife treated me to a pair, and I think it’s a good idea to give your groomsmen the heads up that these are traditionally worn so that they’re aware. Plus in my opinion it looks good if everyone is matching.

SHIRT

It turns out there are two different types of shirt collars worn with tuxedos; winged collars & regular shirt collars.

We opted for the winged collars and these in my opinion look smarter & more formal. The winged part of the collar should sit behind the bow-tie, so that the band of the bow tie is visible.

Here’s the problem, I made sure to iron the collar down, but for some reason it did not seem to want to stay in place. I spent most of the day trying to keep the collar tucked but eventually gave up.

“ I actually think we should get someone to photoshop our photos so you look good! ”

My wife tells me she has nightmares about how scruffy my shirt looked, and to quote ‘I actually think we should get someone to photoshop our photos so you look good’. Imagine if I told her that I was having nightmares about how bad she looked on our wedding day!

This was coupled with the fact that the shirt I was given by the hire company was only just long enough to tuck in, and so was also continually untucking itself…. So in hindsight, I should have made a way to pin the collar and replaced the shirt with something a little longer – it kinda ruined the look.

Quick side note, it did unfortunately rain on our wedding day…we tried to plan for every eventuality and luckily had bought quite a few (I seem to remember it was 15-20) umbrellas just in case. This is definitely something I want to bring to our shop in the near future; a good selection of elegant umbrellas that can be hired out for a reasonable price.

BENEDICT CUMMERBUND OR WAISTCOAT

Cummerbund / Cumberbun / Cumberbund…. I don’t think a single one of my groomsmen knew how to say it or what to do with these things. Apparently, they’re worn around the waist and are a good way to conceal a belt. You wouldn’t wear one with a waistcoat, so for me the waistcoat wins. Plus, it maintains a level of smartness once you’ve taken off your suit jacket….

Finally, one thing to note for your waistcoat is that I’m told it’s customary to leave the bottom button undone.

Next up… Trying on the suits

I’m going to be writing a little more later on about the suit day and some of the issues that we had trying on our suits. But for now, please let us know if this was useful to you in the comments below!