Before the start of the new year, a good friend of mine told me informally that he and his fiancee had chosen a date for their wedding. My friend lives in New York and last summer, he brought his then-girlfriend to Vancouver for a visit. While he was here, he informed me he was going to propose in mere days. So, I’ve known about this wedding for a long time. The wedding is scheduled for late March and it is going to be in NYC. Even with me unemployed right now, I still thought it was going to be feasible for me to go as I wasn’t intending to stay very long and thus save on the hotel a bit. Then I received the wedding invitation last week.
The wedding calls for “black tie” attire. A few of my other friends wondered what that meant exactly and if it called for tuxedos. I wondered as well so I spoke with the groom this weekend. So apparently, “black tie” means a tux if you have one but you can also wear a black suit with a white shirt and a black tie (this was suggested by the bride). Unfortunately, the only suit I own is a charcoal gray suit and isn’t dark enough to pass off as “black tie”. I am faced with choices here, some of which aren’t so appealing to me. The first is that I can rent a tux or a suit here in Vancouver and bring it to the wedding. This is great and all but typically rentals of this nature are normally for a day or two and I’ll probably be gone for three days at a minimum so I’m wondering if the rental cost begins to be prohibitive. Another option is to rent a tux or suit from a place in NYC. This would eliminate the extra days of rental as I can just pick up the garment the day of or before the wedding and return it the next day. The big disadvantage is that I won’t be able to see what I look like in the outfit until I get there. I can send my measurements all I want but you can’t beat the experience of an in-person fitting. A third option is to buy another suit, a black one this time. I refuse to buy a tux because I would have little use for one. The new suit would fit great and I’d get another chance to wear it again. The big disadvantage is the cost. The last suit I bought looks great on me but it cost me about $600. If I really wanted a nice, quality suit it’d probably cost me that much again. That’s a lot of money for a wedding when you factor in the flight and hotel. I could go cheap on the new suit and try to buy the cheapest black suit I can buy that still looks somewhat respectable.
I’m really not sure what is the best choice right now. I’m going to have to do some research and find out how much rentals would be over multiple days. I’ll also have to go look at how much cheap suits go for at various places. Why couldn’t this wedding be “business casual”?
Instead of a hotel, and I know how much you like hotels, bit the bullet and stay at Gloria’s place. She is in Brookyn, and
And she can show some really excellent places for great food.
That should read ‘bit the bullet’.
I am obviously very tired, I just wrote the same error twice. BITE, I want to say BITE. And I just thought of that outlet store in Manhatten very close t where the WTC was, they have designer business clothing for bargin prices. Alright I am off to bed.
Ed, very nice of you to volunteer Gloria’s place for me but I have buddies who are also going to the wedding and we were gonna share a hotel room. I can’t leave them… unless we all go to Gloria’s. Hmmm…
Try Indochino dude, my brother in law works for them now, suits start at 399 and are custom fit!