Spring is almost here and so is wedding season! From getting body beautiful to choosing the ideal venue, dealing with the dilemma of bridesmaids to deciding on traditions and formalities, the HerWedding series offers warming advice to you, the beautiful bride-to-be, in the hope that it might make your Big Day just that little less stressful.

In my last article, I looked at what the women wore…now it’s the boys’ turn! As opposed to the girls who only require a dress there are a few layers to the boys attire so write down a list so you can keep track of what is needed. Now the process of selecting the men’s outfits was a lot easier than the women’s – we had an overall look in mind for the men’s attire, which I collated from my Pinterest inspiration board. So it was just a matter of hunting around to find all of the elements.

[pe2-image src=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/-QaQEsi7gfhg/U-gwPQhwFxI/AAAAAAAAG4k/rI_KAk44sEk/s144-c-o/IMG_176695690655275_20140731154652410.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108454826374315674707/HerCanberraWeddingSeriesWhatTheMenWore#6046135538437592850″ caption=”What the boys wore” type=”image” alt=”IMG_176695690655275_20140731154652410.JPG” pe2_single_image_size=”w614″ pe2_img_align=”center” ]

Shoes

First we started with the shoes. I’m a realist when it came to understanding that it might be impossible to find all eight pairs of shoes in the same style and relevant sizes. So the boys set off with their two requirements; must be a leather style and must of a brown tone and found something to suit. We purchased Dave’s at half price from Betts – what a bargain.

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Pants

Dave was able to wear his grey dress trousers that we purchased on a shopping spree down in Melbourne a year before our wedding. They were bought from Industrie Clothing for about $150 from memory. In Canberra, you’ll be able to find them at the Canberra Outlet Centre and also stocked in David Jones.

Vest

The majority of the grey vests were bought on sale from local shop Connor at a score of $40 each! If you have guys who aren’t your standard 5’8” medium build then I would head to Kingsize Big and Tall in the city, you’ll be able to find vests for $100.

Shirt

I ran the risk of purchasing a Living Social deal for custom made shirts from www.tailor-shirts.com, and out of the eight ordered, five were a perfect fit. Two needed slight altering and unfortunately Dave’s looked like an old man’s nightgown on him. For $60 each we were able to custom design the shirts, from the colour of the cuffs, to the collar style and type of button. If you go down this avenue make sure you leave plenty of time in case you need to make any alterations.

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So, after the less-than-optimal first attempt, we headed in search for Dave’s shirt two days before our wedding! For some reason I thought this would be the easy part…..umm no…a simple white button up shirt isn’t so easy to find. In any case, we found the perfect one at Blades Menswear on Bunda Street in the city. I was so swept up with the talk of Italian made, hand stitched, feel it breathe on your body type of language that I forgot exactly what we were buying. These guys know their stuff; they talk of formal wear as if it’s their lover. They offered us the best of service and we were happy to pay the $269 for a shirt that oozes elegance and quality.

Belt

The brown leather belts were also from Connor, on sale for $25 each.

Bowtie

Oh so sweet they were! Along with the cufflinks these were Dave’s gifts to his groomsmen. We ordered them online from www.woodenbowties.com and because we did a bulk order they came to $15 each. I love that they’re quirky but not tacky in the slightest – everyone was commenting on them! My little brother got crafty up in the shed and actually made his own from a piece of timber and fabric from a tie picked up from Vinnies – you could give this a crack yourself.

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Cufflinks

To add a personal touch we ordered Marvel character cufflinks from etsy.com. Each character was selected to best represent the person it was being given too. Dave due to his love of Marvel and his facial hair is often referred to as Wolverine and so you can guess what he got. We also purchased The Hulk, The Punisher, The Silver Surfer, Spiderman, Ironman, Thor and Captain America.

[pe2-image src=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/-aJj9t_gz0zM/U-gwOMUp03I/AAAAAAAAG4c/KFNC-lbZa88/s144-c-o/218C7672%252520%252528Copy%252529.jpg” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108454826374315674707/HerCanberraWeddingSeriesWhatTheMenWore#6046135520129045362″ caption=”Marvel character cufflinks from etsy.com” type=”image” alt=”218C7672 (Copy).jpg” pe2_single_image_size=”w614″ pe2_img_align=”center” ]

The finishing touches were the flower pins which complemented my floral arrangement, beautifully made up by Virginia from Rockabilly Floral Lane.

So the final thing you need is a good looking bunch and blokes and you’ve got your look set!