One of my favorite quotes comes from the Legends of Tomorrow trailer, said by Oliver Queen, “I had a plan. Life had a different one.”
Frequently I have a plan, and Jay has a different one. Like when we went suit shopping. I wanted to go try on suits, get an idea of type of fit and style we liked in October, and then wait for Black Friday to order them.
Well, part of that plan worked just fine.
We went suit shopping in mid-October all right, but there was no waiting for Black Friday. We didn’t even make it to the second store.
Our first (and only, as it turned out) stop was Men’s Wearhouse. I was trying my best to avoid talking to any salespeople. One, I didn’t want anyone trying to pressure us into buying anything. Two, I work in sales and I didn’t want to waste anyone’s time when there wasn’t any commission to be made.
Well, unfortunately we had to ask a question, because the only suits we were finding were two-piece suits, and we really wanted a three-piece with a vest.
I swear, the salesman POUNCED.
I’m trying to answer his questions, but be vague as possible, and I was doing everything I could to avoid saying we were getting married. Finally, I couldn’t answer without lying, so I finally admitted the suit we were looking for was for our wedding.
Next thing I know, I blinked, and Jay is filling out the paperwork for a $500+ custom suit.
I did everything I could to try to stop it, that I was happy to go that route, but I wanted to wait for Black Friday, since it was only a little over a month away. The salesman was afraid of losing his sale and kept pushing, and insisting that the custom suits never go on sale and you can’t use coupons on them. Jay, who I think secretly just wanted to get suit shopping done and over with, said there was no point waiting if it wouldn’t go on sale.
ARGH.
So, a custom suit it was. Jay got to choose the exact shade of blue fabric, the liner for the jacket, and fabric for the back of the vest. Apparently, I was so flustered, I forgot to take pictures, so I’m sorry for that.
The one cool thing was we got to pick something to go on the label for both the jacket and the vest, up to sixteen characters.
Jay looked at me, and I was already counting in my head.
“Skipper of the Year is sixteen characters if you don’t use any spaces.”
“Done!”
Jay was the 2019 Skipper of the Year at the World Famous Jungle Cruise in case you didn’t know.
So “SkipperOfTheYear” went on the jacket, and we put “Found My Guy” on the vest. Apparently, they can’t do the hashtag symbol.
We also signed up for the Men’s Wearhouse Perfect Fit rewards program, which gives you a $50 gift certificate for every $500 you spend. Well, we’d already hit that threshold so that was nice.
Home we went, and I kid you not, I got a set of coupons in the mail for Men’s Wearhouse two days later. Guess what there was a coupon for.
I don’t even know how we got Men’s Wearhouse coupons. It’s not like I’d ever shopped there before, and it was way too fast to be from our purchase. Regardless, I was not happy with Mr. Custom-Suits-Are-Never-Discounted.
We went to pick up the suit about three weeks later. This time I remembered to take pictures!
The pants were long, so they were going to have to be tailored. Mr. Custom-Suits-Are-Never-Discounted was nowhere to be found, but I’m fairly certain the gentleman who was assisting us this time was the manager.
I am never intentionally rude to someone in retail, but I also don’t appreciate being lied to. Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to be nice and insist they at least attempt to fix the problem, without causing a scene. He offered to make a phone call, to see if he could refund me the amount of the coupon. I said that was fine. I think he thought I would get tired of waiting while he was on hold.
His mistake.
After about twenty minutes he offered to issue us an additional Perfect Fit rewards certificate for $50. I knew that was going to be the best we could get, so I took it.
Somehow, we wound up with a total of $150 in Perfect Fit Rewards, and I still can’t figure out that math, but I’m grateful. I wound up getting Jay three pairs of dress pants, a button up shirt for Palo, and his brown dress shoes for the wedding for only $48.11. I LOVE when stores let you stack rewards, coupons, and sales, all at the same time. However, since the suit cost more than my dress, I’m not really sure how big of a win that was.
I’ll say it again. The suit cost more than the wedding dress. Thank you, Sammi. You’re an angel.
I couldn’t find a white dress shirt in Jay’s size with French cuffs at a reasonable price at Men’s Wearhouse, so that came from Macy’s. They were having an INCREDIBLE sale. I ended up with his shirt and a new pair of black dress shoes for $31.03.
We originally wanted a dark red Mickey tie from ShopDisney, but it disappeared before I could buy it. (I was going to link it, but it’s disappeared again.) I found up finding a similar one on eBay that was a brighter red, and about half the price, so win-win! His cufflinks and tie clip came from Etsy. Last but not least, pocket squares are STUPIDLY expensive. One from most stores was like $26, for a PIECE OF FABRIC. I just got a multipack of thirty different colors from Amazon for $11.99.
Do we need thirty pocket squares? No, but it’s nice to have options. I think we even wound up loaning some out on the cruise.
We also wound up buying a better garment bag than the one the suit came in, because we have a husky and her fur gets on EVERYTHING. Jay wasn’t even allowed to try it on at our house. I made him take it over to our friend Morgan’s, and try it on there, where it would be safe from Fiona Fluff.
Out of pocket expenses so far:
Cruise Fare: $4,944.06
Invitations and Postage: $89
Disney Fine Art Photography: $2875.50
Fairytale Hair and Makeup Deposit: $100
Hair and Makeup Trial: $180
Hoop-Dee-Doo: $444
Park n’ Cruise for 6 Vehicles: $256.94
Wedding Party Outfits: $125.43
Wedding Dress Materials: $300
Wedding Dress Garment Bag: $15.99
Groom’s Suit: $527.18
Groom’s Dress Clothes and Shoes for the Cruise: $79.14
Groom’s Accessories: $73.04
Suit Garment Bag: $13.99
Total: $10,025.27
Remember when I originally hoped this wedding wouldn’t go over 10K? Well, it wasn’t for lack of trying to save money on my part. My ideas were just bigger than my wallet.
