Sunday Vodcast

Today is thegroomtobe.com's vodcast on sizing a tuxedo. It is in two parts. Enjoy!

Part 1




Part 2

Lets Look at Groomsmen Gifts

So you have a bunch of groomsmen with you on wedding day. You might have five, you might have one. You might even have ten. Despite the size, you will have to decide what groomsmen gifts to buy them.

Morning Links

- Combining surnames apparently the rage.

- Gold prices falling, still pretty high.

- Get Married Magazine looks at the Top 10 Bridal Trends of 2010. Number 2? Burgers as reception food.

- Wedding ring found in recycling. Crazy Brits.

Wedding 2.0

Good Lord, man.

Morning Links

- British porter stole from wedding guests. Jail.

- AP writer has full-blown wedding. In less than three months.

- Slide shows are a good touch. (Disclaimer: I'm doing one as well)

- Wedding YouTube dancing-to-Chris Brown-couple raising money for good causes.

Morning Links

- Think about what you toast. It might appear on YouTube.

- The Three Million Dollar Wedding...in Australia.

- Weddings. Then and Now.

- Staying economic when planning a wedding.

Late Morning Links

- Couple gets married waiting in line at Best Buy on Black Friday. Wow.

- Couple has wedding bands stolen while eating Thanksgiving dinner.

*VIDEO*

- Massachusetts fire chief lets firefighter ride truck to wedding. Gets reprimanded.

- Gold prices continue to soar.

Morning Links

- InStyle's wedding magazine is closing up shop.

- High-end Jeweler, Verragio is letting you shop for rings from the comfort of your iPhone.

- Computer geek proposes to girlfriend via Tumblr.

Dressing the part...a Look at Tuxedos

When my fiancee and I got talking about what we wanted everyone in, the choices were so vast, I didn't really know where to begin. After finally deciding on the eventual tux for everyone, I've boiled it down to some points to follow:

- You Don't Have to Wear Black
My fiancee settled on champagne as the color for her bridesmaids' dresses really early in the engagement. I had no say in it, nor should I. Its her side of the aisle and in the spirit of cooperation, I've decided to work with the color that she is giving me.

Her dresses are from David's Bridal and look like these:

She is going with a more elegant, yet vintage look in her dresses, and she is sticking to the champagne color, which I like, oddly enough.

So it came to me to decide what I want my guys to look like. I'll be blunt: I'm not a fan of black tuxedos. I think I own one black suit and a pair of black golf pants. I'm not a fan of how I look in the color and I massively sweat, so I typically wear white or lighter colors.

If I had it my way, I'd wear a lighter tuxedo. However, I want to make it look regal, yet not as conservative. Wearing a cream or white tuxedo would be optimal, but would look bizarre with the champagne. If the color were a more robust blue, green or red, then the white/cream tux would work.

That left me with my second option:

Chocolate. Nice, huh? I get my guys in chocolate brown, which champagne vests and ties and my vest and tie will match my fiancee's dress, which is ivory (all I know...I won't let her tell me about it).

This is a Pronto Uomo Chocolate Two-Button Notch Lapel Super 100s Tuxedo. It is a two button tuxedo, and available at Men's Warehouse as part of their tuxedo rental package.

Men's Warehouse is nice because it is color-matched with David's Bridal, meaning that I can get the same color of champagne for my groomsmen's vests and ties because they use the same colors.

- To Bow-Tie or not to Bow-Tie?

I really can't think of any good reason to wear a bow-tie. The straight tie is a cleaner look and I plan on going with those.

- Button-Up

Another choice with tuxedos is the little-observed button selection. Some tuxedos have one button while others have seven. How much is too much? In my opinion, it depends on how much color you want to show from the vest and tie.

Having tried on the smorgasbord of tuxedos, I'd advise to not go any higher than three buttons. The tuxedo I decided upon has two buttons, a product of that being the only option available to me as Men's Warehouse only has one chocolate tuxedo to rent. That being said, I believe that you want to show the color underneath, and the fewer the buttons, the lower cut the jackets will be and as a result, the more vest and tie you'll see.

Morning Links

- Gold prices continue to rise

- Exotic wedding destinations

- A Best Man's Guide on How to Toast

Friday Happy Hour Podcast!

Was on the road yesterday so I didn't get this uploaded, but I'm trying something new today. Hope you guys like it.

Lunchtime Links

- Garbage workers dig through trash to find man's lost wedding ring.  Bravo.

- Former Vietnam POW gets wedding ring back after 40 years.

- Brawl breaks out at Tampa wedding reception.  What?

- Really good story from NBC Savannah, Georgia affiliate on weddings for soldiers.

Morning Links

- Some resiources from CNET on using the web to plan your wedding.

- Changes in a same-sex marriage bill in DC will get its vote today.

- Michigan couple get dream wedding at no cost.

Morning Links

At a workshop this week, so here are some Wednesday links for you all to chew on:

- Louisiana judge out after refusing to marry an interracial couple.

Video:



- Woman loses wedding ring while giving out candy on Halloween.  Oops.

- Maine voters reject same-sex marriage.

- Wedding couple gets fake cake on wedding day.  Crazy Brits.

Sunday Morning Links

Morning everyone.  I've got a drive ahead of me today, so here are some links to pass the time.

- The First Family on their own marriage, complete with a video, too:




- The Sunday after Halloween mean that someone yesterday had a Halloween-Themed Wedding.

- A look at how grooms are getting more involved in wedding planning.

- Some groomsmen gift ideas.

An Engagement Ring Guide

Here is one I found from the Art of Manliness blog that is pretty informative


http://artofmanliness.com/2009/07/01/the-ultimate-guide-to-buying-the-perfect-engagement-ring/

One Ring to Rule Them All

There is always this dilemma out there about when the guy goes to buy an engagement ring for his soon-to-be fiancé:  Do I ring shop with her or do I get it myself?


What I did was a combination of the two.  I slowly peeled out information from her about what she wanted in a ring and then went shopping.  Small things, like when we'd see a ring or something in a magazine or on TV I'd mention how I did or didn't like it and she'd either agree or disagree.  Sounds stupid, but it worked for me.  I was able to figure out that she wanted a three-stone, princess-cut diamond ring:

(courtesy of Stuller.com)

This is the one I went with.  It has a total of nine stones.  The one in the middle is a little over .75 carats.  

How should you go about getting a ring? You can either go online, walk into a jewelry store yourself, or know/get-to-know a local jeweler.  To be honest, outside of Bluenile.com, I'd try and find yourself a local jeweler who specializes in rings.  Establish a relationship with them because in my experience, the retail jewelers that I visited wanted to unload their worst rings on me.  Just my experience.

You Wanna Get Married?

For me, to date, the most stressful thing about my marriage process has been the thing that started it off: The Proposal.

Before you get into the nitty-gritty of saying "yes, dear" (which I'll also get to in later posts), you have to know if you want to do it.

Step 1: Don't Propose Next to a Fox Sports Reporter

Ask yourself these questions:

Do I Love This Girl?

...Sounds pretty stupid, but before you go out buying rings and reserving DJ's and ordering flowers, you really have to know if you want to spend the rest of your life with the girl that you are set to propose to.

What About Those Ups and Downs Again?

...What do I mean about those ups and downs?  Anything that is great and anything that goes wrong.  From great trips to stupid arguments, every relationship is going to have its ups and downs. You've had your ups and downs and those will certainly continue through the whole process, but if you wake up every morning, roll over, and are staring at the love of your life, then you are set.

Is She Worth It?
...Pretty much a combination of the two previous questions and really doesn't need any explanation.  Before you take the big leap, know exactly what you are getting yourself into.

...and that is where I come in. 

What This is About

I am getting married next August.  I knew nothing about actually getting married, but I knew that my fiancé was the woman I wanted to marry.

So, we got engaged.

Then the mailings started arriving in her mailbox.

We have received every kind of solicitation, including photographers, bakers, caterers, videographers and travel agents.  I didn’t realize that there were so many components to getting married.

            

I’m also surprised that nothing I came across was geared towards guys.

            

As a result, for my final project I have this website:  www.thegroomtobe.com.  It will be a running blog where I post on things guys need to do during the process and advice based on my own choices.  It will be a full multimedia blog.  I’ll have videos, blog posts, pictures and links to articles.  It is my hope that my blog turns into a hub where guys can go instead of trying to canvass a wedding website that is angled towards females, like theknot.com.