Tie ten on

We cannot stop buying ties. Seriously. Since planning this thing, the tally looks like this:

Purchased - 10 Ties
Returned - 2 Ties
Gifted - 1 Tie
On Hand Right Now - 7 Ties
Wedding Party - 5 Guys

Here's how this mess began:

Remember when we were going to have a coral and peach wedding? Ha ha ha. We found a brilliant tie for Trevor to wear - very English, just gorgeous. It would've looked great with a light stone/linen suit and a pink shirt. Then, we found four groomsmen ties. Done, right?


No... we switched colors. We love both of these ties, though, so Trevor kept his groom's tie, returned two groomsmen ties, kept one of those, too (and wore it with a khaki suit to my cousin's wedding - it would've been a great wedding look), then gave one to his dad for Christmas.







Moving on to blue and red (thank goodness!).

We knew right away that Trevor should wear blue seersucker, and our first thought was that he could wear the tie his dad got married in - navy with white dots. Only the more we looked at it, the more we were seeing the tie's age and decided to purchase a new tie very much like his dad's tie. Here's Trevor in the seersucker, with his dad's tie, and a cat toy feather in place of a flower. We eventually decided that more color would be better; navy and white polka dots weren't a bold enough look because they don't pop in the photos. The new tie is gorgeous and is imminently wearable, though - not a chance he's returning it. But I can definitely see incorporating polka dots elsewhere - the ribbon on the bouquets/boutonnieres, for example.

In search of red and blue ties, we found ourselves stuck in the cool weather tie season - not many whimsical warm weather ties at all. In a series of frustrating shopping attempts, we'd fall in love with one tie to discover that it was the only one left in the entire country. That happened twice.

Still, a red and cornflower blue tie was so great with his suit, we bought it anyway, thinking we'd figure out the rest later. But since we're still unsure about exactly what the guys will wear, we keep buying promising ties and hanging onto the receipts, not knowing exactly what we'll want yet afraid to pass up "the" tie. We've considered just having everyone in different great ties, but because Trevor won't be dressed like them to begin with, he's hoping for a little more consistency.

The latest contenders for either Trevor, the guys, or a combination of the two:

Left: We have two of these and could probably find two more if it's the guys' tie. It also looks great with the seersucker - so do we need three?

Middle: This could work depending on what the guys wear, and photographs really well. There were five at the store, but we only bought one. Trevor's keeping it as a "Christmas tie" no matter what.

Right: Looks really fun with seersucker, but there's not enough of these to go around, so if he went with this we'd need to find a complementary tie for the guys. His Virgo sensibility can't deal with the opposite-leaning stripes on the other two, so they would be out.

Lesson here? It's easier, more fun, and cheaper to buy ties than anything else, but unless you want to end up like us, hold off on buying ties until the other attire decisions are made. If I were more patient, I'd have just waited until the new spring ties were all here and then I'd have my pick. But no, way too easy.

We're currently leaning toward a navy chino suit for the groomsmen, by the way, but still aren't sure. A very light stone could work, too. Mixing and matching so far hasn't worked - our last attempt (seersucker vest with navy pants, going for a vintage feel) looked like a waiter's uniform. And groomsmen without jackets looks a little middle school dance to us, as much as we'd hoped the guys wouldn't have to buy full suits. We shall see.

Stay tuned to see just how many ties we end up with.