Finally, the pictures of my handsome Prince Charming! Hehe! ;-) If you love his light brown/pink/bit of red getup, then I suggest you get ready for a lot of window shopping or be ready to shell out cash. LOL! Before we go on, Labsie’s boutonniere above is from
Spring Flowers and is made up of two barely open pink Lisianthus flowers (Rose look-alike but it doesn’t wilt fast). And now, here’s
the story of Labsie’s 5-piece suit (pants, long-sleeved jacket, long-sleeved polo, vest and tie). Enjoy! =)
We originally wanted a white or black suit but his mom said there shouldn’t be any white (except for the bride’s gown) or black color in our wedding. If possible, we should buy/rent/made to order a brown or red (!!!) suit coz that’s our lucky colors according to Feng Shui. Needless to say we settled for brown, red just seemed too flashy for a groom. Hehe!
I then began calling up Davao’s premiere tailoring shops and wedding stores to get a quote for a made-to-order 5-piece suit. I was shocked with the prices they gave me -- about P7000-8000 all-in. The kuripot Chinese in me couldn’t believe it since ready-to-wear americana is just around P3000-4000, higher for upscale brands of course. Labsie then decided we should try looking for a brown RTW suit before settling for made-to-order.
So we scoured all malls and stand-alone boutiques in Davao – there were no brown suits at all! Black, gray and pinstripe were the available stocks. There was a brown long-sleeved jacket in JS (Gaisano South) and it fit Labsie to a T. However there was no matching pants! So we looked at all brown pants to find a match (even just a near match) but nothing. One bright note: we found a gorgeous striped pink and red silk necktie with bronze accents in NCCC Uyanguren. It was just a display on a mannequin and since there was no other stock, we bought it for P250 on the spot! One down, 4 more pieces to go..
For two weeks (after his office hours and during weekends), we searched for that elusive brown suit. We toured all Davao’s malls and still nothing. Kadayawan Festival came and was nearly over and still we haven’t found anything. We wanted to buy during Kadayawan coz all malls have at least 10-20% off ALL items – more savings for us! ^_^ Finally, we went back to SM Dept Store coz the Wallstreet saleslady told us that there will be new stocks arriving. There just might be a brown suit there..
And lo and behold! There was indeed one complete brown suit!! At 10% off!!! It was very light in hue and doesn’t look that brown, more like dark cream. And to us (esp. to Labsie who was tired of walking all over Davao), it was just right. He fitted the medium size and it was a perfect fit! As if it was made-to-order for him =) Just look at Labsie’s photos, everything fitted him perfectly di ba?? Dashing! Hehe! We also bought his pink long-sleeved polo in SM. Cost: P3600 for suit and P350 for polo, both Wallstreet.
So now we got the long-sleeved jacket, matching pants, long sleeved polo and tie – only the vest remained. We refrained from buying this earlier coz we have to buy the suit and polo first and see what’s the best vest color to “merge” the inner (polo) and outer (jacket) layers of Labsie’s outfit. As you might have guessed, there were no RTW brown vests in stores, almost all were black. This time we surrendered and got his vest made at a dressing shop right next to his Dad’s office in Ecoland for P500. Yes, a bit pricey and it made us P200 over the budget for the groom’s outfit (budget: P4500, reality: P4700).
Anyway, Labsie’s brown vest was made of bronze satin cloth in double layer with handmade buttons (click third photo after the first two paragraphs of this post for a closer look). We found the vest’s color and style in a bridal magazine where the groom also had a brown suit. It looked classy so we followed it =) If you’re wondering why there’s a vest – well, our motif was pink butterfly / fairytale and the vest was the most we could do to make Labsie’s outfit look princely. Hehe!
We initially wanted a sash and sword (or just a scabbard) much like what Prince Charles usually wore during official British events but we thought it might make our wedding look like a fairytale school play. LOL! So we just settled for a very polished princely look for Labsie, no props ;-) And so here ends the saga of my groom’s 5-piece suit. I’m pretty sure that most couples didn’t undergo this kind of stress in looking for the groom’s outfit so for engaged couples reading this post, don’t get nervous.
We’re just a bit OC -- okay, I’m a bit OC -- coz I wanted the best for my prince. Often, grooms are overlooked in the wedding (all the focus is on the bride!) and I don’t want to do that to Labsie. He’s getting married too, not just me! The strange fact is, he got his outfit by end of August (7 weeks to wedding) while my bridal gown was nowhere to be seen even 5 weeks to the big day. It was only 1 month to our wedding that I had it made, LOL! But.. That’s another story for another day, hehe!
