Remember how I mentioned coping with OCD in our wedding video?

Well, there was a perfect example of why me and Mr Fix It have to learn to 'cope' with it on the day before the rehearsal!

We both have OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder).  We both are pretty anal about things and both like to be in control and have things the way we want.  Now we've learned how to relate to one another with these things so we have a great relationship, but for the rest of the world...oh watch out!

The day before the rehearsal (while I was at work), Mr Fix It was supposed to take his dad down to the Men's Wearhouse and pick up their tuxedos along with some other tuxes for his family who was arriving late Wednesday night.  I told them I wanted them to be tried on either in the store if possible, or first thing Thursday morning so that if there were any problems with things missing or not fitting, then they could be handled before the rehearsal at 3 pm on Thursday.

Well, at 11 am on Wednesday I get a call from him asking if he can just go pick all the tuxedos up on Thursday afternoon on his way to the rehearsal?

Now you know me by now, ladies.  I make plans, I e-mail the people involved, I communicate information, and I stay on top of the tasks so that if anything goes wrong, I have time to resolve the issue.  So I proceeded to explain to Mr Fix It how a last minute tux pick up just an hour before our rehearsal was going to be a bad idea!  What if something does fit?  What if something is missing?  Then you are late to the rehearsal and leave the shop no real time to order in a new item or sew or tailor something.

He was not happy with me and after a little bit of a spat, he finally said that since I was such a 'worry wart' he'd just go and handle it right then.

Well, a few hours later, I get a call from my sister who is in the shop at the same time as Mr Fix It picking up my little nephew's ring bearer tux.  My nephew's pants are way too big so they have to get a new pair in for him.  Then I ask her how Mr Fix It's tux is going?  To which she tells me that he says "Because of my OCD, I am having the sleeves shortened so you can see more of the white of the shirt underneath." 

I told her to make sure he knew that was exactly why I wanted it handled that day.  And of course she relays the message and I hear him say in the background "I know, that's why I went ahead and came down."

See, us OCD people know that it is always smart to give yourself extra time to deal with the imperfections you will mostly certainly come across.  So glad that they were able to get those things handled.  I would have been livid if he would have been late to the rehearsal while he was having the sleeves tailored!!!

Stupid tuxedo shop

Said tuxedo shop will remain nameless but let's just list the issues I have had with them since we originally reserved our tuxedos back in December:

1)  Have had to make several calls to confirm the cost of the tuxedo rentals because every time a new groomsmen/ring bearer/father went in to reserve and pay for their tux, they were given a different amount than the discounted price we were given for the rentals.
2)  They charged my sister for my nephew's tuxedo rental which was supposed to be free!  Then said they would fix the mistake and refund her when we pick the tux up.
3)  They didn't charge one of the GM the full amount of the tuxedo when he came in to get fitted even though the notes in the computer were made VERY clear so that every guy would pay in FULL when they got fitted so that we would not have to pay any open balances since we are picking up all the tuxedos for them!
4)  Their computer screwed up on one GM's tux info and only charged him $40 instead of $140 to which they told us to 'consider it a free gift and pay it in full immediately so we'd get the cheaper rate.'  Only we found out this week, the computer magically corrected it's problem and is now requesting the balance of $100 due (sigh)
5)  My dad went in to get fitted this week and was told that the pants we reserved do not 'match' the jacket we reserved.  Um, hello?  Not true!  So I had to call the store *again* to have them look into it.  They indicated that wasn't true and the pants were fine.  However, they did note that the ring bearers did not have the same type of pleated pants reserved as the rest of the wedding party!  So they had to fix that mistake, too.

Every single time I call them to check on the status of something or ask to make sure everything is correct, they find some other problem or something wrong.  WTH?!?

Seriously - I'm getting over this wedding planning and these stupid vendors real quick!

14 days to go - THANK GOD!!!

If he's getting cold feet....

Over on Chocolate Lover's Confessions, Mr Milk talked last week about a joke he made that he might be getting cold feet.  I commented on his post about the little gift I am giving Mr Fix It on the morning of the wedding regarding 'cold feet.'  Since I had a couple blogger friends mention they want to steal my idea I figured I'd share the site with you all.

While I'm at it, maybe you can give me some feedback?  At first, I wanted to get socks for each groomsmen that would be personal to him.  For example, for Mr Fix It's surfing friends, I could gift them these:

For his brother who is an environmentalist nut, I thought about these:

For Mr Fix It himself, how about these?

The problem with that, was that getting different colored silly socks for each guy would not make for the greatest shot (in my opinion) that I was hoping to nab like this:

So I thought about it and decided perhaps argyle *IS* the way to go.  So which of these two do you think I should go for?  The classic black with the red in them (all the guys will be in black tuxes and shirts with red vests) or the bright fun red with grey?

I'd get the one on the left in red from http://www.tonsofsocks.com/ ($13.50 per pair)

These are from http://www.sockdreams.com/ and are only $7.00 per pair

So, ladies?  Which ones should I go for?  I am leaning towards the black ones just because I'll save half the money I'd spend on the Ralph Lauren ones.  But the RL ones are brighter and funner.  But the guys might actually wear the black ones again?

Anyway, the point is...once I buy them.  I will throw them in with their groomsmen gifts that we're handing out at the rehearsal.  But Mr Fix It will get his on the morning of the wedding (I'm going to have a brother hand them off to him while they're getting dressed).

And his pair will be wrapped in this cute little label that I found on this site

  

They have a different one that is very similar but with a little more color and a slightly different phrase as well.  The label is only $7.50 and they e-mail you a .pdf document to print it on whatever paper you want.  You could probably DIY but I don't have time at this point.  It says "For My Husband To Be -  For your potentially Cold Feet - From your loving Bride"

Cute, right?

And don't forget to enter my giveaway for a free $25.00 gift certificate to MyWeddingFavors!  Click here

Seriously Saturdays: I'm gonna kick his a$$ for makin' me cry!

So seriously...my fiance is a diva.  So much so, that when it comes to the topic of tuxedos, it's been kind of a running joke between he and I that he says he wants 'a white suit, white tails, white gloves and a cane or top hat.'  Seriously?  I kept trying to convince him that he is a white boy and that I will not have him looking like a butler!  I thought it was a joke...but....

When we stepped into Men's Wearhouse mid-December with his brother (and best man) and his nephew (our junior groomsmen) I couldn't believe that we spent more time in that stupid shop than I spent at ANY of the bridal salons I visited while shopping for my gown.  Two hours at a Men's Wearhouse?  Seriously?!?  What a diva!

I snuck in ahead of the guys and found a tux rental associate.  I told her I was hoping to just keep the entire wedding party in classic black tuxes with black vests and white shirts or even all black and then have the groom stand out in an ivory or white vest and tie.  (I knew Mr Fix It was not in love with our wedding colors of aqua/turquoise and deep cranberry so I wasn't even going to try to incorporate those colors into the guys' tuxes other than maybe via the boutonnieres). 

So what's the first thing Mr Fix It asks to see?  A black jacket with tails!  He put it on and it went something like this:

Him:  What do you think, babe?
Me:  (Grinning sarcastically trying not to laugh)
Him:  You're smirking...what's wrong?
Me:  Nothing, you just look like a circus ringleader!

Source

So that immediately nixed the tails idea.  Thank God!  Then the associate showed him the classic two button Calvin Klein modern jacket.  Very nice...perfect.  Just what we needed.  But no, Mr Fix It proceeds to ask about the white suits.  To which the associate politely provides him photos of the suits in their catalogue.  I quietly sit and say nothing hoping that Mr Fix It will figure out all on his own how stupid he would look in a white suit!  They ask me what color my gown is.  I tell them it is white but not stark white...an ivory white.  I tell them it is very formal and I am concerned that his white suit will not match the color of my gown or look formal enough.  We move on to the groomsmen tuxedos.

This process went fairly smoothly and much to my surprise, Mr Fix It and his bro decide to incorporate vests and ties that match the ladies' bridesmaid dresses.  Mr Fix It apparently believes his brother is somewhat of a fashionista and values his opinion so when he says it would look nice to have the girls and guys match, Mr Fix It is fine with selecting vests and ties in a red and turquoise color scheme.  We opt for black shirts which I actually really like, especially since the girls will be in red gowns with black heels.  And it just so happens that I brought my sister's matron of honor dress with me so we were able to easily match up the colors.

We came up with this (please ignore the silly smileless face of Best Man Keith):

We then thought about the junior groomsmen and four (yes, four!) ring bearers.  I proceeded to tell the associate and the guys about how my daughter (15 at the time of the wedding and so a borderline junior or regular bridesmaid) will be wearing the turquoise blue color in a dress very similar to the bridesmaids.  So we thought it might be cute to match up the junior groomsmen (10 years old) who will be walking her down the aisle and the little four nephews in a blue like hers.  So we came up with this for them (little Jr GM Josh of course smiled in his shot holding the vest up to him):

 

So these seemed so great to match my little girl's gown and probably the flower girl dress as well which has some ribbon embroidery of an aqua shade in it.  Sounded great:  big guys (GM) in red to match the big girls (BM) and little guys (Jr GM & RB) in turquoise to match the younger girls (daughter & FG).  Nice. 

We opted for a simple vest in black to match the pattern and style of the big guys' red vests for the two fathers and gave them white shirts instead of black so they'd still look like classy dads but separate them a little from the groomsmen in wedding party pictures:

 

Now I know they say you should have the ring bearer's in the same thing as the groom, but that just didn't seem to feel 'right' to us.  We loved the idea of the younger members of the party being in one shade of turquoise and the older members representing the red shade.  So all that was left was to finalize the groom's gear. 

We pulled out some vests in ivory, white and a platinum (silver) type shade.  Mr Fix It kept saying that he just really wanted to stand out and be set apart from the rest of the guys.  I understood that this was his moment and his day, too but I kept trying (with the help of the sweet associate lady) to remind him that he still needed to keep the wedding party looking uniform and consistent.  We already had two similar but different patterned textures for the red and turquoise vests.  So we didn't want to stray too far from that for him.

He took the black jacket over to a mirror and I glanced over to see him and his bro whispering in the corner.  They called me over and it went something like this:

Him:  Honey, I'm just not feeling the black.  I just think I need something different.

Me:  Like what?  (My hand was now on my hip and I kept still staring back and forth from Mr Fix It to his brother)

Him:  I don't know.  Maybe tan?

Me:  (Blank stare)

Him:  You're not feeling tan?  What about navy?  Navy might be good?

Me:  (Long pause)  Are you trying to make me cry?  (Yes, I seriously had tears welling up in my eyes)

Him:  No navy?  But I want to look different, babe.

Me:  Oh, you'll look different all right!  You'll look like you don't belong in the wedding party!  You'll look like a guest!  It'll look like one of the groomsmen is marrying me!

His brother:  That's true, you don't want the groomsmen to look better than you do.

Him:  Alright, I guess the black is fine.

Seriously?  What the hell?!?  I'm going to kill these guys!  I get that some guys like white suits and tan suits and navy or whatever.  I get it, I do.  There's nothing wrong with those.  But if you're going to do that, then the whole wedding party should be wearing something similar.  But no, my guy wants to 'stand out'...and not in a good way.  And I wanted timeless, simple, classic black next to my big ole formal extravagant light ivory gown.  Why the heck does he have to make every single aspect of the wedding plans he is involved in such a nightmare to finalize?!

We finally settled on this for Mr Fix It and he looks HOT in it!

 

So all together, the three vests and ties look like this:

I think even though they are slightly different patterns, they still look nice next to each other and have similar styles and shapes (the little round circles).  But of course, after we left, Mr Fix It commented that he is still not sure about his selection and may be going back to make some 'revisions.'  I'm gonna kick his a$$....seriously!

Stay tuned for the extended drama and continuing saga of the tuxedo selections (this one involves the costs and the reactions of the groom's family - my inlaws).  sigh