Apparently it's the done thing in the UK these days to have the groom wearing a morning suit with an ivory coloured vest and cravat, and the groomsmen wearing a similar morning suit but with a different coloured vest and/or cravat, something in the colour scheme for the wedding. I discussed this with my good friend Yolande, and she pointed out that as there is only the one best man and not 3 or more groomsmen, it might look a bit odd to have Nick wearing a plainer colour vest than Jon. It would probably make Jon stand out more and look more special! So Nick and I talked about it and decided he and Jon would wear the same colour suit and vest/cravat combo, but that Nick would have a larger flower in his buttonhole to distinguish him as the groom. I had wanted Jon to go without a flower at all so Nick would really stand out, but Nick was pretty adamant he wanted Jon to have a flower too.

For Seema, I decided I wanted her to have a dress pretty similar to mine - straight cut strapless top with a little bit of side gathering, but knee length rather than floor length, and in one of our wedding colours (aqua blue or pale yellow). I wanted her to have a normal enough dress that wasn't too bridesmaid-tastic so she could get some use out of it after the wedding, so I decided on pale yellow rather than aqua. I also thought it would look lovely against her beautiful dark skin. I found the dress pretty easily on the Alfred Angelo website, and the site informed me there was a stockist right in the centre of town in Sydney, so during a quick visit there in November Seema and I went to the shop, tried on a sample dress, and ordered it, all within the space of 30mins! Thank God for the internet! Here's a piccy of the dress from the Alfred Angelo website:

Being a typical male, Nick left his suit choice till quite late in the game, despite gentle reminders from my good self during the preceding months that he still needed to get his suit. We went to Moss Bros suit hire in London to try on some suits, and for me, seeing him in those wedding suits was one of those moments where I become so emotionally overwhelmed as I realised I'm GETTING MARRIED and here is was my future husband to be - it brought tears to my eyes. He looked so handsome, and like a GROOM!!!

I liked the idea of Nick wearing a traditional morning suit, but when he tried it on, he did look a bit like he was about to wave a baton for an orchestra so we decided to go for a normal suit. However he wasn't so keen on the suits at Moss Bros, the material was a bit cheap and the cut wasn't so great on his tall frame, so he asked our wedding planner to recommend somewhere to buy a suit in Hawaii.

Now, American weddings are quite different to UK/Oz/NZ weddings. The men for example wear tuxedos rather than suits, and they have no idea what a cravat is. We went to the suit shop Christina recommended and Nick tried on a tux with an ivory tie instead of a bow tie, but I really prefer cravats for a wedding. So I asked them for one and they brought out a cowboy style bolero tie. Not a good sign!

Nick had a bit of a cold at the time and had taken some medication which made him like EVERYTHING, so he was pretty keen on this tux. I however hated it! It was really shiny and stiff looking, and I felt he looked a little bit like a boy playing dress up with his Dad's suit - he looked uncomfortable and unnatural. The material was so heavy, and the shirt had lots of pleats in it, which would be really hot to wear to a beach wedding in Hawaii. Plus the fit wasn't all that great, there was some weird puckering on the shoulders and the back of the vest had elastic gathering instead of a buckle - it looked so cheap! And as we would be buying Nick's wedding clothes, I was a bit unsure when he would really need to wear a tux again. But as Nick said he liked it, I decided to be diplomatic and murmured some noises of agreement, told the shop keeper we would be in touch, and got him out of there. Here is Nick in the tux:

Once we were back in England, I had an opportunity to change his mind when we went to Hatton Garden to get his wedding ring stretched slightly as it was a bit tight. By pure coincidence, there happened to be a Pronuptia suit shop next to the jeweller we went to, and under the guise of Nick needing to buy a cravat and proper vest with buckle for his tux, I got him into the shop. I then told him he really should try the cravat and vest on with a suit to see the overall effect. He wasn't so keen but agreed to it. They didn't have his size in his preferred colour of black, so he was given a charcoal grey suit to try on.

Well, let me tell you, this suit made such a difference - he looked amazing in it!!! The cut, the quality and lightness of the fabric, and the colour were just perfect. And the suits were made to order and would be tailored to fit him perfectly. Even Nick was blown away by how much better it was than the awful tux. The only stumbling block was that as it was so late in the game, we would have to pay an express fee to get the suit made in time and pray that it wasn't late as we would be picking it up several days before we flew out for Hawaii. Thankfully the suit was bang on time. Pronuptia also did suit hire so Jon emailed us his measurements and we hired an identical suit for him, and got a matching vest and cravat too.

So here is Nick looking oh so handsome in the beautiful charcoal grey wedding suit!