A Woodside Wedding: The Guys Veg Out, Then Get Ready in 10 Minutes

After Mr. Cola left our hotel suite the morning of our wedding, so the ladies and I could get ready, he met up with the guys in another room down the hall, and they spent the morning watching the World Cup and doing who knows what else.

Of course, there are no pictures of their morning, since “they had no cameras” (and my pointing out that if they had cell phones, they had cameras was apparently lost on them). All I know is that it was reported partway through the morning, when a bridesmaid ran down to their room to get something, that it smelled like “testosterone” in their room. Meaning lots of sweaty, stinky boys crammed in a room, getting riled up and yelling at the TV, no doubt.

At about 1 in the afternoon I texted Mr. C that it was his half hour warning until the photographers were arriving, so they should think about starting to get ready. And once the photographers arrived, they captured these photos of the studly guys putting on their own finishing touches! They sure clean up good, if I do say so myself!

Groomsman P was the official tie tying instructor!

I love that it looks like Mr. Cola is getting some serious advice from his brother in this picture.

But Mr. C claims that it was all good times, joking and laughter in the hotel room that morning, and that this is a better representation.

Mr. Cola had his own photo shoot next to the window.

This is one of my favorites!

Some of the groomsmen gifts made an appearance.

After one final mirror check, Mr. Cola was ready.

Once the guys were dressed and ready to impress, they headed out by the pool for a few more photos. First they tried to play it cool.

Then took a few of the adorably funny jumping photos I’d wanted to badly. They didn’t disappoint! :)

And a few of Mr. C with his bro.

Then two of the groomsmen had to head out, to drive the Uhaul truck with all the decorations up to our venue. The rest of the guys went back up to the hotel room to gather their things, and waited for their cue to head out as well a few minutes later. And it was almost time for Mr. Cola to leave for our first look in the park!

Miss any wedding week details? Catch up here:

- I packed an emergency bag that saved my dress
- We had a crazy 4 days prepping for house guests and stuffing favors
- Shopping for a ton of wedding flowers to arrange ourselves
- Mr. Cola drinks a 40 and I have a night out on the town for our low-key bach parties
- A day of DIY'ing flower arrangements
- I kicked off our official recaps with my #1 wedding tip
- We began the weekend festivities with a sunset cruise for our wedding party
- We rehearsed our quick and easy ceremony
- I panicked, but we got our rehearsal dinner decorations set up just in time
- Our families met for the first time at our rehearsal dinner under the trees
- What went wrong on our wedding day, and my tips for future brides
- My bridesmaids and I got our hair and makeup done in the hotel suite
- I put on my wedding dress and became a bride

(All photos in this post were taken by the very talented photographers of Shoot Me Now Photography)

Suit-Able Menswear

(Sheesh, could Mr. C look any happier about his suit? I paid for all of them, after all!)

Yup, that's right, we're going with suits for Mr. Cola and the groomsmen! A more casual look goes perfectly with the feel of our wedding, and plus, the cost was about the same as a tux rental, and now the guys get to keep their suits.

Last weekend, we took a page from Miss Button's book, and headed to Kohl's to look for inexpensive suits for the guys. We were looking to spend around $150 to dress the dudes, since that's what we paid for the bridesmaid dresses, but Kohl's didn't have anything we liked in a heather or charcoal grey, although their prices were pretty great (buy 1 get 1 half off). So we headed over to Sears next, and found some nice suits for the right price, however they only had two out of the six sizes we needed (we were also going to buy my dad a suit, since he doesn't have one and my mom wants him to wear one). I was too nervous to buy some of the suits at one store and hope they had more at another, and the Sears stores are always such a mess, I knew it wouldn't do much good to have them call another location.

So on we went down the road to the next mall, to check out J.C. Penny's selection. They had a pretty big assortment to choose from, but most were in the $170+ range; there wasn't anything that was the right color and right price. But across the street at another Sears we found what we were looking for: charcoal suits in everyone's sizes, and on sale!


The jackets were on sale for $83.99 each, and the pants were $35.99.

Mr. C had had about enough shopping at that point, so we headed home, and the following evening I stopped by J.C. Penny to buy ivory shirts for $21.99 each.


I struck out with ties at Pennys, since they only had 4 or less of every color, with no stock hiding in a back room. So I headed to yet another Sears, and managed to find ties that went together, but were different. 2 of one style, 2 of another, 1 by itself (that I stole off a mannequin) and one in the sale bin that would work for my dad. From far away it's hard to even tell the difference between the ties, except my dad's in the bottom of this picture:


My dad's tie was on sale for $5.99 and the other ties were $16.80 each. So before tax, we spent $158.77 each to dress the guys in our wedding. Not bad, I have to say!

What are the dudes in your wedding going to wear?

(all photos in this post were taken by me)