The Groom and Groomsmen

Alex always knew he wanted to wear something extravagant for his wedding – when you wear suits to work everyday they can lose their appeal. So we did some research and he really liked the idea of having an Indian sherwani – very different and colourful!

When we went to India on a family holiday/ pilgrimage we were able to find an amazing fabric and tailoring shop in Varanasi…

They were very friendly and helpful as we talked them through what Alex had in mind – they brought out reams and reams of fabrics for us to choose from and then measured the groom up!

And that was that – they posted the sherwani to us – it took around 15days in total – amazing!

We managed to find a waistcoat and trouser combination from Marks and Spencers that really worked with the blue of the fabric – now all he needs are some fab shoes and a white shirt with a Granddad collar to match the jacket.

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In our wedding plans there have been a lot of musing about that the men should wear – it’s hard when the groom will be dressed so amazingly in a handmade Indian wedding jacket! You don’t want the groomsmen to look underdressed and nor do you want them to up stage the groom! AND you want them to match the rest of the bridal party! It is equally hard when they do not really mind and are waiting to be told by YOU!

Anyway – we decided to ask them all to get themselves a grey suit (something they would wear again!) and we will accessorise them to match…at first we toyed with the idea of putting them in matching waistcoats, which would have looked lovely but then I went suit browsing with my twin brother and he was trying on tweed jackets with fleck of yellow – lovely, but not with the above waistcoat!

So, back to the drawing board, and we thought, it will look amazing if they all choose different suits, shades of grey, contrasting weights, because they will all look fantastic! And if we got them matching ties, pockets squares and button holes they will look amazing – and what better fabric for the pockets squares than our beautiful one from India?!

I cut out and overlocked 10 squares of the brocade and linings for each.

Then I stitched the two right sides together, leaving a little gap at the end for turning the right way round, and clipped the corners.

Turned them the right way round…

Ironed them within an inch of their lives and slip stitched the end closed. I love how different each one is, with the linings, but also that the top fabric has slightly different colours and patterned on!

Love them! (I think I’ll take one tie shopping with me so I can try and match the deep blue running through all of them. Then all the men really will match! Phew!) I actually ended up buying a bundle of vintage ties off of eBay for my men’s jackets in oo arh! and found that some really matched the colour themes – so kept them back to add to the mens gift bags.

I found some great folding tutorials online and printed them out to add to the gift packages as well!

I think you’ll agree they look amazing!

We actually had a hand in making some unique cufflinks for the groomsmen with Rosalyn Prest at Rosalyn’s Emporium – see my blog post about our experience and how we did it!

Finally, I found a lovely lady online, Sarah Burns, who prints some truly beautiful cards to give to all our families on the actual day to complete their gift bundle!

The only other thing I needed to do for my groom was to upcycled a double cuffed shirt for him – it was impossible to find one with a Granddad collar to go with his suit neckline so I decided to make one!

We bought a crisp new one from a shop he loves and I simply took the collar out…

And stitched it back up again…

He is so happy with it – and now his outfit is complete!

And here is my gorgeous groom – looking stunningly colourful and happy! (I’ll add more photos when they come through from David Scammell.)