Groomstyle & Dudestyle - Part 2

Mr. Bear Cub was the easy one to outfit. Typically, when someone's a groom, I guess what they do is send measurements to Men's Wearhouse for a tuxedo, and then pick it up a few days before the wedding, right? Well... Mr. BC isn't going to wear a tux, so having his dudes wear tuxes would be a little odd. ;)

If you recall what Mr. BC is going to wear, I think the groomsdudes would look nice in lighter brown sport coats like this:

source for above 3 photos: Vallentyne Photography

Not too light, and not too dark. That's what we're going for here. Oh, and "british khaki" slacks for a little accent. We've tossed around the idea of having the dudes wear vests, but Mr. BC isn't going to wear a vest, so it would probably look strange together!

Outfitting groomsdudes (from a bride's perspective) is a bit more challenging than asking your brideschicas to buy a dress. Girls like to shop. Girls like dresses. Boys don't like to shop. Boys don't particularly like to spend money when it's not necessary. I know I'm making some pretty big generalizations here, and they're not entirely true. However, for most guys, they could care less what they wear to the wedding, even as a groomsdude. My mission is to make it easy for them, and as cheap as possible for them.

Since a tux rental is usually around $100, and most bridesmaids spend between $100 and $150 on their dress, we're trying to keep the groomsmen attire to between $100 and $150. Where's a cheap place to get a sport coat? Any department store. Conveniently, a few department stores are located nation-wide! We have groomsmen in all parts of the US, and even Canada - Vancouver, San Francisco (soon to be Geneva!), DC, Oregon, Denver (soon to be Austria!), and Oklahoma. My wonderful mother recently went to JCPenney to check out some sport coats, and informed me that they have locations in most US cities.

I'd really prefer to keep the cost as low as possible, but it's a little hard, given that a man's attire is 4-piece, as opposed to a woman's 1-piece (slacks, shirt, coat, tie vs just the dress!). The coat is definitely the most expensive part.

My favorite is the "Stafford Essential Capewool Sportcoat", but at $100-$110 for the jacket alone, I'm a little concerned it will be cost-prohibitive.

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Then there's the "Stafford Essentials Year-Round Sportcoat". At $20 cheaper than the wool coat, this may make the difference! Cheaper, yes, but the color isn't exactly as rich as the first coat...

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Then we need a good, inexpensive pair of slacks. Dockers work. We'll probably tell our groomsdudes to use whatever pair of nice khaki slacks they already own - no use in reinventing the wheel, right? Besides, if the slacks don't match perfectly, it won't really matter - the bridesmaids are already mis-matchy; I'm not going to lose sleep over different shades of khaki.

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Of course, you need a good tie! We're going to buy the ties for the groomsdudes to try to help them out as much as we can. Saveonties.com has a whole slew of ties - most cheaper than $15 each!

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We've also told the groomsdudes to get a crisp, plain white button-down dress shirt. No fuss!

Which sportcoat do you like best for Mr. Bear Cub's groomsmen? How are you trying to keep costs down for your bridal party? Do you have another suggestion for Mr. BC's groomsmen attire I haven't thought of?