The Tuxedo Hunt

This past weekend was my future husband's dream - we went out to look at tuxedos.


Don't let me confuse you; the day was not without its issues. Friday night we talked about going and he suggested that we go to a men's store where you would purchase tuxedos, then worry about his groomsmen. I suggested that we go to a rental store to look for the groomsmen's attire, then find his tuxedo at the menswear store (OK - I know it doesn't make a lot of sense, but it did in my head), and he never said anything else about it. Which means, we both thought that we were going with our own plans.

We decided to go to Capra & Cavelli, as they had come highly recommended to my fiance via numerous menswear blogs on the internet. The store is smaller than I thought, but they had just the right selection of tuxedos, as my fiance had determined that a shawl collar dinner jacket would look best on his body type. I don't think it hurts that Casablanca is one of his favorite movies and Bogart wears a shawl collar. The tuxedos there were not that expensive, if you think about it. I think the least expensive was around $600, but the most was only around $1200, which means that it would pay for itself in about 5 events (at the low end).

Our salesperson, Casey, was great; he really understood what my fiance was looking for in a tuxedo. He found a book of reasonably priced accessories that even matched the colors of the wedding, if we decided to not go with a more neutral vest/cummerbund combination. Casey even advised my fiance that instead of buying the traditional patent leather tuxedo pumps, he could purchase a very nice pair of black shoes, and make sure they were shined well the day of the wedding.

The Helpful Groom

According to the ever arbitrary "to-do" checklist on TheKnot.com, when the wedding is 5 months away, the happy couple should begin working on planning the rehearsal dinner. Although I would guess that The Knot would really want the groom's parents to start planning the dinner, and the bride and groom nag them mercilessly until they have been assured that the planning is complete.

Planning the rehearsal dinner has actually fallen on our shoulders so far, at least in that the groom's parents are not from Houston, and know little about the area where the wedding will take place. We've given ourselves the task of pulling together a few different options (with different price ranges) so that his parents can choose which one they like.

Luckily, work has been slow this week for the groom, so he's been able to research several different options. We have three options at three different price points: a steak place, an Italian restaurant, and a barbecue place.

I love it when I get to check something off, but have done minimal work to accomplish the list item.

Do You Actually Make Cakes?

Or, rather, do you actually want people to see your cakes? Yesterday's episode in cake hunting was somewhat frustrating:


My "job" for the day was to call Central Market and another baker (who shall remain nameless in my effort to not be sued) in Houston to see if I could set up a cake tasting. The help desk picked up the phone, but it just kept ringing in the bakery. No big deal, I was going to call the Austin store to see if we could do the tasting at their store anyway. I called up the Austin store and asked if I could talk to bakery, and they picked up the phone fairly quickly.

"Hi, do you make wedding cakes?"
"Yes, we do. Unless you want a tiered cake; we don't have the equipment to make tiered cakes."

Great, well that wouldn't do. Next on the list was the other baker, who I knew might be problematic, since the shop's website said that they only did weekend consultations/tastings with plenty of notice. Here's how that conversation went:

"Hello, I'd like to schedule an appointment for a tasting."
"Our next opening is February 19th."
"We're coming in from out of town, so we were hoping to get an appointment on the weekend, do you have anything on the 16th?"
"No, I don't have any appointments that day. We only do weekend (Friday and Saturday) appointments when there aren't deliveries that have to be made."
"OK, well how about March 15th, would that work."
"That day isn't open for appointments yet, because we don't know how many deliveries there will be."

Seriously. I don't know when I'm supposed to call for an appointment, but apparently yesterday was not the day to do so.

Later in the afternoon, I called the Houston Central Market back, and the person who picked up the phone was very helpful. She told me that all we needed to do for a tasting was come into the store and ask to talk to the cake decorator. Huzzah!