What We Wore to My Son's Wedding
I have been walking you through this mother of the groom journey for months now, and this is the post so many of you have been asking for. Every outfit. Rehearsal dinner through the after party. Where it came from, why we chose it, and what I would tell you if you were standing in my closet with me.
Some of these were planned nearly a year out. Some came together in a resale shop in Washington DC. One of them came out of my dad's closet. That is real life style, even for a wedding weekend.
Here we go.
The Rehearsal Dinner
Maggie
Maggie goes to school in DC, and when I was visiting her earlier this year we found an incredible resale store and both walked out with our rehearsal dinner outfits in one afternoon.
Hers is a vintage Loewe that we had remade slightly to fit her. This is a dress she is going to have for years and years. Her shoes are Staud, and they fit her really well. I love that they are brown, because she can dress them up or down forever.
Hallie
Mine is a Gucci set from the 2012 spring collection, a separate top and pants, and it needed a bit of tailoring. I love the color combination, I love the mod print, and those chiffon sleeves felt dramatic and fun in exactly the right way.
Believe it or not, my bag is very old and it is from Old Navy. I happened to have that purple in my closet already. My shoes are my Veronica Beard heels, which are so comfortable I can wear them all night.
Greg
Greg's clothes tend to live at two extremes: athletic and golf clothes or dressier things like suits, sport coats and jeans. In the past two years, working with Velocity Health, he has put on about 12 pounds of muscle, so a lot of his more fitted pieces stopped working.
Here is the lucky part. Greg and both of my boys fit J.Crew off the rack almost perfectly. We found this linen suit during their summer sale and it is amazing. The shirt is Faherty, so it is very soft.
The shoes were a splurge I had to talk him into, and he now says they are the most comfortable shoes he has ever owned. They are his hybrid between a dress shoe and a sneaker, which matters, because he will almost always reach for the sneaker if given the choice.
He also has a great pocket square collection. This one is old and I cannot remember where it came from, but no tie plus a pocket square is his signature look.
Reed
Reed is wearing the exact same suit as Greg in a different color. He and Alexa went shopping, I said check J.Crew, and he came home with it off the rack. The shirt is also J.Crew. We found the shoes together at Bloomingdale's on a mother son weekend where we finished off all of his outfits.
Joey
Joey fits into my dad's old clothes beautifully, which delights me.
I got my clothing gene from my dad. He has a closet as big as mine, if not bigger. He shops regularly and remembers every detail about the brands, the fabric, the color, all of it.
He also does not have as many occasions to wear dress clothes as he once did. So Joey shops his closet. The suits, the sport coats, the shirts, all of it. Pants and shoes are Joey's own, but everything else came from my dad.
The Wedding
Reed, white jacket
Reed's white tuxedo jacket is from Suitsupply. We had a custom tuxedo made at Enzo, and the pants, shirt, and tie are from there. We swapped in the Suitsupply jacket for the ceremony, so the bride wasn’t the only one changing looks. And for the party he switched into a black tux jacket for the rest of the night.
Greg
Greg is wearing a J.Crew off the rack tuxedo. We looked at doing something custom, and then it fit him so well that I think we only shortened a sleeve and left it alone.
Hallie
My dress is from Lisa Moran. Read my blog post all about my Mother-of-the-Groom dress here.
The brooch on the belt is mine, and I think Greg and I found it on our honeymoon. The vintage diamond watch was a 30th birthday gift from my parents. My bracelet and earrings are from Verstolo, and I did not buy them. I rented them! I’ll explain this a bit more below.
Let’s Talk About Verstolo
Here is the thing. I wanted real diamonds for this night. Not a version of diamonds, but actual ones, with actual sparkle. What I did not want was to spend the price of a car on jewelry I would wear once and then keep in a safe for the next decade.
Verstolo solves exactly that problem. They are a family of fourth generation diamantaires in New York with a showroom on Fifth Avenue, and their whole rental program is built around letting you wear serious pieces for a big night without buying them.
How it works, in plain terms:
You book a consultation, in person in NYC or over video if you are anywhere else. Their team styles you, which means you send photos of your dress and they help you choose. This is my favorite part, because it is the same thing I do with my clients.
Pricing reflects a five day rental window, so it covers a whole wedding weekend and not just one evening.
Insurance is included. I want to say that again for anyone whose stomach just dropped at the thought of losing a borrowed diamond. It is covered.
They ship nationwide, or you pick up in Manhattan. It arrives ahead of the event and goes back after.
Everything is natural diamonds set in 14k or 18k gold or platinum. Real pieces, not costume.
There is a program called Rent.Own. where your rental fee applies toward a future purchase from their collection. So if you fall in love with something, you have not lost that money.
Joey/The Groomsmen
Look how cute these guys are! Reed's high school friends, his friends from his gap year, his brother, and his new brother in law.
We worked with The Black Tux for the groomsmen, and here is why I loved it. Everyone gets measured at any Nordstrom store, The Black Tux confirms the measurements, and the tuxedo ships to you two days before the event so you have time to press or steam it. You wear it, then send it back.
Whoever is coordinating chooses the suit style, the tie, the shirt, suspenders or no suspenders, so everyone matches without anyone having to shop.
Maggie
Maggie's wedding dress deserves its own moment. The bridesmaids were in shades of green, and we wanted Maggie in something that coordinated with my dress. I had seen this brand on Instagram in a conversation about non boring bridesmaid and wedding guest dresses. It is called Vanina and they are based in Beirut.
Ordering it took a lot of measuring, and I will be honest, there was an import duty. It was worth it. She felt amazing in it, and the color and the fabric are just beautiful.
Alexa
Alexa's dress was so smart. One dress with different attachments and pieces that completely changed the look.
She started strapless with gloves. Then the gloves came off and the halter top went on (which made it feel like an entirely different dress) and she wore the veil up in her hair. Then the halter came back off, and part of her veil became a hat. Then her after party dress.
Four looks in one night! Her necklace was her grandmother's, which was so sweet.
Reed, black tux and shoes
We went down a whole rabbit hole on tuxedo shoes. A truly proper tuxedo shoe is shiny, and the debate was lace up or slip on. Reed chose lace up. Also from Bloomingdale's.
My Mom
This was one of the first times I have ever gotten to dress my mom, and I loved every second of it. We found this at Cindy Halle in Gates Mills. It is Catherine Regehr, and when she tried it on she just felt great. You can see it. She is shining!
If you are heading into a wedding weekend of your own, whether you are the mother of the groom, the mother of the bride, grandmother of the bride/groom, or a guest who wants to feel wonderful, I have a whole library of posts to help you figure out what to wear. And if you want help pulling it together for real, that is exactly what I do.
More Wedding Blog Posts
Ready to feel great in your closet? Let's chat.
xo, Hallie