ourmichiganwedding.com » Michigan Wedding Vendors

President Tuxedo, a Michigan Men’s Wearhouse alternative

jeff — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:10:35 +0000

President Tuxedo

Support Michigan businesses! If you are considering Men's Wearhouse please also consider President Tuxedo. They have been voted best tuxedo in Detroit several years.

Although I did not do a lot of research into the the tuxedo pricing I think President Tuxedo may have more reasonable prices because it is place. Support Michigan business! You may be able to find some coupons for discount tux rentals. Before our wedding I found a few choice coupons that I think would have saved me a few bucks.

The only real downside is if you have a nationwide groomsman crew it may be hard to coordinate getting everyone measured and fitted. If all of my groomsman were living in the Michigan area I would definitely opt for President Tuxedo to support the little man. Their website even offers a referral reward so that bride and groom and the referring person gets a nice little gift card.

President Tuxedo has many Michigan locations including Ann Arbor, Birmingham, Novi, Rochester, Sterling Heights, Troy and West Bloomfield.

Wedding Bands

jeff — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:57:05 +0000

We put off buying wedding bands until the last weekend before the wedding because we were busy doing a lot of other stuff. Wedding bands themselves don't have to be fancy if you don't want them to be. We were looking for plain white gold or platinum bands that could take a beating and I wanted something cheap because I have a tendency to lose things. In addition the engagement ring I bought cost a good chunk of change so wedding bands fell by the wayside.

We looked at a variety of places. Given the state of the economy in 2009 a lot of jewelry stores have been closing. We checked a few of them - most recognizable would be Bailey, Banks, and Biddle, but their stuff wasn't quite what we were looking for. JC Penney had some decent plain 14k white gold bands for $200 each ($400 total) that would have been fine.

In the end we found a nice deal at Fred Meyer Jewelry in Lakeside Mall. We got both wedding bands for a combined $200 after tax (both 14k white gold bands, $120 for the man's, $80 for the woman's). We did not order the protection plan because (1) you don't know if your jeweler will be in business in the next few years and (2) it's unlikely we would ever bring our rings in to get polished or re-whitened.

We ordered the wedding bands on Saturday and picked them up after resizing on Wednesday evening. It is a 3 business day turnaround time if you need your wedding bands resized.

We're satisfied with what we got. If we get tired of them after a few years we can upgrade later. No big whoop.

The wedding is over!

jeff — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 07:13:27 +0000

Wow, after over 14 months of laborious planning our wedding is finally over. The day went by so fast it was ridiculous. Here's a debriefing and run-down of who, where, and what.

Photographer: Robert Bruce in Royal Oak. Great guy, easy to feel relaxed with Robert and his helper around. Voted 2009 best photographer in Detroit by WDIV channel 4 voters. We are inclined to agree!

Videographer: Alan Lockwood in Birmingham. A pro. He gave us a same-day highlight reel that turned out great.

Venue: Troy Marriott. Excellent and accomodating! We threw the staff a few logistical curve-balls because our ceremony was short and our guests were plowing through food like ravenous beasts but the Kitchen handled all 300 of us without a hitch.

Wedding Day Photography site: Troy Museum and Historic Village. Close to the Marriott, perfect backdrop.

Rehearsal Dinner: East Lake Restaurant. Handled our 50 guests without a problem. The food was decent, we snuck in our own champagne and they let us bring in our own Filipino Roasted Pig (45 pounds!) and they cut the pig for us too! Reviews: Yelp, other.

Wedding DJ: Mary Ann Productions of Royal Oak. Another professional. Great job keeping everything on schedule and making sure everyone had fun.

Honeymoon: Kauai, Hawaii. 3 nights in Poipu, 3 nights in Princeville. Kauai was so nice we're sad that it's over already. Our wallets on the other hand are glad to get some rest.

Robert Bruce Photography

jeff — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:47:28 +0000

We had a late engagement shoot with our photographer, Robert Bruce. Robert is an award winning photographer and popular on theknot.com. After spending some time with Robert it is definitely nice tohave a professional who knows poses that look good and he knows the area well.

No, unfortunately this isn't our photo.

For our shoot we spent some time walking around the grounds of the Cranbrook campus and picking select spots. Robert said that normally Cranbrook costs $100 per person in a photo shoot.

I do not know what parts of the campus the "official" Cranbrook photographers have access to but since the campus grounds are expansive it is pretty easy to walk around and take pictures in some beautiful locations. As an alumni it might have been nice to get some pictures in the Quad area but not essential to the picture-taking experience.

Tuxedo Rental: Men’s Wearhouse is mediocre

jeff — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:49:48 +0000

Men's Wearhouse Quick Facts:

The website sucks.
Standard tuxedo rental is from $109 to $159 per person
Rent 5 tuxes get the Groom's tuxedo free
You cannot try on a tuxedo
Setup your tuxedos 4+ weeks in advance. Anything less than 14 days will cost $20 per person for rush orders.
Any changes with less than 14 days advance notice will cost you $20 per person
$40 free tux deposit, $20 deposit per regular tux, $7 damage deposit.
For Michigan local Tuxedo rental, try President Tuxedo as an alternative to Men's Wearhouse.

Men's Wearhouse is the de facto tux rental place. Of the guys I know who rented tuxes for their weddings, 90% of them rented from Men's Wearhouse because it's easy. MW is everywhere in malls, mini-malls, and strip malls all over the country. Obviously this is why they are mediocre and the prices are high.

Avoid the Weekends

To figure out the tuxedo rentals I've had to go to Men's Wearhouse four times. If you go on a weekend they are jame packed. The tuxedo rental associate was busy and seriously busy with multiple people waiting around to get service. Here's a clue MW: hire more tux rental people!

I made 4 trips to MW just to setup the rental. The first time I dropped in to figure out the price of a tux rental because their GODDAMN WEBSITE won't give you a clue. I'll tell you: tux rental prices for a regular sized adult range from $110 to $160 not including taxes and fees. On this first visit the store was relatively empty except for the tux rental person. The other 3 employees wandered around an otherwise empty store straightening pants and shirt sleeves.

The second visit was a Saturday afternoon but during Prom pickup season. The place was jammed and the single tux rental associate was overwhelmed with rental pickups and people trying to pick styles. We stood for about 15-20 minutes without any visible progress in the queue waiting for the rental associate. Forget it. We left.

The third visit we got help right away but the rental lady was too slick. She was hurrying through the rental procedure without showing us a price book or our style options. Of course she picked the most expensive rental which totaled to be approximately $175 per person. No way am I going to pay damn near $1,000 to rent some shitty tuxes for my friends.

Fourth visit I had to go back and pick a cheaper rental style. This was an easy process but I think the lady screwed up the colors for the groomsmen so now I have to go back again to tell them to change the colors. That will be the fifth visit, followed by the sixth to pickup the rentals and seventh to return.