Friday evening, Andy met Nick and I out in Golf Mill, to get to Men's Wearhouse. I've had good experience with them in buying a suit, and they're a nationwide chain, and their big thing is service and quality and blah blah.
I'll be the first to admit that, while I have style by the bucketload, its hard to tell amongst my closet full of jerseys and Docker pants. I own three four pairs of shoes, with one pair being the dress-up variety. In short, I am lacking in the clothing department.
So this was a fact-finding mission; trying to see what works and what doesn't, all within a "don't be tacky" edict from e. So, the fellas roll and get our formalwear groove on.Nick is along to be an impartial pair of eyes; Andy and I have to get measured and all of that.
The saleslady, first off, was a distraction. She was short, and attractive, and had a low cut shirt on, and every one of us admitted to having a hard time at some point during it all to refocus to her face. And she had great eyes. However, as soon as I let the cat out of the bag that we weren't really going to BUY anything that trip (this was a fact-finding mission, you remember).
Second, and this is no indictment on Men's Wearhouse as a whole, but it was pretty clear that we came in not knowing much. Colors were up in the air, and the look was up in the air, and we wanted to see how these things looked and make a decision from there. We got none of that. Perhaps I was thinking that the "education of the customer" was a real concept, or that, in some cases, coming in to buy something didn't mean you knew everything there was to know about what you were buying.
For example, when I go buy a video game system, and I ask a question fo the salesperson, they have their own experiences as well as the company line to give me info about what I'm buying. They can give me details on what I'd need to play the system, how to hook it up, etc, but the information needed to make a good purchase is there and in ample supply.
With suits, its different, or at least it was Friday. I didn't know the difference between single- and double-breasted suits, and I could have looked on the Internet for it, but to see it and wear it is another thing altogether. Only by asking a veiled question ("In your opinion, what's the aesthetic difference between single and double breasted suits?") did I get the answer I wanted.
We tried on jackets, then pants, looked at shoes, and looked at shirts and tie combos, and I think we came up with some good ideas.
What was good about this whole thing was I actually DID something. I went out and got info; I took a solid step forward in getting what I need to get done, done.. I'm not the kind of person who likes to sit and get buddy-buddy with the salespeople in an effort to figure out what I need and how to go about it; I tend to go in, get my stuff, and leave, but one thing about this wedding this is that very little of what we're getting and dealing with is like that. We're going to have to engage in dialogue, look at things and ask about them, to taste and feel and smell and get our hands dirty.
And that feels good, in a way.
long promised...here's the hotel info for y'all. we tried really hard to take everyone's feedback under consideration before we signed the deal. with that said...
the "official" hotel of the urbantherapy wedding is the hyatt regency chicago. most of y'all are familiar enough with chicago to understand what i mean when i say that it's on wacker drive just off of michigan avenue. i don't have the exact address in front of me right now, but you can find it online.
the extra-special rate for the weekend is $108/night for single or double occupancy. that rate does NOT include your bar tab or anything else, and i'd be remiss if i didn't include this tidbit from the contract: "All room rates are subject to state, local and any occupancy taxes in effect at the time of the Function, currently at 14.9%."
for our purposes, the weekend is from thursday, july 31st until monday, august 4th, b/c we know there's some of you who may want to get here early and/or leave a little later. here's how to get it:
--call the hyatt regency chicago reservation department at 312-565-1234, or use their toll-free number at 800-223-1234. their online system isn't set up for reserving room block rates, so you'll have to go the old-fashioned route.
--tell the nice person on the phone that you want to reserve a room for the duration of your stay. mention the group rate and (THIS IS IMPORTANT) mention the urbantherapy wedding room block. if that doesn't work (MORE IMPORTANT STUFF), then have them check under the house/hunter wedding room block. if they still can't find it after checking those two (YUP, I'M USING CAPS AGAIN SO THAT MEANS IT'S IMPORTANT), tell the nice person that you'll call them back. check in with one or both of us and let us know ASAP so we can work with our hotel rep to get things straight.
--the deal is that your credit card won't be charged until you actually check out. if the nice person tries to tell you otherwise, tell them you'll call back and talk to us.
--once you've made a reservation and gotten a confirmation and all that fantabulous stuff, email us and let us know. there should be plenty of rooms for the lot of you but it'll be nice for us to keep track of these things.
--the deadline to book your room at this rate (HEY LOOK!) is july 10th. if you haven't booked by this date, you are screwed out of getting a room at the above price.
if you run into any problems with the nice reservations people, let us know immediately so we can try to fix it.
oh, and keep the comments on the music thing coming. :-)
...yeah, i don't feel like quoting the rest of the line.
more audience participation for y'all:
--what songs would you absolutely love to hear at the reception? as in, if we played this song, you'd be so happy that you'd do the dance of joy, perfect strangers style? or, at the very least, nod your head and say "good song" emphatically.
--what songs would you absolutely hate to hear at the reception? as in, if we played this song, you'd walk out and never speak to us again? or, at the very least, you'd boo loudly and chant "new dj!" until a different song came on?
have fun...i can't promise that we'll play your favorites, and knowing me, i'll throw in at least one cringe-worthy song just for laughs. comment away!
After requesting a credit increase from American Express (the OFFICIAL card of the Urban Therapy Wedding!), we've just sat down and signed the reception contract. Our goal is to have it good, and cheap, and this is what we know is one of our biggest expenses. But this is the first contract we're signing to start paying money. Once again, it's ON...
Perhaps we'll start a "wedding Running Total" on the right side...
Next up, Invitations and Photographer...
thanks to the power of the internet, i managed to find my shoes and order them for like $10 less than nordstrom's site (so take that, nordstrom!). they should be here in a couple of days and hopefully they'll fit and not make me look more ridiculous than necessary.
by next week, we should have official hotel information ready to share w/y'all. and maybe we'll have an official florist by then, too. and registry stuff should theoretically be ready by the end of the month.
out-of-towners: are you planning on renting a car while you're here? leave a comment and let us know. thanks.
happy tuesday!
i designated yesterday as shoe shopping day. specifically, shoe shopping for the wedding day. thanks to the power that is the internet, i scoped a potential pair of shoes and printed out the style # and all that. i also figured out that i could order them directly from nordstrom's website or go through amazon's apparel store thingy. so i added them to my amazon wish list in my size and color, just to be safe.
first stop: nordstrom on michigan ave. i have a love/hate relationship with nordstrom -- i hate going in there b/c i always (not almost always, but always) spot at least one thing i want to buy. and i hate it b/c it's usually way over my budget or not in my size or something like that. but i love walking around the store and people-watching and trying on things and just hanging out. no, really. when i visited seattle a while back, i spent hours in nordstrom and nordstrom rack. and now a nordstrom rack is opening on state street the week after the wedding. but i digress.
the purpose of the nordstrom trip was to 1) see if they had the shoes i wanted in stock so i could try them on and 2) see if there were any other shoes i wanted. i failed on both counts, but i did indulge in trying things on and hanging out for a bit. i visited a couple other places after that, but my heart wasn't in it.
when i came home, i figured i'd just go ahead and order the shoes online from nordstrom -- if i didn't like them or if they didn't fit, i knew i could send them back with no problem. so i went back to my wish list to figure out if it'd be easier to order them using my amazon account or directly from nordstrom, and my wish list told me that the shoes i'd selected were no longer available in my size and selected color. that spawned a clicking frenzy that ended with me "chatting" with a nordstrom.com rep who told me that yes, the shoes were gone and no, they didn't expect a reorder anytime soon.
so now i must go on a quest to find shoes, which is what i'd hoped to avoid by buying them either in person or online. but no. now i have to find stores that carry shoes made by the manufacturer (not hard, thanks again to the 'net) and either call or visit to see if they have the style i want in the size and color i need, or if they can order them for me. maybe i'll go back to nordstrom to see if they can special order them for me. like i really need an excuse to go back to nordstrom, right?
i really wanted those shoes! with my luck, though, they probably wouldn't have fit and i'd have to return them anyway. bah.