The tuxedo is worse than the dress.

Well! We haven't talked about the wedding in awhile, huh? Let's remedy that now, shall we? It's almost the end of May, and at the beginning of the month I laid out a list of things that I wanted to get done this month. And it wasn't much. But it isn't all done.

So let's start with the stuff that IS done, just to make me feel better. First, the rehearsal dinner. Not that we actually DID anything about that other than make a decision, but the decision we made doesn't have to be dealt with for a few more months, so I think we're good. Anyway, first of all, we decided to have only the wedding party, their significant others, and our parents at the rehearsal dinner despite the fact that the latest trend is to have all out of town guests--because 90% of our guests will be from out of town, so planning a rehearsal dinner for them would essentially be like planning a second wedding.

Anyway, so we calculate that there will be 16-18 people at our rehearsal dinner, which, given that we didn't include the rehearsal dinner in our budget estimate, is still a fair amount of money when you consider per-person costs. If we went to a nice dinner at a somewhat upscale restaurant like we'd been considering, once you factor in tip and alcohol and dessert, costs could easily surpass $1,000 for the night and keep on going. Plus, we kept going around and around in circles about what restaurant to go to--there was one that we liked, but it's loud and crowded on Friday nights, and there was something about it that wasn't quite right.

And then my sister made the perfect, and obvious, suggestion of our favorite little hole in the wall Thai place. That's the restaurant we've been to together more than any other, and we love it. And it's inexpensive, and it's never crowded, even on weekend nights. And the food is delicious and everybody loves Thai. As soon as she said it, we were like, OH. DUH. And now we're envisioning a family style dinner with platters of pad Thai, coconut curry, and crispy duck, plus yummy fried appetizers and pitchers of Thai iced tea. It's going to be PERFECT. And low-key and fun and not outrageously expensive. I'm so glad we've figured that out.

Next, starting the invitations. They haven't actually been put together, but they're all designed and all the supplies have arrived and we've figured out the wording for the invitation itself, the RSVP card, and the info card, in both German and English. We've picked out fonts and I've put everything together in In Design (and huge thanks to Michelle for telling me to use In Design instead of Illustrator, and for telling me how to use it. Screw "it takes a village to raise a child"--it takes a blogosphere to plan a wedding). So on an upcoming weekend, my sister and I are going to get together and start printing, and cutting, and taping. It's going to be great. Or terrible. It's still unclear.

Now, for the things we haven't done. I haven't picked a ribbon. But I'm okay with that. I just need to get myself to a craft or fabric store and choose one. It will not take very long. And I don't need the ribbon yet anyway, because we decided not to use it on the invitations after all.

So the last thing on the list? The tuxedo styles? That is what is seriously driving me crazy. Originally I had planned to just go to Men's Wearhouse, have Torsten try on a few different styles to see what suited him best, and then have that done. But then I called them over the weekend and spoke with a guy who condescendingly informed me that no, they don't actually have the tuxedos in stock--all we'll be doing is looking at a book. NOT HELPFUL. I've LOOKED at their catalog online, and I'm sorry, but staring at a bunch of tuxes on models is not giving me the clearest picture of what will look best on Torsten. So I figured (but luckily did not say out loud) that Men's Wearhouse could go screw themselves and we'd find another store.

Except, ha ha, apparently there ARE no other stores. After Hours, the only other big chain that used to do tuxedo rentals, has now been absorbed into Men's Wearhouse as MWTux. And everything I read online complains about MWTux, and how they were rude, or messed up the order, or things didn't come in on time, or didn't fit, and how it was a huge, stressful hassle right up until the day of the wedding. But there are very few reviews of any other tuxedo rental places, and the reviews that do exist are mixed at best.

For literally every other vendor we've found so far, I have done research until I found someone whose prices fit with our budget, whose reviews were unanimously positive, and who clicked with us in person and understood what we were looking for. And there does not seem to be any such vendor when it comes to tuxedo rentals. So I don't know what to do. I'm thinking of taking Torsten to Macy's or somewhere to try on a tux just to find out what looks best, then ordering a similar style from MWTux and hoping they don't mess it up? Or just finding a random local tux rental place, crossing my fingers, and hoping for the best? Or is there some other solution to this issue that I am overlooking? What would you do?