This Month, We're Going to a Wedding. We Need Outfits, Right?

Cause here's the thing. This is a thing Mickey and I have always 100% agreed on:

When we get dressed up, we get DRESSED UP. Like, top hat, cane, monocle fancy! And I don't mean only fancy events. 

I remember one time I planned a fishing trip (this was before we were even dating or kissing or anything like that.) Mickey went on the trip and I remember he bought a whole new outfit, hat included, to go fishing. 

Even shoes. The undiagnosed OCD in me was very worried about the shoes at the time. But not the rest of the outfit, because I had also done the same thing. 

I mean, different styles and colors, of course. But we both were wearing outfits that we had specifically purchased for fishing. 

But my thinking at the time was, it's an event! And I should have a "outfit" for the event! But then here is also what my brain thinks - if I buy an outfit for an "event", the only time I can wear the outfit, no matter how comfortable and cute, is whenever I do the event again. 

Over the years, Mickey and I have been through a variety of event outfits, formal, halloweenie and informal. I don't think he realizes how much I enjoy this. 

We're headed to a wedding this month, so we've spent the past couple weeks putting together our 'fits. 

Now, the original vibe I was feeling for this wedding was a pink, float-y chiffon dress reminiscent of Season 1 Villanelle. And Mickey in a traditionally spy-y or professor-y complementary getup. 

That... is not the vibe we ended up going with. 

What is the vibe? I will let you decide after I show you the outfits. 

Which will be after the wedding, of course! This blog is all about the wonderful, chaotic shopping experience. But I will share snippets of the clothes with you... just not the whole thing all together. 

My Fit

We went back to the same place I bought my pink dress, when we were still living in the hotel. THEY REMEMBERED ME DOWN TO THE CLOTHES I TRIED ON. 

It was wild and made me feel happy about deciding to spend our money with them once again. 

They showed me a few things and this part is always very awkward for me, because the people pleaser that lives inside me always wants to make people happy... by validating their choices. 

However, the picky person who knows exactly what she wants also lives inside me and I'm trying to give her space to say "no" when she feels safe. 

So, I tried that while we shopped and the world didn't end and we moved on to something else. 

Mickey had an armful of dresses for me to try, including this one floaty multicolored dark cloud of a dress that he picked offa the rack himself. 

And then (it happened this way in my memory) three things happened. 

1. I turned around.
2. The fashion consultant pointed to a dress.
3. Mickey said, "what about this one?" while grabbing the skirt of that same GREEN DRESS.

My brain immediately rejected it on color alone but then my mouth said, "oooh."

The top of the dress was leather and the sleeves were voluminous and I loved it. But my hate for the color green runs deep. As reported above, my brain simply rejects the color on principle. 

But I liked this leather/chiffon (? I think, I am not 100% on fabric) fantasy so much that when they answered "no" to "does this come in another color?", I immediately grabbed it and the rest of the dresses on Mickey's arm and tried them on. 

The green one was first and when I tell you I flounced out of that dressing room, I did NOT exaggerate. It felt INCREDIBLE. 

Powerful? Check. 

Sexy? Check.

In charge? Check.

Cute? Check.

Twirly? Check.

Mickey knew. I knew. The dress lady knew. I didn't even try on anything else from the pile. This was it. 

The bottom half was pretty see-through, though, so we had to find something to go under it. It was originally styled with a full body jumpsuit underneath, long sleeves, long pants all of it. Mickey and the sales associate convinced me to try it on despite my pants-hating brain protesting the entire time. 

I...loved it. It looked super cool and I was feeling the vibe, but then I realized I would have to get literally completely naked every single time I go to the bathroom. 

So that was a big no.

I ended up with a black slinky underdress instead. I'm gonna pair it with some stockings and these funky pink Vans we found at a skate shop. I found a chunky necklace from a local antique store and have a matching pink hair clip and earrings. And I'm painting my fingernails highlighter yellow as a secret nod to the season 2 premiere of P-Valley. 

Yes, I am a dork. 

Oh, p.s. I also ended up getting the multicolored cloud dress Mickey picked out. It is stripe-y, so you know I love it. 

Mickey's Fit

Once my dress was sorted, we had more of a direction for Mickey's wedding guest look. I mean, we didn't have a real direction, but we'd know when we found it.

What we didn't know was where to go to find something that could complement my gorgeous, gorgeous dress. So we asked the lady at Maddgear! And she had no idea. 

So we pointed our car to the mall that was used to be attached to that building I was obsessed with. 

We didn't even make it to that mall, though, cause here is what happened. 

We took the "no highways" route (I always recommend this if you are not in a hurry - you can discover places you otherwise wouldn't!) and as we were whizzing down an unfamiliar road, I spotted a sign that said "$99 suits!".

But, like I said, we were whizzing, so we had to go down the road a bit to do a u-turn to see what these deals were all about. 

We pulled into a parking lot which just so happened to have ANOTHER suit store in it. It was called Cannon's and so we went inside. 

Y'all this strip mall store was a wonderland of fancy suits. The suits were colorful and, much like I felt the first time I shopped at Maddgear, Mickey didn't feel like he was cool enough to shop there. 

And the shoes! The shoes were breathtaking. 

But then we looked at a price tag on a sweet pink jacket. 

$500. Yipes. 

So we decided to double back to the $99 suit store and come back to Cannon's for shoes. Because the shoes were impeccable. And there were lots of olive green options. 

When we pulled into the parking lot of the $99 suit place we spotted, I audibly yelped, because the official full name of the adorable store-that-looked-like-a-house was "Cannon 99 Suits and Clothes".

It was like an outlet for the fancy, pricy place!!!! What a score!

We were so excited and immediately overwhelmed upon entering that Mickey got a big ol scrape on his arm from the door. 

Y'all. It was so chaotic in there. There were so many sights and sounds. The clothes were hung everywhere. Just randomly on walls on on the backs of doors. The racks were so close together it was difficult to walk through them head on. 

And there were a LOT of employees and they all seemed so busy and invested in their customers. Honestly, it was very difficult for my brain to differentiate between the customers and employees. Especially by the end of our experience. 

We squeezed our way up and down the aisles. There was a feast of fashion before us, but most of 'em didn't feel right. 

Then we spotted it. It was a cream colored jacket, with green and gold squares all over it. Now, remember I have aphantasia so I can't picture it right now, but that's how I remember it. 

Oh here is a photo:

 

Mickey tried it on, but it didn't fit. Across the entire store, a salesman yelled to us, "Yo, playa, hold up. We can make that work for you."

Then he quickly made his way over to us. Idk how honestly, cause were were like four rows of clothes between him and us and I didn't see him fly over the racks. 

The he had Mickey put the jacket back on, did some fiddling with the shoulders and the sleeves and looked at me. 

It looked amazing and fit our vibe perfectly. I sneaked a look at the price tag out of curiosity and the sales fella caught me and said this:

"Oh don't worry mama, we'll take care of you." 

So we moved onto the pants. 

Now, this store was kind of like an outlet in that there were, like, one of everything. There was no getting another size from the back. If you saw it - that was it! 

So when Mickey and I both spotted a killer pair of gold pants that matched the gold in his jacket perfectly, we had our fingers crossed they they were his size.

They were not. 

They were like, giant man sized. The fella suggested he try them on anyways. 

The pants were comically large on Mickey, but then the fella got behind him and said, "Hold on, playa." and pulled in the waist and did some magic with the back of the legs and they were instantly the best-fitting pants ever. 

We said, yes we will take it and they marked some things with chalk and said to come back on Tuesday to pick it up. 

Together with what felt like half the store, we picked out a shirt (white) and gorgeous shoes (olive) and they threw in a free pair of socks!

 

When we came back on Tuesday, the whole outfit looked like it was made specifically for Mickey, which I guess it was. 

I am very much looking forward to getting all dressed up in our wedding outfits, and even more excited to see friends that we haven't seen in over a year!

When my brain is all back together after the trip, I'll share photos of our lewks in the Facebook comments of this post.