May I show you to your seat?

Confession: this is Javier's post, but I (Audrey) picked the pictures which is why they are the most ridiculous that I could find :)  See our wedding website for more adorable (and recent) pictures of these fellas!

As Audrey noted the other day, I have neglected to introduce you to the strapping young gents who will help us keep the day in order and help you find your seats at the wedding: our ushers.  Three friends of ours will be on hand to help that day:  David Hartmann, James Anderson, and Matthew Classick.

Hartmann:

As Hartmann so brilliantly describes in a bio he wrote himself, we met on our first day of high school.  Both equally shy about jumping in on a “spit race” we decided that we’d hang out instead of joining the other group, and we became fast friends.  Dave remained a great friend to me through high school and college, even visiting me at UVA when I was in the hospital. (Okay, I was voluntarily doing a medical study to make some cash, and his a capella group happened to be performing at UVA that week, but it sounds way better when I embellish it).  We both moved back home after we graduated from college – Dave from Haverford and I from UVA – and I had mentioned a wonderful girl named Audrey to him, saying that maybe I should set them up.   Instead, I decided that I should date Audrey, but that I’d love to have her meet my good friend Dave – and I think everyone is glad with the way that’s turned out!  Dave recently graduated from George Mason’s law school and will be moving out to Chicago this summer.  He’s a great friend to both me and to Audrey, and we’re very excited to have him join us in Charlottesville this fall!

Ando (James)

I first met Ando at the final audition for the Whethermen, an improve group down at UVA.  Neither of us made the group, but we remembered each other (no doubt for the perceived humor) and would say hello around Grounds.  We both joined Resident Staff during my third year (Ando’s second year), and would see each other a bit more frequently around Grounds through various organizational meetings.  I still didn’t know much about this mysterious, funny Australian, but I knew that he and I got along in our brief 5-minute encounters with one another.  So when I was able to choose my staff for my dorm fourth year, I used my #1 draft pick to ensure that Ando was the other male RA in my building (and yes, RA’s at UVA do pick their staffers with a snake-style draft, just like in fantasy football).  It was that next year that Ando and I really got to be good friends.  He and I had many walks from Old Dorms to the Corner and back; many nights where we stayed up late for no good reason, sometimes working on papers, sometimes distracting the other from papers, and Ando even spent that Thanksgiving with my family in Bethesda, MD.  Gradually Ando became my confidant on Grounds who I would approach for some outside perspective and advice.  And I think I served that role in return.  After graduating from UVA, I knew that Ando would stay a lifelong friend of mine.  He has visited me in DC, and both Audrey and I have had the INCREDIBLE chance to visit him in Australia.  He’s a great guy, and I’m excited for everyone to meet my friend from Down Under.

Classick

Matthew Thomas Classick and I didn’t meet until Audrey introduced me to him in 2009.  Classick and I became fast friends, despite my transgression of repeatedly calling the Phanatic the dumbest mascot in all of sports the first time we spent a significant amount of time together.  I think this calculated obnoxiousness won over his heart, and we quickly discovered that we enjoyed many of the same things: sports (playing or spectating), various brews, words and wordplay, and foosball (still undefeated at Whitlow’s lifetime, baby!).  Our friendship has grown into one of mutual respect, fun banter, and a go-to for each other for someone to talk to when things go awry.  Classick has come to be one of my best friends over the last few years, and I am very excited that he will be there to support me and Audrey on our wedding day and beyond.

Suit Up!

That's right, the men in our wedding won't be naked (sorry to disappoint ladies), but they actually won't be wearing suits either...Javier and I finally made some decisions this past weekend regarding our male members wedding garb.

This has been a decision that we've struggled with quite a bit.  I think we knew early on that we didn't want tuxedos, they just didn't fit our outside Ash Lawn celebration, but I kept telling Javier that I wanted his wedding attire to feel special too.  For months now I've been sending groomsmen pics from blogs I read and he did a decent amount of browsing around himself and eventually came up with: vests.  We both liked the look, it would add a little something extra to keep the day unique and when he took his jacket off (which he inevitably would) he would still have some sweet digs underneath.  Great!  Just to be sure we headed to Joseph A. Banks to try on a vest (since I had never seen Javs in one...because he hasn't worn one since his senior prom...).

Can everyone just pause a moment to admire how good my fiance looks in that three piece suit (ignore the flip flops...)?  They didn't have a brown suit for us to try on, but we learned quickly that Javs could rock the vest :)  We both liked the three piece, but, as I said above, knew that Javs would probably take off his jacket fairly soon after our ceremony so we did a little experimenting while at the shop. 

When Javs had been looking for vests on his own, he seemed to gravitate towards the darker, chocolate look, often with a lighter khaki pant.  Did we dare?  So he tried on this tan suit with the dark grey vest so we could start to get the feel for how the contrast might look.  While this isn't perfect (because he is still wearing flip flops) and the vest wasn't exactly the color we wanted, we did feel confident that it would be a pulled together look fitting for any fashionable groom.  YAY - Javs attire decision made!

Now for the boys.  I'm (personally) still really happy with the fact that each of the lovely ladies on my side will be sporting their own dresses and looks for the big day and thought it seemed silly to have the guys counter with perfectly matching vests and ties.  I had been stock piling 'vest' pictures for a while and asked Javs to take a look and see what he liked and didn't.  In the end, he agreed that having the guys mix matched a bit would work better for our feel (and give the guys some flexibility/options for what they  decided to wear).  These are some examples of the look we are going for...

Each of the boys (best man, groomsman and the ushers - who I realized today we've never introduced you too....a post soon to come!)  will wear slacks or khakis that they already own and a vest in a brown of their choosing.  I had done some perusing on Etsy (every bride's saving grace) and found a shop that specialized in vintage men's fashion.  I saw that they had put together some custom wedding vests before and asked them if they could have vests to us by October.   They could!  and each vest would be $40 (totally reasonable based on suit rental costs or department store prices I had seen!).  We didn't want the boys to have to spend a ton of $$ on new clothes and thought this would work out nicely.  (and hey! they'll have a trendy vest to keep for future festive occasions.)

We decided that my Daddy-o would sport a brown suit of his choosing sans vest (kind of making Javs the culmination of all other male attire on the day).  Then we'll use ties to do a little bit of coordinating and connecting (orange ties: Javs, groomsman and Dad, green ties: ushers).  Whoop whoop!  Happy to cross another decision off the list and super excited to see how fabulous these boys look on the big day.