Formal Affair

As has been remarked upon elsewhere, the window display is not the most enticing — unless you want to look like a fainting groom on You’ve Been Framed. (Yes he got a black eye for the honeymoon — bride Sheila was livid — but on the bright side, they made £200 out of it).
The sheer accessibility of the location, however, meant that it was my brother’s first choice to at least begin exploring garb for himself, best man (me) and ushers. Once through the door, he never looked back, and this is where we were kitted out — and very smart we were too; not like Gary, from 1987, preserved on bundled-​off-​to-​Beadle VHS, all emotional during his speech at a Trusthouse Forte.
The clothes arrived on the agreed collection day as promised, with all items present and thankfully correct — we had heard horror stories from friends about other stockists who had supplied trousers with a waistband like a hula-​hoop.
While the staff were pleasant enough, there was very little interaction as we became mere clothes horses during prospective fittings. Almost inevitably, I felt vaguely spoken-​down to. But that’s because they thought I was Gary from 1987. I wasn’t though, I was a real boy.

Don’t judge this store by its window display!
When we decided we were going to hire suits for our wedding this was the first place I thought of. Probably for the wrong reasons though. The wedding dresses I’d seen in the window had always reminded me of that TV programme ‘My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding’. Bright, crazy outfits, where all tradition had been thrown out of the window, not really my kind of taste, but as it was local we thought we would just enquire.
Thankfully the window display was not a full representation of Formal Affair. The manageress was really down to earth and had the experience and knowledge we were looking for. She gave us advice in regards to patterns and different looks and she didn’t take offence if we chose not to go with it, she just wanted us to be happy. Everything we wanted, we got!
There was a lot of different waistcoat choices and though they didn’t keep all sizes in-​store there was at least one of each pattern so we could see what worked together. We had it all confirmed within the hour and left feeling surprisingly satisfied.
Generally you collect the suits a couple of days before your wedding and return them a couple of days after, yet we had a phone call a week before saying they were all ready to collect in-store…bonus!
We booked and paid for a suit package when there was a deal on but it seems this deal comes around every few months so I’d suggest you keep your eyes peeled no matter how far ahead your wedding is. We were well within budget and the boys looked great!