A couple weeks ago a flyer arrived in the mail from Men’s Wearhouse. Some deal on wedding tuxedo rentals.
The punchline? It was addressed to me.
“This Valentine’s Day, Men’s Wearhouse cordially invites your groom* to take advantage of a one-of-a-kind offer he’s sure to love!” the inside copy shouted at me gaily.
It was marketed to me. Like I am in charge of getting my partner dressed for the wedding.
I understand why this is the way it is. I understand that at some point everybody agreed that men couldn’t care less about getting married, and they cannot be trusted to with any of the details. So Men’s Wearhouse mails its promotional material to women, because then at least it has a chance of being read instead of getting lost at the bottom of a pile of old pizza boxes and unwashed socks. Or however these hypothetical menfolk live.** In fact, they probably haven’t taken those pizza boxes out to the trash yet because they’re too busy hiding in terror from their fiancées, who are stalking around the house screeching about how they better get over to the store right this very second to pick out matching TUXES AND SUITS AND TIES, OH MY.
I understand that, but I don’t get it. Yes, the beau and I will talk about what we’re both wearing for the wedding, and he’ll ask me for advice, and I’ll seek out his reaction, and I imagine we’ll make a joint decision on, say, what color of tie the groomsmen will wear. But dude: his clothes, his problem.
Then again, maybe Men’s Wearhouse was right after all. Maybe I am the one in charge here. Because “my groom” didn’t even get to see that flyer offer.
I threw it out on his behalf.
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* Emphasis mine.
** Heh. I’ll bet they drive Dodge Chargers.
Dude – our favorite commercial is from Men’s Wearhouse where they say, “When everyone’s looking at her, she’ll be looking at you, so make sure you look your best.” Then they suggest you come rent (or buy, we’re not sure) one of their tuxes – for $50.
OR the marketing dept has just found its a lot easier to find names and mailing address info for brides than for grooms. Just a slightly less cynical thought. But I still don’t like the phrase “your groom.”
Ha ha, good point, woman. My dude bought a few suits from MW in the past, so they already send him stuff all the time — I just thought it was funny/strange that MY name ended up on this one, esp. since I tend to use an alias when signing up for things. WHERE did you get my information from, people??
Just wait until you have been married over a year and you keep getting the same mailings congratulating you on your engagement and encouraging you to use their services… argh. I got another one, from Tuxedo Junction, today. And for the record, my husband is a musician and owns a tuxedo, but for our wedding, he picked out his own grey suit… which was not rented. Sheesh.
yeah, i agree. very annoying, but I thinking they got your name from some bridal related vendor and didn’t have ‘your groom’s’.
dodge stratus? http://www.hulu.com/watch/3526/saturday-night-live-family-dinner
Ha! This actually did make me laugh. I have to tell ya, I LOVE my fiance. LOVE love him (did you barf yet?) Well…let’s just say he’s not so much into dotting the “i’s” and crossing the “t’s”. He’s a procrastinator. Of the worst kind. Yet, he’s still the raddest dude I know. So anyway…I got one of those mailings (praise God because I would have had no idea where the Eff to get “man stuff” coordinated!) After a couple of weeks of telling my loverboy to go pick out the suits or whatever…he just kept forgetting/putting it off (we’ll never know). So. My ass physically took him there one Saturday. It took like 5 minutes to pick it out all the goods. It was painless.
If I hadn’t of stepped in and gone “Bridal” on him, his buds would have come up with something (and probably worn their own stuff.) And it would have looked just fine. 🙂 But alas…I stepped in. I always do that.
Thankfully my fella doesn’t get offended. He knows.