u/MsKardashian

Wow. We are 11 days from the wedding and turns out “just grabbing a shirt” for my groom ISN’T as easy as i thought it would be? I knew from the get go that I know nothing about formal menswear, and neither does my FH (he is a blue collar worker and never has occasion to wear suits). For women’s wear I know what looks cheap, what pitfalls to avoid, what materials are better than others, what tailoring looks better than others, what heel height, what shoe, what cut looks best. I know every little thing and also where to go to get it. But for men? Absolutely no clue. I always thought he would wear his family cufflinks with a French cuff shirt. What do I know about French cuffs? Only whatever I learned from John Hamm on friends and neighbors and mad men. Oh my God, Nordstrom didn’t have French cuff shirts. I thought for sure they would. We went to Kohl’s and Macy’s and the sales people didn’t even know what a French cuff was. We went to Jos A Banks and men’s warehouse and they do obviously have French cuffs because all they do is formal aware, but very very limited options. I thought it would be fine to find a French cuff shirt in a pattern but no – every single one is white.

And then, I see a random Reddit comment when I’m trying to research this, that passingly mentions that you can’t wear French cuffs with slim fit suits. OK! One more thing that I had no clue about and I only learned by accident. What else don’t I know???

I feel really stupid, but I do know how to research things! It’s just that there seems to be so little information out there about menswear in the corners of the Internet that I frequent.

This is honestly just a rant and a vent. I feel so stupid and defeated by menswear.

We're living in a home that my in laws inherited from their parents. The house is paid off, but they obviously pay taxes on it. They want to sell; we want to buy. What are the advantages/disadvantages of:

1. Taking out our own mortgage, and buying it from them the traditional route
2. Buying it directly from them - no loan, just monthly payments of an agreed amount until the appraised value is paid off.

Main concerns - being "tied" to them financially for a long time. Not feeling like we really "own it" because we are paying THEM not the bank. Harder to leave if WE want to sell. There are tax advantages to having a mortgage with a bank, yes? But also if we pay them directly, our interest rate will be low to zero.