Picture this: it's 6 weeks before you're wedding, and you feel pretty prepared. Venue, check. Food, check. Booze, check. Suit, check....or so you thought. Your fiancé tells you out of nowhere, "I don't really like the color of the suit you're getting anymore." Confidence in your look for the big day? Shattered, and you are left scrambling in the rubble trying to find anything to fit the new vision in your significant other's mind. No off-the-rack place seems to have the look, and you turn to custom suiting as a last ditch effort.

A "Best custom suits in Chicago" Google search provides you with options, with one consistent name on the myriad of lists you see, Hall Madden. You send an email, half expecting to be turned down, seeing as a custom suit in a 6 week time frame is monumental, but to your delight, there is light at the end of the tunnel, as a friendly Kiyoshi replies, "we can do it." Ecstatic because of the too-good-to-be-true news, you can't help but wonder, what's the catch? It's probably going to be very expensive, especially given my situation. Let me just say, this was not the case at all, and Kiyoshi was as friendly, professional, and honest in person as he was in that email.

From the first conversation, Kiyoshi was ready to get things rolling, and asked me questions about the look I was trying to achieve. He not only offered me my options and provided insight on each, but also provided me with helpful advice and knowledge on questions I had about the process and the suit/tuxedo (ended up going with a tux). After this first meeting, I decided to go all in on Hall Madden, and he got to work.

The fitting was first, and Kiyoshi demonstrated his expertise right off the bat by not only showing me the different places that he was going to have altered to fit my physique, but also explained why off-the-rack suits fit me the way they did. I even learned that I naturally have my right shoulder lower than my left due to me being right-handed, which I never knew! Aftet the fitting, I got a chance to pick out everything about my tux, from the outer color and inner lining color (obviously, since my fiancé needed to put her stamp of approval), to the lapels, to the color of the jetted pockets (I even chose to have it monogrammed to boot). Feeling once again confident, I waited anxiously for the suit to come in, and in 4 weeks it did. For the final fitting, some small alterations were still needed, but got done quickly and in time for the wedding. The end result was stunning.

The final Burgundy tuxedo with black satin lapels was one worthy of being next to my beautiful wife's ivory A-line wedding dress with lace details. I walked down the aisle with her, arm in arm and my head held high, as I knew I looked damn good. Of course, the compliments came as is probably customary to do on someone's wedding day, but something tells me these were genuine.

To sum, my wedding day would not have been as special had Hall Madden not been a part of it. They brought a vision to life, and made me feel like I was the sharpest dressed guy in the room, which I totally was. Thank you Kiyoshi for giving me my groove back!