Turn me into the belle of the ball

[TopHatAssassin]

Short version: I'm going to the Althouse High prom and need to look good for the girl. How do I look sexy and play the part of the gentleman?Long version:

Gentlemen of NPF (and ladies too, your input is always valued), I come before you a man with greater aspirations of dapperness and handsome-osity. You see, on April 9th I will be attending my faculty's grad formal. All the cool teacher candidates will be there, the girl of my dreams included (I'm going with her, actually). What I want to do is cut a striking figure in both dress and demeanour. Given my upbringing, proper manners are pretty much second nature, so I'm not too worried about that. It's the dress that concerns me.

I have, in my closet: a grey fedora, a lavishly-decorated top hat, a vest that fits me (yet is a relic from my late childhood, so I don't know if it fits fits me), a number of ties, and a white dress shirt that requires cufflinks (which I also have).

I plan to hit up a local men's store to get anything else I require, but that's the trouble. I don't quite know how to look dapper and suave, so I don't know what to look for in order to do so. I'm a jeans-and-t-shirt kinda guy on any given day, with shorts standing in during the summer months. I have an amorphous beard, the shape of which never seems to match the rest of my face and works in tandem with my hair (which needs a trim) to throw everything off. I also have this terrible tendency to lean toward extravagance and go overboard (it's the latent showman in me), but I will not be doing that for this function as it would probably be an embarassment to my ladyfriend or some kind of hindrance to my totally gettin' with her (probably both!)

So, I need help. Gentlemen, how do I bring sexy back?


NOTE BESIDE: I should mention that she has brought up the idea (and is totally down with) coordinating outfits. There are three of us: myself, the lady, and a buddy of ours from the faculty (he and I are total bros). I need to see if she has any ideas, but if nothing comes up soon I'm flying solo in the outfit department. She sounded excited when I mentioned myself dressing up as a pimp, so I'm not sure how to go from there. :P

Also, some background info on her, I guess. She knows I'm into her (or should at least, when I explicitly told her after she declined my offer to go out). We're still good friends, so she isn't totally offended by me. We spent an awful lot of time together this past semester, so that's strikes me as a good sign. My friend (our third member) knows I'm into her, and he's been trying to help out where he can. I liken him to a very capable aide, but I don't want him doing the legwork. I have to earn this!

I'm chiefly concerned with how to act around her (aside from normally), I suppose. Like, do I get her a corsage? Should I, even though this isn't a date? I kinda want to, but I don't want to scare her off. Do I go to her house rather than have her drive up to mine? She's closer to the formal's location, and I honestly don't mind looking so damn fine on the city bus to meet up with her. Would it be bad form to drop in and potentially make her feel like she has to rush to get ready? Questions abound!

It's just that this whole thing is new to me. I want to do things right. She's really cool and I don't want to mess things up. If I didn't know any better, I'd say I was in love. :P