I brought my our hard top luggage on the plane and it was fine to go on... I'll look at my measurements of my suitcase when I head back upstairs and let you know our dimensions. I really liked the hard top luggage as it allowed waaaaaaay more space for all of the things we brought down (flowers, decorations, OOT bag things, paper things etc) I just made sure I weighed each carry on before we left - it was a lot of shuffling around between our bags but each one ended up being 22 pounds, which is the allowance. I had one of our friends take one of our carry ons as well, which helped.
As far as the men's outfits, I just put them behind my dress in the garment bag. I had two of the men's outfits and a few of my silk dresses and it was fine, they didn't even check.