Buying suits as oppose to hiring

We are on a very low budget so all the ushers etc offered to buy /wear their own suits ( will all be grey ). My partner obviously wanted a new suit, We looked everywhere and did look in to hiring but it is expensive. We was really lucky and got a lovely one in a Next sale Worked out perfect. I am not a fan of hired suits x

Yes I did this at my first wedding. We only had 2 others to buy so wasn't too bad.

This time we're on a tight budget so will be asking the guys to wear their own suits (will be mixed colours) and we'll provide a tie / possible a shirt. A friend of mine got married a few years ago and picked a M&S shirt and tie combo and asked all the guys to buy (was £20) which they were all happy to do

Yes we are doing this. I had a look in the January sales this year and found some great suits at really good prices, so we're going to get OH's in the sales after Christmas (wedding is in August). It means he'll get a decent suit that he can keep afterwards, for probably less than £100. We've got four best men (yes, four!) and we're just telling them to wear whatever suits they have and we'll just make sure they all wear buttonholes to bring it all together. I know they're probably not going to match each other and both dads will be buying their own suits (or can wear ones they have) but we're having a really relaxed day so we don't really mind.

Defo check out the sales after Christmas if you can wait til then.

We are asking the groom's party to provide their own suits and will be buying OH's. We are only asking that they be grey and are not insisting that they all match, so hopefully most of the men will already have a grey suit anyway ;-)

We don't mind if the suits don't match at our wedding and we have asked for everyone to provide their own as we are on a tight budget, although we may provide them all with a blue tie to go with the colour scheme.My H2B's suit was bought from Matalan last weekend, it's a three piece suit in a drak grey slim cut. The suit plus a shirt was under £70 and he looks soooo handsome in it, can't wait to see him in it on the day.

Thank you everyone for your replies. I think that I agree that it wouldn't be fair to ask them to pay towards the suit if we are choosing them. We could ask them to wear their own, but 2 of them don't wear suits so would have to buy one in this case. So I think we will buy the suit and cravats and ask them to wear their own shirt and shoes. Think that's reasonable? Plus I've just got 5 bridesmaid dresses for £64 so that frees up some of the budget

Hi Katianne,

Having come across your post on this board, I thought it might be helpful to share our advice that we provide to other couples who face similar predicaments.

We are a menswear company based in Manchester and we specialise in providing on-trend suits. Due to the nature of our offering, our suits are purchase only (we are looking to introduce a hire service for those seeking traditional tails).

We have noticed a large increase in grooms opting for contemporary, tailored suits as they want a suit they can wear not only for a wedding, but also for other occasions. We also find that when it comes to the fitting for suits, men are wanting a suit that is tailored to their size and complements their shape; this is something our in-house tailor is able to accommodate.

K.M. Lowry / Kurt Muller
The Lowry Designer Outlet
Salford Quays
M50 3AH

T : ****
E : *******@*******.**.**
W: www.kmlowry.co.uk

We only had 4 suits to get but bought and not hired and then they kept them instead of buying them 'the usual' that they own already and don't use (tankard, hip flask, cufflinks, tie pin etc etc)

Can anyone give me an idea of how much it costs to rent a suit as my other half can't make up his mind. He already has a nice suit he purchased for interviews recently so isn't that bothered about getting a new one. but he thinks that if its gonna be close to £100 then he might as well buy one. If any one lives in the north east for a better idea of prices in the area that would be appreciated to.

Thanks

I've had this debate with oh. I personally don't want to buy the suits as it's a lot of money, so I suggested we ask all the other men to wear their own suits, but oh wants them all to match. At his brothers wedding oh was best man and bought his own suit, as did his dad so I suggested they do this for out wedding. (I'd still buy my dad's as he is contributing loads to the wedding anyway), but oh isn't keen on this either! Therefore I will probably go down the hire route. Works out about £100 each, which is the same as the bm dresses so oh can't say I'm being 'unfair'! If I can find a suit for £100 I would probably buy.

It's generally around the £100 mark give or take. It really depends what style and extras you want. But for jacket, trousers, tie/cravat, shirt, waistcoat, cufflinks, hankerchief it'll be around £90 - £100. Add around £15 if you want shoes.

Originally we were going to hire suits and all those that needed them were paying for themselves (small budget and they offered) now though we've decided that OH is going to buy his suit from Next (£79) and the others could wear their own or buy one themselves. They have all said that they want to wear the same so will be buying the same suit.

The shirts, waistcoats and cravats we're going to hire from Moss Bros for £40.

It works out £20 more expensive than hiring the lot but everyone gets a suit to keep.

I'm currently discussing this with the OH and his dad - his parents are being very traditional and have offered to pay for the suits, which we really appreciate, however at £120 per suit to hire, I would rather go to a high street shop and buy suits for the same price - at least then there is something to keep at the end of it! However his dad is insisting (and I mean refusing to discuss it) to buy suits as "he already has plenty". So far I have been biting my tongue as they are paying and I don't feel like I can say anything, but I just think the money would be better spent on something the men can keep rather than something which is going back to a hire shop! Any thoughts/advice? Xx

We have also bought suits for the guys (8 in total). My OH and I really aren't fans of the traditional pin striped tails look and from past experience, hired suits look really awkward on people, and OH has never felt comfortable in a hired suit. As there wasn't much in the cost, that's why we opted to buy. However, I will pass on some experience of buying, as we've had a bit of a nightmare. We bought them all from Topman (who quite often send out 20% off offers via email so it's wise to sign up to their mailing list). We asked everyone what size they needed and bought based on that information. For 8 people, all 3 piece suits, there were probably 2 items of clothing that actually fit! They are slim fitting suits, but boy do they mean slim! If you do buy, it might be wise to get people to try a similar style on first if they can so that you can order more accurately. We had to send loads back, exchange in shops etc, and to add to the pain, they were discontinuing the suit!

We bought them in November and the wedding is next week….and now we're dealing with some weight issues for some of the ushers! Luckily, it's only the waistcoats that have proven a little snug for those who've put weight on, and they have been adjusted at the sides by tailors.

We're still glad that we have bought the suits, and it's a very nice (and rather pricey!) gift for everyone (OH's dad paid for his own which was nice) but you do need to make sure you get it right!

Hello Mrsmooretobe,

Having come across your post on Hitched, I thought I would offer some advice in relation to your dilemma about convincing the soon to be father in law to buy the wedding suits as oppose to hire.

We offer a suit purchase service and have found that this generally works well for the wedding party; not only do they have matching suits but also a small token to remember the big day. We are able to provide a competitive price and with our current offer of "buy one suit get another half price", the total cost per suit can work out to be £150 each, which is similar to the cost of formal hire.

We also find that when it comes to the fitting for suits, men are wanting a suit that is tailored to their size and complements their shape; this is something our in-house tailor is able to accommodate and something not usually available when opting for a hire service. With the gents changing sizes up t the wedding day (either gaining/losing weight) you can remind him how important it is to ensure the fit is correct. There's no point in having a lovely suit if it hangs like a tent on the gents.

I hope this has been helpful for you and if you do have any questions in relation to suit purchasing please do get in touch.

Many thanks,

Vincent

Could your FFIL not hire a suit and the rest of the men have the same suit bought for them? That way everyone's matching and FFIL doesn't have to have another suit taking up space after the wedding.

I'm totally on board with you there KyleighB.

About a month ago we also bought a set of the £79 Next grey suits (£110 I think, when you add in the waistcoats to make it a 3-piece). Shirts were £20 each - which we got as knew some of the guys wouldn't own the cufflink-style of shirt. The ties we got were about £8 each. Cufflinks a couple of quid off eBay, en route from China! We've asked the guys to wear their own black shoes. So, you're talking £140 per outfit - probably slightly more than hiring, but at least you have 'stuff' at the end of the day, rather than nothing to show for the £500+ that will have been paid out.

We were looking for something a bit modern, rather than traditional wedding attire, which is why we looked around for slim-fit suits. However the great thing about Next suits was that you can mix-and-match a bit with the cut of the clothes on their website. Within the same suit, a couple of the larger men got regular-fit suit jackets and shirts, whilst the groom and the other groomsmen got slim-fit. Someone even got a slim-fit jacket, and regular style trousers, as doesn't like the 'skinny jeans' look on men.

As some other people were asking about whether the bride/groom need to pay, I'll also add my opinion on that! I feel that if you are telling someone what to wear, in order to make them match (bridesmaid dresses / groomsmen suits), then you need to pay for it. It doesn't matter whether it's a suit/dress they will be able to wear loads afterwards, or not at all. Making it your expense gives you an element of control over what they wear.

If you're not paying, let them wear what they want. There is nothing wrong with each guy in their own suits. It can look pretty damn good to have one navy, one black, on grey etc too - especially if the groomsmen are all quite snazzy dressers. But, you have to have a think about how this might look if you have 2 younger guys wearing modern suits, and then an older groomsmen bringing out a traditional regular fit business suit. Just saying.

Broganj that's not something I'd thought about before - I'm hoping that this could be a compromise - luckily I still have a few months to discuss this with him! Thanks for your reply!x Vincent - thanks for that info too - could be worth looking at!

We are buying from Cad and the Dandy. Mainly because OH is looking for a tweed slim suit. We see this as similar to buying the bridesmaid dresses, so wouldn't expect any of his friends to chip in.

I think the general rule is probably that if you want any of the men in a specific suit you 'should' pay for it or if they don't own a suit that fits. I wouldn't want anyone to feel like they should spend their hard earned money on a specific suit that they may never wear again. But... I suppose that's because my boyfriend and his friends only wear suits to weddings and funeral and they're both quite infrequent.

On the topman note whoever said that I totally agree! There was a great suit we loved but you could clearly see mr sofa's balls even though the trousers got everywhere else. He got a slim fit blue one from next in the end.