Who buys the groomsmens suits/bridesmaid dresses?

We are paying for everything. I wouldn't dream of asking my parents or anyone else to pay for anything but they have offered to pay for some things which we have accepted. I wouldn't ask them to pay for thier own dresses and I probably wouldn't let them pay for it unless it was over budget but i'd still put in my share. Anyway, it wouldn't be possible because not everyone would be able to afford it so its not fair to pay for one and not another but that's my opinion. I think eah situation is different though.

In north america it pretty much goes without saying that the groomsmen and bridesmaids buy everything themselves. Wedding shows I've seen in the UK have them all bought by the couple. I read somewhere recently that there's a rising trend in the UK of everyone buying their own outfit, though.

We shall be sorting the suits and the bridesmaids dresses x

Most people here tend to go by the rule - if you decide it, you pay for it.

I think it's incredibly bad form to stipulate what someone wears and then ask them to pay for it!

We're paying for all of our five bridesmaids dresses and shoes and the eight suits for the men.

We're trying to figure out what to do about the men. I'm from the US and as venart says, we usually buy our own dresses - all my maids have. But OH doesn't know what to do about his guys. He's Irish and he can't remember The only good thing for us is that all the guys are wearing their own suits so we'd just have to hire the waistcoats and cravats. Think we'll end up paying for it but we'll see!

We are buying the dresses and hiring the suits.

I agree. I was a groomswoman for my brother and his wife forced me to wear the most hideous dress AND I had to pay for it, and it was almost $400!! But I did it for my brother's sake. As groomswoman for my other brother I was told that I should just go out and find any formal black dress, as long as it wasn't cotton or jersey, so we all wore different dresses, but all in black!

Because of my experience, I'm going to have a few ideas for dresses, but I'm going to take my sister and two friends out shopping to pick their own. They might be different, but each girl will pick something within the colour scheme and we'll just coordinate with accessories to tie them together. I'll be buying their fascinators, but they'll buy their own dresses.

As for the men's suits, though.. I don't know! I think I'll let my OH sort it out, as my maids are all American and Canadian, and his ushers are English.

I've bought the dresses for my BM's but I still gave them a budget and said if it is over that and they all wanted them they would need to pay the difference, which they were all happy, the budget was £200 each. As it turned out the dresses were £159 and they have all told me that they will pay for there alterations. As for the men we are paying for OH, Best Man, OH Son and my brother who is walking me down the aisle.

My view is by us paying we have the final decision and with money tight for people at the moment to ask them to pay this much out for there own for our wedding is unfair especially when CBM and Best Man are partners. Don't get me wrong I've not won the lottery and I am workign to a very tight budget but we did the budget before we bought anything and we are sticking to it, if we manage to save on one thing then it goes towards something else.

OH is paying for the suit hires and I'm paying for the girls dresses and accessories

Our bridesmaids and groomsmen are paying for there own outfits. However they can choose pretty much anything they like. Some of them are wearing dresses they have already.

Everyone knows we are on a tight budget and we were very open from the beginning that we couldn't afford to pay for everything.

Bx

We are buying our bridesmaids dresses and best man's kilt outfit, however our 2 ushers are paying for their own, and one of our pageboys his parents are going to pay for his as part of their contribution (the other is my soon to be stepson so we'll be paying for his).

I know people who have asked their bridesmaids to pay for their own dresses but I feel they do so much to help in the run up to the wedding that they should get something back.

xx

I have bought my Bridesmaid dresses and they will be buying their own shoes and accesories and my OH has ordered the suit hire for the men in the party.

I think as long as i bought the dress then they Bm can buy own shoes and bolero etc as they can choose something they will wear again.

Same with the suits. All in except for the shoes so they will be left to buy their own.