Who should pay for suit hire

Me and my OH are paying for everything, suits included. My mum wanted to buy my dress, and my auntie and uncle are buying the cake as our gift which was their choice.

I am not sure my OH would have felt comfortable asking his men for a contribution, but I suppose it is entirely up to you and him. Recent weddings I have been to I know that the men had suits hired for them, cufflinks socks etc as gifts and just wore their own shoes. We are paying for my bridesman's suit too, but it would have been the same if I would have had maids.

We paid for everything - our choice, we pay.

To be perfectly honest with you I wouldn't ask them to pay anything if you are telling them what to wear. We paid for suit hire for Mr S, the dads and 2 of the ushers. 1 of the ushers wanted to wear a kilt and the hire was a lot more, so we said we would pay the same amount towards it as we were paying for the others, and he could stump up the rest if he had his heart set on it.

Are you paying for your bridesmaids dresses?

We are paying for everything we have 5 suits and because i bought my dress there, they gave us 20% off, some have said they dont need shoes so save another £23 there but it's our choice in fact FOG and my grandad dont really want to wear them but we do so they will for us but if budget hadnt permitted i would have let them have their own way if we really couldnt have afforded it, however we have 2 ushers (teenagers) who we were not originally having, that my aunt said she wanted to have a job so she is buying normal suits for them to wear and getting cravats in our colours x

We paid for all 9 of the mens suits, i personally feel that if you want them to be a part of your wedding party then you should foot the bill. like i said that is my personal opinion, my hubby was asked to pay for his suit for a wedding he was an usher, which we did no problem but on principle we took the cost of this off their gift money, very petty but he was usher for us and we paid for everything.

We've asked our groomsmen to put £35 each towards the cost of their suits, my bridesmaids are doing the same and everyone seems quite happy with that - my dad has said he'll pay the full hire cost for his to help us out x

Hi Sarah

We are asking all the men involved to pay for their suit hire (minus deposits). We just dont have a large budget so that money can go towards being able to have other things etc, they have all agreed and are happy to do so.

I paid for the suit hire. We had 5 suits total, and mine was "free". As my best man is out of work, and my son is only 11, I couldn't ask them to pay... and then is was only our Dads.

My Dad is retired, and TBH, I don't know what I would have done if we were not able to pay for these - it may have been a matter of asking the guys to simply wear a black suit.

We're paying for all 8 suits. If we're choosing what people wear, then we pay.

Hiya,

We're paying for all the suit hire and also the bridesmaids. My feelings are that we have asked them to be part of our day and are choosing what they wear and I would hate people to be out of pocket and struggle because of us. I was a bridesmaid for a friend a few years back when I was at uni and had to pay for my own dress, shoes etc and I really struggled to find the money. We are asking the men to wear their own shoes though.

Rachel x

Trying not to take offense

I don't personally feel we are being unreasonable, when my OH was best man for one of his best men and usher for another usher, he paid the suit hire, it seems standard in our circles to do this. We suggested they all wear own suits but as OH is hiring a formal outfit, they want the same matching outfir which we just can't fund. It depends on circumstances I guess, I wish we did have the money to pay for everything, but we just don't. We either have a cheap wedding or none, so friends and relatives are helping us out where possible and we are opting for LOW budget.

It wasn't meant to cause offence. You asked for an opinion and I gave mine, which happens to be if you can't afford to provide ushers/bridesmaids with whatever you want them to have, don't have them. That's my opinion, but I'm not saying it's the right opinion, or the only opinion. Just answering your question!

ETA - I now see you weren't the OP, sorry, but what I said still stands!

There is a great deal of difference between:

1. We are happy for you to wear whatever you want. Oh, you want to hire suits to match the groom? We can't afford that so it's really not necessary. Oh, OK, if you are sure you want to pay here are the details.

2. Here are the suit details. Please go and get yorself measured. Oh, and bring your credit card.

Precisely.

But a good suit pun none the less

I agree, if we were saying 'we expect you to be wearing...' then that would be down to us, but we asked people to be involved but wear own outfits but they have suggested paying to match, and the same with bridesmaids. I asked my maids but said I was just happy for them to be there so they could wear any summery dress (we didnt have a colour at that stage), but they have found a dress they all like and can afford (high street) so are wearing that dress and buying it themselves. They chose it and as they are paying I'm more than happy with that.

A s my reply seems to be in the minority I felt the need to come back and explain our choice.

All our family/friends are happy to see us getting married after 8 years together and haven't taken any offence to contributing towards the day as they know we can't afford anything extravagant - i'm sure they'd rather give £35 and have a gorgeous dress they get to keep than me buying them something cheap and nasty! My bridesmaids offered to pay for their dresses completely but instead I agreed they could give me 1/2 the cost and then keep the dress afterwards which means we can afford to get nicer dresses for them!

As the girls are doing this my OH will be asking the groomsmen to do the same [one of them is my BM's fiance so he's already aware of the situation and the other is my brother] - my dad instantly said he'd pay for the hire of his suit himself and my brother has asked to put some money towards the wedding so we are going to ask if he would mind hiring his own suit instead

I wouldnt want us to ask anyone to pay for anything for the wedding, buts that just us.

If you cant afford to have them all, then why not reduce the numbers of the wedding party ?

You should pay for them all, unless you allow them to wear a suit they already own. The same applies for bridemaids IMO. You can't dictate and then expect others to foot the bill.

Saw this after I posted. Should read the whole thread.

But WSS.

I appear to be in the minority here too, but, our men are paying for their own kilt hire. It's the "done thing" in our circle too. OH has been an usher at a few weddings (one of these men is an usher at ours) and always paid for his own. In general, if the boys are just guests at weddings, they still hire kilts, so us asking for a specific colour won't make any difference to how much they'd have paid out regardless of whether they were part of the wedding party or not, if anything it may be cheaper because we'll be hiring several. Everyone's fine with this, because it's the way it's always been done at all the weddings.

We bought the bridesmaid dresses, but will be selling them again afterwards.

I think this situation is different. Like you say, they'd be paying to hire a kilt as a guest anyway. In non-kilt wearing weddings, most men would wear a suit/shirt/tie they already owned, hence no expense.

Agree with this!