Cost of morning suit hire

tomhann187_2

Hello all

We've been to the local suit hire shop today (national company - unsure if I can name it) and we've been quoted £1100 to hire 8 adults' and one child's suit package. This is for a navy blue tailcoat, navy stripe trousers, waistcoat, hanky, cravat, shirt and shoes (and accidental damage cover).

This is way over our budget. We were thinking of asking people to pay for (or contribute to) the cost of their suits, but we feel rather uneasy asking this, especially as we've paid for the bridesmaids and it may look unfair.

What are other people paying? Does anyone have any shops they reccommend? We need a national company really as we have people in the wedding party from all over the country and they can't all get to us for measuring.

There's an online-only company that is really cheap (£57 per person), but I'm concerned that we have to send measurements off and am worried that we may get something wrong and not be able to exchange it in time.

Any advice/info/tips welcome!

Silaqui

Sounds about right to be honest, we're hiring 4 adult suits (grey tails, shirts, waistcoats, trousers, shoes and cravats) and it's costing about 350. This is a local company (Leicester, if it's any good) but they have contacts around the country so my OH's dad and brother (who live far away) are able to go to a local shop for their first fitting.

Do you really need 8 suits? I can't imagine who is going to be wearing them all? Groom, best man, 2 dads who's the rest? Could the other 4 possibly wear their own suits to keep costs down?

I wouldn't make them contribute - my thought is that if you are telling people what to wear, you have to pay for it. I got around this by letting my bridesmaid choose her own dress, basically told her anything as long as it's green or blue - she picked and paid and that decided the colour scheme! OH is less easygoing hence needing 4 suits lol.

x

tomhann187_2

Thanks for the reply.

We have groom, three (yes, three :eek: ) best men, two dads, two ushers and a page boy

I do actually agree with you though about not asking them to pay - it doesn't sit right with us.

double_mummy

are you paying for your mums outfits? if not then why pay for dads?

you can buy suits for £50 from asda and add the waistcoat etc which you can get for £20 from amazon still works out at almost £600

how many bridesmaids are you paying for as 5 male attendants will cost more than if you have 2 BMs (for example)

no help other than that sorry x

PinkPrincess83

I dont know what my oh has actually chosen, but for him and 2 others for suit hire, shirt cravat and hanky it has cost him £300. Have you shopped around? Some places (such as Moss Bros) do a groom goes free deal if you order over a certain number of suits.

Also- how much extra is it costing you for the shoes? My opinion is that most men own a decent pair of black shoes, so if most the men have nice shoes you could save pennies there.

Its also worth going into smaller stores- the independent suit hire place near me actually has links with other stores across the country, so its worth enquiring whether they have any links with other shops.

I personally think suit hire can be done for around £100 each so I definately think you could get a better deal. Also, do you all have to have tailcoats? You may find this may be adding to the cost, so have you thought that maybe some could have the tailcoats and then rest could have a morning suit, which may be cheaper to hire?

Hollie84

My OH has hired his,my dad and best mans for £89 a piece,thats trousers,shirt,jacket,waistcoat and cravat

BabyBoots

This does sound expensive - I'm not sure if it's the shoes pushing the price up? I would expect the full shebang without shoes to cost £100 per adult or £80 per child, with one person free if you have 5 or more, so in your case around £780.

While I agree it is customary to pay for your friends/family's suit hire, I think it is reasonable for each of them to provide their own shoes. A tailcoat they might never wear again, but most people ought to be able to find a use for a pair of smart shoes at point! If they really don't have any or want to buy some, most people could borrow a pair at a push.

nuatha

Have you tried pricing buying second hand ex wedding hire on ebay?
Buy the sizes you need and sell them on afterwards to recoup most of the costs. Ask the group to wear their own black polished shoes (most if not all are likely to have something suitable) and they will be a lot more comfortable than in hire shoes.
I have three full sets of morning dress and I don't think any of them cost me as much as £100. One set, was £50 for coat and trousers (ex hire looked new), £12.50 for waistcoat (new) shirt £8 (new) silk cravat £10 (new) so £80.50 excluding shoes. Cravats are simple to make and could possibly be made from the same material as the dress for coordination.

Faith177

We hired 8 suits waistcoats & cravats from Moss Bros and it came to £800 or there abouts

We are paying as I feel that if you are asking people to be part of you're wedding then the cost is your responsibility but I appreciate some people don't have this luxury so try eBay and Supermarkets for great deals

Though on say that I am in two minds about paying for 2 of the suits as they are for the OH brother's and when we asked them to be ushers they refused (for stupid reasons tbf) so the OH hired them to save his mum (who has done NOTHING for the wedding) the hassle of finding suits grrrrrr

MrsShawToBe

Ours are costing £79 each for the full suit, shirt, cravat and waistcoat and hanky from Greenwoods.

But Moss Bros are doing a deal on some waistcoast, £30 each or 2 for £50. And matalan have morning suits for £65 in dark grey, trousers and jacket. Jacket is £50 on its own. We would have done it this way but its all sorted with Greenwoods now and mum can't be bothered messing around.

We have got 2 waistcoats from Moss Bros though, and they are stunning.

Mupette

http://www.formallyyours.co.uk/

We are hoping to hire from this place, hope this helps