When should I book my wedding suits is a question we are often asked. If you marry in 2020, it’s time to start your wedding suit planning with our handy overview of what you need to do and when!
Our key advice is to make sure you give yourself plenty of time, it just makes planning so much easier. But don’t worry, once you’ve booked your wedding suit hire or bespoke wedding suit with us we’ll manage the process, keeping in touch by email and phone every step of the way. For those of you who are having a mixture of hire suits and bespoke suits read ‘When Should I Book My Wedding Suit Hire’ and ‘When should I book My Bespoke Wedding Suit’ as the process and timescales are a little different.
When Should I Book My Wedding Suit Hire?
In our view it is never too early to book your wedding suit hire, but as a general rule you should to be starting 6 to 12 months before your wedding. Especially if your wedding date is a busy bank holiday weekend or during school holidays. At Whitfield and Ward, to maintain high customer service levels, we limit the number of weddings we cater for each weekend and we’ll stop taking bookings at full capacity! We also like to get all the wedding party measured 3 months before the wedding date so the earlier you start the better.
What’s the Wedding Hire Suit Hire Process?
Style Research
Our team of stylists are so experienced at putting wedding suit looks together, you don’t really need to prepare before your appointment. But if you’d like to do some research first our Instagram @whitfieldandward, Pinterest and our Inspire Me page are a great place to start.
6- 12 Months Before – Your First Consultation
We would always recommend that the bride and groom, or just the best man come to the initial appointment, it works so much better with less people! In our first 1 hour consultation, the focus is on the groom, trying on looks until we find the wedding suit of your dreams. You’ll find it a really enjoyable experience and once you’ve chosen your wedding suit we’ll explore how your groomsmen could look. At Whitfield and Ward we try to create a standout look for the groom suit, with the groomsmen’s look a little pared back.
3 Months Before – Suit Sizing
To ensure we have the right stock in place we like to get everyone measured 3 months before their wedding date. In every size we stock; super slim, slim and regular fit, in a short, regular and long length option. So, unlike a bought, ‘off the peg’ suit we have a huge range of sizing combinations to achieve an amazing fit! A lot of our customers comment that it is the best fitting suit they’ve worn! Our experienced team know the styles and fits to suit individual body shapes and if necessary we can make some additional alterations.
The fitting appointment can be done as; a single booking, with the whole party, lads and Dads separately or as many individual appointments as you need. At this stage some couples like to have a separate styling appointment to finalise their choice of ties, waistcoats and accessories.
3 Days Before – Suit Collection
Your wedding suits will be ready to collect 3 days before your wedding so there is ample time to try on and check everything is ok! All the wedding party can come to try on and collect their suits but usually the groom collects all the suits. It’s so important that the groom attends the collection, so we can dress him one last time and check that he looks amazing!
When should I book My Bespoke Wedding Suit?
Style Research
Buying a bespoke suit may be a once in a lifetime experience so it’s good to do a little research first. Our Instagram @whitfieldandward, Pinterest and our Inspire Me page are a great place to look. If you don’t get the time, don’t worry, our Personal Tailors have made thousands of bespoke wedding suits and will be on hand to help you create your suit.
6 – 4 months Before – Your First Consultation
We’d recommend starting to look for your bespoke wedding suit 6 – 4 months before your wedding. However, if you plan to have hire suits as well, you may need to start a little earlier, see the wedding hire suit section above.
A suit can be made in 4 – 6 weeks from when you order it but we’d recommend taking more time to make sure you enjoy every bit of the process.
4 – 2 months Before – Suit Design and Measurement
Ideally you should design and be measured for your suit 4 months before your wedding date but it can be done 8-6 weeks before depending on the time of year. Your suit design will take 1 -2 hours and we’ll make sure it’s an amazing experience. Dressed in a sample suit, to help you visualise your ideas, we will take you through the design process step-by-step. We’ll carefully explain the design options available for each garment and guide you through each decision. In this appointment we take full body measurements to create a perfect fit. At this point, we can also consider how to coordinate your look with your hire suits if you’re planning to having them.
1 Month Before – Final fittings and collection
We like to make sure your made-to-measure or bespoke suit is ready for your first fit one month before with final fit and collection a few days after.
So, what’s next? The most important thing is to get the ball rolling and book your first consultation. You can get in touch via email click here or give us a call on 01625 536 545 . We’d be happy to answer any questions you may have and book you in for an appointment.
