Buying a wedding suit: the 11 best tips for making the right choice
Index wedding suit buying tips:
1. Be on time when buying/choosing your wedding suit.
2. Realize that you have to choose at some point and that not choosing is also a choice.
3. Visit tailors/stores in real life.
4. Create a mood board for your wedding suit.
5. Don't make yourself invisible / unrecognizable with your wedding suit.
6. The price of a wedding suit: Budget wedding suit.
7. Coordinate your wedding suit with your partner.
8. Theme weddings: A tailor-made suit is a must.
9. The location.
10. Choosing a wedding suit: Who do you bring or not?
11. The fabric or fabrics of your wedding suit.
Tips for buying your wedding suit: this way you will be 100% successful
Buying your wedding suit means making a choice, which sounds easier than it is. A world of choices for the groom that can be quite overwhelming.
Good preparation is more than half the battle and makes choosing your wedding suit easier.
Do you choose a tailor-made suit, brand suit, which fabric do you choose for your wedding suit, which wedding suit model will you choose? There are a lot of options for your wedding suit. We will help you make the choice of purchasing your wedding suit easier.
If the dress code is BlackTie, you can of course also choose to get married in a Jacquet or Tuxedo.
As an expert in the field of wedding suits, I would like to share with you my 11 best tips on the basis of which we have created hundreds of wedding suits.
Start choosing a wedding suit well in advance. Our advice is 6 to 3 months before the wedding. It takes time to clarify your wishes and you often have to really think and/or discuss this. A suit will also have to be made or delivered and this takes longer with the current logistics, read energy crises.
Also, after the Corona period, there are simply fewer suppliers who also keep less stock. By starting on time with your choices for your wedding suit, you are not only better prepared, but you can also take action if something unexpectedly goes wrong during the making or delivery.
Don't drive yourself crazy, you're getting married so you're already crazy enough. :) And enjoy the ride. Many grooms keep running up and down between literally all kinds of shops until the last minute and then run out of time, which ultimately means they are not happy with their choice and create a lot of stress for themselves and their partner.
Working towards your wedding day with irritation and then wearing a wedding suit that is not really who you are and that does not make your partner happy is not wise. If you are concerned about your weight, buy or have a wedding suit made that takes this into account.
A tailor-made suit is always adjusted during fitting and if it is well made there is always extra space on the seams so that it can be made wider, narrower, longer or shorter. At least if it is made bespoke, this is usually not the case with made-to-measure suits. Read more about the differences here. It is better to buy a good wedding suit off the rack that is slightly too large and then have it adjusted by a tailor.
What are the differences between Made-to-Measure and Bespoke Tailoring?
This way you can meet the people who can help you and see if there is the right click. You have to be able to trust them and you have to understand each other, just like a 'marriage'. Always make an appointment so that there is time and attention for your wedding suit wishes and you are not distracted. This way you make better choices for your wedding suit and get more value for your money.
Be real is a key factor and accept who you are and what you look like. Make a choice that accentuates your strong natural features and camouflages your perhaps lesser ones. A good advisor can provide a world of experience and help you make your wedding suit choices consciously and wisely. The orientation for a wedding suit can easily take 60 minutes or more, and haste is rarely good.
You use a wedding suit mood board to communicate and visualize your ideas. Pinterest and Instagram are good sources to get inspiration for your wedding suit. Be careful that images you see online are often heavily edited and styled, so-called styled shoots. This can give you unrealistic expectations.
The BigMac in real life is less than the one in the advertisement, so to speak. :) In particular, grooms often forget the factor of fit and drape (how your clothes fall) and fabric properties.
A wedding suit mood board is extremely helpful in conveying a feeling or appearance. Then get good advice about the reality involved in wearing such a suit.
A nice anecdote from practice is that a corpulent customer who was short in stature brought a visual of Hugh Jackman / Wolverine and wanted to have that exact suit made. We got to work and the gentleman was furious when trying it on. Why? With that suit he should now look exactly like this trained Hollywood actor, which is quite difficult when you weigh 200kg. I've never heard a woman laugh at her husband so loudly.
Your wedding suit should ensure that you are the center of attention and also complement your partner's wedding clothes without outshining each other. Unfortunately, we often see that the wedding suit stands out more than the groom who wears it and the partner almost disappears in the riot of colours and too busy, striking accessories.
Colour and balance are the magic words here and less is more. You and your husband should be the focus of attention, not the clothes. So make sure you have a model, style and colour that compliments you and you as a couple.
Wedding Suit Tip: The color of the best man's suit should clearly be different from that of the groom.
Cheap is expensive and quality and craftsmanship cost money when you want a really good wedding suit. The costs of a wedding suit mainly depend on the method of manufacture, materials, finish and the expertise and time of the people who help you. A bespoke suit is of course more personal and more expensive than a 13 in a dozen in size xyz with a nice colour.
Of course everyone has a budget, but what do you base this on and what do you want in return? Perhaps even more important questions when purchasing a wedding suit? In particular, consider whether you are going to wear the wedding suit purely at the wedding or whether you are looking for something that you can wear afterwards. Whether as a suit or to be able to wear the jacket, trousers and, if desired, waistcoat separately? And what do you want in terms of fabric? Good fabrics cost money, but then you also have something that you really enjoy.
If you are not paying for your wedding suit yourself, but if it is a gift from your parents, for example, discuss your wishes and budgetary options well in advance. This way you can be informed in a relaxing way and indicate what your wishes and interests are for your wedding suit, and the tailor or employee can clearly indicate to you what and why your wishes are and are not possible. This way you get the clearest picture and advice and that prevents bad purchases.
Your wedding suit is important, but so is that of your partner. So all the better if they reinforce and complement each other. This way you can literally spread your story and deliver a beautiful thematic message. So be sure to sit down seriously with your future partner to discuss his/her wishes for you, the wedding suit mood board can help with this.
You don't want to expect that when you see each other for the first time during the wedding, you don't like each other's wedding outfit.
Always try to take a piece of fabric from your partner's dress or outfit with you. The supplier, cutter or tailor of your partner's wedding clothes can of course also contact yours so that wishes and often photos can be exchanged. This way you ensure a beautiful unity.
You can see an increasing variety in weddings in terms of themes and atmosphere. The list of wedding themes is endless: From classic to casual weddings and from Bohemian, Festival to Vintage and Retro weddings. Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter Weddings. And all conceivable color themes.
You can also play with your wedding suit to make it match your desired atmosphere and appearance. Customized suits in particular offer the most options because they have more fabric and model options than the ones you buy in the store.
Do you really want complete freedom in the style of your wedding suit? Then have your wedding suit made bespoke.
All factors that are part of your wedding suit are covered and tailored to your wedding theme. The clothing is made purely to your measurements in the most beautiful traditional way. You have complete freedom in models and detail options, so that waistcoat from Peaky Blinders can also be made.
This way you can play the leading role in your wedding film with your bespoke-made wedding suit. You have an unlimited choice of fabrics, colours, motifs, patterns and structures. This makes your wedding suit even more personal and special.
Another advantage of a bespoke-made wedding suit is that there are one or more fittings, so you can always adjust sizes for an even better fit of your wedding suit. You can also put your mood board to good use here.
A wedding suit should match your partner's clothing, your theme, but also the location. A yellow striped suit may be less charming for a wedding in a castle. But also think about the weather if you have a destination wedding. A heavy flannel suit is less suitable for a beach wedding in Curaçao.
Another point you may encounter is the fashion seasons. You get married in Australia or South Africa in the heat, but then it is winter here and you can come home to a rude awakening because there are simply no suitable fabrics and colors available. You even see this happening with Made-to-Measure wedding suits because that market mainly focuses on local seasons.
A bespoke wedding suit as mentioned in point 7 can offer you a helping hand because fabrics are purchased per customer from weaving mills that maintain a very large collection of fabrics for customers all over the world, regardless of the season.
If you are choosing a wedding suit, you can often benefit from the opinions of people you trust and it is of course also a nice outing to do with your friends and/or family as a prelude to your wedding. Make sure that you discuss all your wishes with them in advance and realize that you will probably be visiting a party that has probably done this many times.
Always let the expert do his job and make use of that experience. So if you have friends who, despite their good intentions, want to be too busy with themselves and always want to do the talking on your behalf, it might be better to give them a different role than helping with your wedding suit.
In our experience, family and friends who dare to be honest and critical of you are more useful when choosing your wedding suit. Don't forget to inform the store or party with whom you have an appointment that you are bringing guests.
Fabrics largely determine the impression you give and the associations you evoke. But there is much more to it than the colour. For example, consider the texture, the shine, the drape, the pattern and the fineness. As humans, we are sensory-oriented beings, so looking and feeling is a must and then you will notice the difference.
Good fabrics cost money, be aware of this, and have a huge impact on wearing comfort, durability and fit. Personally, I don't think this is a factor to save on. You should get married once, so make sure the ingredients of your suit are top notch. A good advisor can explain all the pros and cons of certain types of material.
A fascinating world, believe me.
You see more and more grooms who want to mix and match with their wedding suit and are looking for something different than the classic blue, although there is nothing wrong with that. You will then automatically end up with a bespoke tailor so that you have complete freedom and can choose what you like.
For example, think of a dark blue suit but with a waistcoat in a sand colour. Or a green wedding suit with a burned orange waistcoat underneath.