What to Wear
Groom and groomsmen: buy vs hire
Buy or hire is presented as a value question and it is really a fit question. Hire delivers a garment from a size range, adjusted a little at the ends. Buying delivers a garment that can be altered properly. Which matters depends entirely on how far the wearer sits from the sizes a hire range holds.
What follows is the arithmetic on both routes at published hire prices, the fit rules that decide which is right, and the group-management problem underneath, which is the part that actually causes trouble.
The arithmetic, done honestly
Published morning wear hire runs from around £100 for a two-piece with a waistcoat, with accessories priced individually: a waistcoat at £30, striped trousers at £40, a shirt at £20, a top hat at £30 and a cravat at £10 on one published list. A complete hire assembled from those parts therefore lands well above the headline figure, which is the first thing to understand about hire pricing.
Buying starts higher and behaves differently. An off-the-peg suit that will be worn again is not really a wedding cost at all; a suit bought only for the day is a wedding cost with a resale value attached.
The crossover is usually the wearer. One groom hiring once is straightforwardly cheaper than buying. Five groomsmen hiring complete outfits reaches a total where buying good off-the-peg suits, altered, is comparable, and everybody keeps the suit.
What hire actually includes
Ask for the list in writing, because hire is sold as an outfit and priced as components. Jacket, trousers, waistcoat, shirt, tie or cravat, and shoes are frequently separate lines. So is the fitting, the alteration allowance, the damage waiver and the late return charge.
Fit, which is the real decision
Hire ranges hold standard sizes and adjust at the sleeve and the trouser hem. Within that envelope, hire fits well. Outside it, hire fits like hire, and no amount of choosing a better colour compensates.
The measurements that decide it are the ones that cannot be adjusted on a hire garment: chest against waist drop, shoulder width, and jacket length relative to height. A man whose chest and waist differ from the standard drop is the one for whom buying and altering is worth the money.
The trouser break is the detail that reads most on a photograph, and it is the one most often left as it arrives. A hire trouser hemmed to the shoe being worn looks bought; the same trouser puddling on the floor looks hired from across a room.
The approach by budget
Hire the groom, let the party wear their own
The cheapest arrangement that looks deliberate is to dress the groom properly and give the party a specification rather than a garment: navy suit, white shirt, a named tie. Most men own a navy suit, and the ones who do not can hire a single item cheaply.
Specify precisely and centrally, because “smart, navy” produces five different navies. Name the shade and, if it matters, provide the ties, which is the cheapest way to make a group read as a group.
The free improvement is hemming. Trousers hemmed to the actual shoes, on every man in the party, does more for the photographs than anything else available at this budget.
See how hire is actually priced, component by component
Some UK outfitters publish their hire prices per item rather than as a package, which is the clearest way to see what a complete outfit really costs.
Read a published hire price listHire the party, buy for the groom
This is the arrangement that suits most weddings. The party hires from one supplier so everything matches exactly, and the groom buys a suit that fits him properly and gets worn again.
Hiring from one supplier is the important half. Five men hiring separately, even from the same chain, can produce five slightly different garments across a fabric run, and it is the sort of difference that only appears in photographs.
Book the fittings together and early. Hire stock is finite, popular sizes go first in the summer, and a party fitted in the final fortnight takes what is left.
Made to measure, ordered early
Made-to-measure runs eight to twelve weeks and produces the only genuinely correct fit available, which is worth it for anyone whose proportions sit outside standard sizing.
At this level the money is better in the making than in the fabric. A mid-weight wool cut properly outperforms a luxury cloth cut approximately, and it is more comfortable across fourteen hours.
Where the spend stops paying is on the party. Made-to-measure for five groomsmen who will wear the suit once is a large sum for a marginal improvement over well-hired and properly hemmed.
What actually makes the difference
- Hemming the trousers to the shoes. The single detail that separates a hired look from a bought one, and it is usually included.
- One supplier for the whole party. It removes the fabric and shade variation that only shows up in photographs.
- The shoulder fit. The one measurement that cannot be corrected afterwards, on hired or bought.
- Booking fittings early. Hire stock in common sizes goes first through the summer.
- Specifying centrally. A named garment and colour, or provided ties, rather than an instruction everybody interprets.
Common mistakes
Comparing a hire headline with a purchase price
Hire is quoted as a starting figure and priced as components, so the comparison is against an outfit that does not exist yet.
Instead: price the complete hired outfit, item by item, then compare.
Leaving the party to organise themselves
It feels considerate and it produces five interpretations, discovered on the morning.
Instead: book one supplier, one fabric, one appointment window, and confirm each fitting yourself.
Fitting months early and not again
Bodies change over a year, and a fitting taken at booking is a measurement rather than a fit.
Instead: confirm measurements again in the final month, which hire suppliers expect.
Forgetting the return
Hire ends with a deadline and a late fee, and the day after a wedding is when nobody is thinking about it.
Instead: name one person, not the couple, to return everything, and check the deadline at booking.
Choosing a three-piece for a July wedding
It looks right in the shop in March and is worn in a warm room for fourteen hours in July.
Instead: choose lightweight cloth, and treat the waistcoat as optional after the ceremony.
What hire actually costs
The list below is published per item rather than as a package, which is unusually clear for the trade and shows how a complete outfit assembles.
| What it buys | Published price | Source | Captured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black two-piece morning suit with grey waistcoat, hire | £100.00 | Shepherd & Woodward, South East England | 13 Aug 2026 |
| Grey two-piece morning suit with grey waistcoat, hire | £125.00 | Shepherd & Woodward, South East England | 13 Aug 2026 |
| Grey waistcoat on its own, hire | £30.00 | Shepherd & Woodward, South East England | 13 Aug 2026 |
| Morning wear striped trousers, hire | £40.00 | Shepherd & Woodward, South East England | 13 Aug 2026 |
| Shirt, standard or wing collar, hire | £20.00 | Shepherd & Woodward, South East England | 13 Aug 2026 |
| Top hat, grey or black, hire | £30.00 | Shepherd & Woodward, South East England | 13 Aug 2026 |
| Cravat, hire | £10.00 | Shepherd & Woodward, South East England | 13 Aug 2026 |
Every figure above is a price the supplier publishes openly on its own website, captured on the date shown. Published prices change, they often exclude VAT, delivery and setup, and they are not a quote. Treat them as a guide to the shape of the market, then confirm anything you are relying on directly with the supplier.
Sample: 1 outfitter, in South East England, captured August 2026. Treat this as a regional guide from a single published list rather than a UK-wide range; most hire is quoted rather than published.
Assemble a complete outfit from those rows and the point is clear. A grey morning suit with waistcoat at £125, plus a shirt at £20, a cravat at £10 and a top hat at £30, reaches £185 for one man. Five of them is £925, which is the number to hold against buying good off-the-peg suits that everybody keeps.
Most menswear hire is quoted rather than published, so across the trade the position is price on application. Ask for the price per item rather than for a package figure, because that is the only way to see what an accessory is really adding.