We caught up this week with our owner Chris McGowan to ask him his top 3 tips for anyone considering having their wedding outfits made this year. With a reported 400% increase in wedding demand in 2022, Edinburgh Tailoring Company are anticipating high demand for some of our most popular cloth options, and we’re bringing you our top tips to make sure you look amazing on your wedding day, with your perfect wedding outfit.
Chris’s top tips are:
1) Book an appointment as far in advance as possible.
Think of how far in advance your bride will start the process of choosing her dress. Sure, you may have a few things to discuss in terms of colour schemes, or little touches here and there, but it’s worth starting the inquiry as far in advance as you possibly can. Your tailor will guide you on things like an indicative cost, ideal ordering timescales and (if you have a large wedding party) how to organise everyone and keep the process less stressful. On the other hand, you may already have a clear idea of how you’d like to look. If this is the case, make sure to bring along, or send in advance, any images from Instagram or Pinterest to help your tailor look out the right types of cloth and lining to help you make your choice.
2) Decide on your outfit choice as early as you can.
Time and again, we see people booking a consultation to discuss their favourite outfits in January or February, only to book back in to go ahead with the order around June or July and would you believe it? The cloth they found to be absolutely perfect is now out of stock. It’s worth remembering that we work with merchants and mills that also work with many other tailors and outfitters around the world, and your favourite cloth could be available in February, but out of stock in March. Once you’ve had your consultation, come back to us as quickly as you can to secure your order and we’ll buy your cloth in for you and your party. This ensure you’re not let down and your favourite cloth will be yours for your big day.
As a small aside on the above point, many merchants and mills will re-weave cloth, but often that process can be 8 to 10 weeks, and in some cases longer. Nobody is going to move their wedding to wait on a suit cloth, so we’d like to secure it for you rather than have to wait until it returns into stock.
3) Don’t worry about ordering too early. Worry about leaving it late.
Each year I’ve been working in tailoring, I’ve had appointments with people who open the conversation with “I think I’ve left it a bit late”. I once had a mentor who told me “If you think you’re on time, you’re already late”. Us tailors are not going to be unhappy with anyone who plans ahead. And neither will your bride-to-be. Rest assured that no one wants to be collecting their wedding suit on the day before the ceremony. Wouldn’t you rather it was taken care of weeks ago and hanging in the wardrobe waiting for the big day to arrive? In fact, we’d like to have your orders so early that we’re now offering an additional fitting 3 to 4 weeks before your big day to take care of any late changes. Perhaps you’ve lost more weight than you anticipated, or worked slightly harder at the gym in developing those biceps. Our additional fitting will help you rest easy knowing that we can still help you look amazing ahead of your important day.
