How Far in Advance Should Groomsmen Order Their Suits?

Here's the short answer: three months before the wedding. That's the timeline we recommend for every wedding party, and it's not arbitrary. A made-to-measure suit needs time — time to cut, time to sew, time to ship, and crucially, time for alterations if anything isn't quite right when it arrives.

Here's what actually happens in those three months. Your measurements go to the tailor. The suit is cut and sewn — this is real garment-making, not pulling something off a rack. It ships to you. You try it on. If the fit needs tweaking (and with a good tailor, it might), you take it to a local alterations tailor. All of that takes weeks, not days.

The timeline, working backwards

Start with the wedding date and count back. Four to six weeks for the suit to arrive. Two weeks of buffer for alterations. Two weeks of buffer for the buffer — because groomsmen are famously bad at sending their measurements on time. That lands you at roughly three months, and honestly, we'd rather you ordered at four.

The groomsman who orders eight weeks out is fine. The groomsman who orders four weeks out is sweating. The groomsman who orders two weeks out is wearing a rental. Don't be the rental.

What about the groom?

If you're the groom, give yourself even more room — four months if you can. You'll want time to live with the suit, wear it around the house, sit in it, make sure it feels like you. The wedding day is long. Your suit should feel like it was always yours.

A suit ordered in a panic is a suit you'll remember panicking about. A suit ordered with time to spare is just… your suit.

One more thing: if you're coordinating a whole party, appoint one person to chase measurements. Not the groom — he has enough to think about. The best man, ideally. Give him the link, give him a deadline two weeks before your actual deadline, and thank him in your speech.