When to Order a Wedding Suit: A Timeline for Grooms in Los Angeles

The most common question we hear from grooms is not about cloth or lapels. It is when should I start? Here is the honest answer, and a timeline to work back from your date.

The short answer

• Six months before the wedding is perfect. Time to choose without pressure, fit properly, and have the suit finished weeks early.
• Three months is comfortable. Plenty of time for a bespoke suit to be made and fitted.
• Six weeks is possible as a rush, at a 25% surcharge. We will be straight with you about what the timing allows.

And one thing people do not expect: we gently discourage starting a year out. Men change shape over twelve months, especially in the run-up to a wedding, and a suit measured too early can need more work at the end than one measured at the right time.

Why it takes the time it does

Every Mr James suit is cut from a pattern drawn for you and made by hand, full canvas, in our atelier in Southern Brittany, France. Making takes four to six weeks in domestic cloth, and six to eight weeks for Italian or English cloth, because it has to reach Brittany first. Around that sit the consultation, the fittings and the final adjustments. What happens inside each of those weeks, and why the clock starts at cloth selection rather than at your first visit, is set out in how long it takes to make a bespoke suit.

Month by month, from six months out

Six months: the consultation

An hour, free, with me or with Ben. We talk about the wedding, the venue, the season and the time of day, then look through cloth with the prices in front of you. We take around thirty measurements and three photographs so posture is recorded as well as size. A 50% deposit at cloth selection starts the commission. There is a fuller account of the hour in what happens at a bespoke suit consultation.

Five months: the groomsmen

This is the moment to raise the men standing next to you. Groomsmen tend to be left until the last six weeks, when everyone ends up renting something that does not fit, and the photographs show it. Wedding parties are 20% off, for the whole group including the groom. It does not have to be matching; the same cloth family in different cuts often looks better, and each man ends up with something he will wear again. We have set out how to handle the group in how to dress a wedding party, and our groomsmen suits Los Angeles page covers how a party of five or six is best sequenced.

Four to three months: making and first fitting

The suit is cut and canvassed in Brittany, then comes back for your first fitting. Bring the shoes you intend to wear on the day, because trouser length is set from the shoe, and a shirt whose collar you like.

Two months to six weeks: refining

Further fittings as needed. We include unlimited fittings; most grooms have three counting the consultation, some four or five.

Six weeks to the week before: final fitting

The final try-on, with everything you will wear. If your weight has moved in the last stretch, this is where it is taken care of, and the year of complimentary alterations that comes with every suit means it is covered.

If your wedding is less than two months away

Call or text 310-503-3592 rather than booking online, so we can talk through what is realistic. We will not promise a date we cannot hold, and if bespoke is not right for your timing we will tell you. If the day is black tie and the date is tight, renting a tuxedo or having one made sets out when a hire shop is honestly the better answer.

What a bespoke wedding suit costs

A full-canvas two-piece starts at $1,795, a three-piece at $2,045 and a tuxedo at $1,795. The price is set by the cloth, and fittings and a year of alterations are included. More on our wedding suits and tuxedo Los Angeles pages, and the full price list on what a bespoke suit costs in Los Angeles.

A calendar settles when to begin. It does not settle what to decide, and grooms tend to find the second part the harder of the two. From how much room to leave through to who else in the party needs dressing, there is a companion piece on the five decisions a groom actually has to make.

Questions grooms often ask

How far in advance should I order a wedding suit?

Six months is ideal and three months is comfortable. Six weeks is possible as a rush at 25% extra.

Do groomsmen get a discount?

Yes. Wedding parties and groups are 20% off, and that includes the groom.

Should I get a suit or a tuxedo?

It depends on the dress code and the time of day. A tuxedo suits a formal evening wedding; a suit is more versatile and will be worn again. We have weighed it up properly in tuxedo or suit for your wedding, and we are happy to talk it through at the consultation.

What is the latest I can order and still have the suit for the wedding?

Six weeks, as a rush at 25% extra. Inside two months, call or text 310-503-3592 rather than booking online, so we can talk it through first. We will not promise a date we cannot hold, and if the timing does not allow a bespoke suit we will say so plainly.

Is it a mistake to order a year before the wedding?

Usually, yes, and it is the one piece of advice grooms are surprised by. Men change shape over twelve months, and rather more in the run-up to a wedding. A suit measured a year out often needs more work at the end than one measured at the right moment. Six months is where we would start.

Will the suit still fit if I lose weight before the wedding?

Very probably, and if it does not we will put it right. The final fitting is held in the last weeks with everything you intend to wear on the day, and every suit carries a year of complimentary alterations from delivery. Tell us at the consultation if you expect your weight to move.

Ready to start? Book your free consultation, or use the book a fitting page. We are open seven days a week by appointment at 221 Culver Blvd, Playa del Rey, with free parking at the front and the back.

Robb, Mr James