I just had a nice simple wedding a couple weeks ago (that and the new job is keeping posts even more sparse than usual). We weren’t doing anything big but I thought it’d be cool to dress up, especially since Xiaofen already picked up a wedding dress in China. So I started looking around for tux rentals. Surprisingly (to my uncultured self at least), tuxedos cost $150 to rent and you need to give them several weeks notice. This seemed a bit high so I went home and looked around the internet for typical prices. It turns out tuxedos really do tend to cost $150 to rent. But while googling, I noticed that at least one online store sells complete tuxedo packages for around $300.
Now I don’t mind spending money when I have to but when somebody wants to charge me 50% of the purchase price to borrow something for the day I’m going to draw the line. And get a bit annoyed. So I thought I might as well write it up here and maybe help someone else avoid getting screwed by tuxedo rentals.
I was a little worried there would be some sort of trick to a tuxedo that (relatively) cheap but the tuxedo arrived two days after I ordered it (I’m having amazing luck with shipping recently) and the package really seems to cover everything you need (except shoes and socks); jacket, pants, shirt, vest, bow tie, handkerchief (apparently called a pocket square) and simple cuff and button links. I did need to get the pants hemmed but I guess that’s normal and it was only $8 at a local dry cleaner. I’m no tuxedo expert but it seems to look pretty sharp and feels nice and comfortable.
So if you need a tux, buy4lesstuxedo worked well for me.
Details only interesting to people looking for tuxes: I thought the Geoffrey Beene tuxes looked the best out of all of them (although I wonder how much of that is due to the photography and model choice). I wanted a shawl or peaked collar (I never would have predicted I’d be writing about tuxedo collars on here) but they had a pretty low selection of both in my size. So I ended up getting the 2 button notch collar by Geoffrey Beene.
I couldn’t find any non advertisement pictures on Google so if here is a picture of a Geoffrey Beene 2 button notch tuxedo (and a beautiful bride) for any tuxedo shoppers.
Vrej Grigorian | 03-Jul-08 at 12:50 pm | Permalink
That is great but you can also buy a similar tuxedo for only $99 from http://www.tuxedosonline.com. We are direct manufacturers of tuxedos and sell directly to the public. Check it out.
ScottS-M | 03-Jul-08 at 6:07 pm | Permalink
@vrej
Looks like there’s some nice and cheap ones on there too. Thanks for the link.
David | 20-Nov-09 at 8:59 am | Permalink
That bride is positively GORGEOUS! The groom is the luckiest man on earth! <3
Diane | 08-Jul-10 at 11:38 am | Permalink
Thanks so much for recommending that tuxedos site. They outfitted my whole wedding and our groom’s party loved us for letting them keep the tux’s, which were SUPER quality! And SUPER cheap (under $150 each!), made us feel like rock stars!
Congrats and best wishes!
Tuxedos Tony | 25-Jul-10 at 9:45 am | Permalink
Good cheap tuxedos. If you might ever need a tux again then it is much better to buy then rent.