Guides · Ordering
When to order bridesmaid dresses, shoes and accessories
A month-by-month timeline for your whole wedding party, working back from your wedding date, so nobody is scrambling the week before.
Order bridesmaid dresses about six months before the wedding. Groomsmen should buy suits three to four months out, or reserve rentals about two months out. Order shoes as soon as the dresses arrive, because the hem depends on the heel.
The timeline
Every shop and tailor works a little differently, so check their lead times. This is a safe plan for most weddings.
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| 8 months | Choose colors and styles. Tell your wedding party the plan, the shop and the budget, so nobody is surprised later. |
| 6 months | Everyone orders their dress. If the dresses match, have everyone order from the same shop in the same week. |
| 4 months | Groomsmen choose suits or tuxedos and get measured. If they're buying, they order now. |
| 3 months | Dresses arrive. Everyone tries theirs on right away. Order shoes now, and book alterations. |
| 2 months | Groomsmen reserve rentals. Order accessories: jewelry, hair pieces, ties, socks, cufflinks and any matching getting-ready robes. |
| 6 weeks | First fitting for alterations. Bring the wedding shoes. |
| 2 to 3 weeks | Final fittings. Suits and rentals should be in hand, with time to fix anything that's wrong. |
| 1 week | Everything picked up and tried on together: dress, shoes, jewelry. Then nothing to do but enjoy it. |
Why six months for dresses?
Most bridesmaid dresses are made after you order them, not pulled off a shelf. That usually takes 8 to 12 weeks, sometimes longer for custom sizes or colors. Shipping adds a week or two. Then almost every dress needs some alterations, and tailors usually need two to four weeks.
Add those up and you're near four months, before anything goes wrong. Six months leaves room for a wrong size, an exchange, or a bridesmaid who forgets. From spring through October, shops and tailors are at their busiest, so lean earlier if your wedding falls in those months.
Order matching dresses together. The same dress can come out a slightly different shade from one batch of fabric to the next. When everyone orders in the same week, the dresses are far more likely to come from the same batch.
Shoes come before the hem
A tailor hems a dress to the height of the shoe it will be worn with. So everyone in a dress needs their wedding shoes before their first fitting. Order shoes when the dresses arrive, about three months out, and ask everyone to bring them to the tailor.
It also gives everyone time to break them in. A few evenings around the house in new heels makes for a much happier dance floor.
Groomsmen: buying or renting
Buying
Plan to order suits three to four months before the wedding. That covers shipping, a tailor, and a final fitting two to three weeks out.
Renting
Rentals can be reserved later, about two months before the wedding. Most rental shops ship a week or two ahead, which leaves time to swap a size. Reserving earlier gives everyone more choice of sizes and colors.
If ties or vests should match the bridesmaids, choose them after the dresses are ordered, so you're matching the real color.
Accessories are easy to forget
Jewelry, hair pieces, ties, pocket squares, socks and cufflinks are small, so they tend to slip to the last week. Put them on the plan about two months out. If you're giving matching jewelry or getting-ready robes as gifts, order those around the same time, so there's time to fix a wrong color or a lost package.
Give everyone a deadline, a little early
Set each order-by date two or three weeks before the real one. Someone will be traveling, or busy, or waiting for payday. A built-in cushion means a late order is a small reminder, not an emergency.
And put every date in one place. A date mentioned once in the group chat is a date that gets buried under forty messages about something else.
Don't forget hair and makeup
Popular stylists book up early, so reserve yours as soon as you have a date and a venue. Schedule a trial a couple of months before the wedding, so the day itself holds no surprises.