A bit of advice on tuxedo rentals -

What's up all -

Since I had just gotten married in April of 07, and am now going through the rigamarole with my friends' weddings, I thought I would share my experience with this. If I can offer a single piece of advice about your choice of tuxedo rental, it would be to seriously consider the smaller, ma & pop shops, for which there are plenty on Long Island, over shopping mall franchises and especially Mens Warehouse. You will certainly get more personalized service, more or less the same lines of tuxedos, and they will all work out some kind of schedule for your groomsmen that are out of state (you can get measured at a department store and just phone in the measurements).

You see, in my rather careless procrastination, I ran into a Mens Warehouse last minute to get all of this out of the way, and it was a clear mistake. I am going to do my best to avoid making this sound like one man's rant against Mens Warehouse, because I know everyone's experience is difficult, but it may be somewhat difficult considering all the facts. The salespeople were not only unknowlegable, but, in some cases downright rude - the Mens Warehouse in Carle Place was training someone that threw a catalogue at me and had no recommendations whatsoever and even less patience for us taking the time to peruse the catalogue. With half of my groomsmen laughing under their breath and some making sarcastic remarks that were flying over the head of the sales guy, I got frustrated, amde a few quick picks (feeling bad that I had dragged some of my groomsmen there from various parts of the island) and then left.
I then called up the manager of the store and she defended the guy saying it was his first month, and made no attempts to put me at ease, but since I had already put orders in for seven people, thought against taking the order back and went to the Mens Warehouse in Plainview instead. The salespeople there spoke limited english but were somewhat more helpful and I finished the order and just wanted to be done with it at this point.
Of course, on my wedding day, they gave one of my groomsmen a vest of the wrong color, another a shirt of the wrong color, and another the jacket of the wrong size. Fortunately, the incorrect color of the vest matched my best man's, so, for the purposes of the pictures, we took a humored approach to it and had two best men by default. Fortunately, my wife was cool about it and not a Bridezilla (he even made a second best man's speech). However, if you think your future wife will flip out, like most would I feel, I would avoid Men's Warehouse like the plague.

Anyway - thanks for the time in reading this, hopefully you'll reconsider those smaller shops and have a much better experience with them.

~Bill

Re: A bit of advice on tuxedo rentals -

Thanks that is very helpful - do you or anyone have any recommendations for 'mom and pop' tux stores that do a good job in measuring the tux. I am more concerned with the tux fitting me well, then with the tux looking good. If that makes sense.

Re: A bit of advice on tuxedo rentals -

thanks for sharing

Re: A bit of advice on tuxedo rentals -

THANKS!!! I would say that goes DOUBLE for After Hours too!

Re: A bit of advice on tuxedo rentals -

You said a mouthful. We had no luck at the chains. The service was cold and impersonal. We went to Esquire Tuxedos in Merrick and received, great service, price and great quality tuxes.

Re: A bit of advice on tuxedo rentals -

Hmm...I just booked at Men's Wearhouse and am hoping we do not have issues with them. You are right. They were rude there; however, the people at After Hours (the store they took over) were very nice. I picked them because we have groomsmen that live all over the place. Also, we live in Pennsylvania, but are getting married in Long Island, so we booked with them for convenience. I hope they work out. They told me that they can overnight stuff if the order is wrong.