BY the end of this year, I’ll have attended SEVEN weddings.
Of course, as a fashion editor, my main concern has been what I am going to wear.
I have an irrational fear of wearing the same outfit as someone else at any event — my hands go clammy on arrival as I nervously scan the venue.
And when you work in fashion, there’s even more pressure to have an original look.
Buying off the rail from Zara or online at Asos is too risky.
So I thought I’d set myself the challenge of renting an outfit for every wedding I had this year.
Not only would it mean I’m not buying something new, only to wear it once, it also made it less likely I’d end up in the same dress as someone else.
And I hoped it would be kinder on my bank balance.
There’s been what experts call a “rental revolution” in recent years, with GlobalData forecasting it will reach a value of £2.3billion by 2029.
If money is tight, it’s a way to get a designer look on a Primark budget.
My wedding season began in February when I attended my uncle’s big day in Lancashire.
I tried John Lewis’s rental site, with more than 650 dresses to pick from.
I chose a £459 floral LK Bennett one for four days, the minimum period you can rent for. It cost £70.18 to hire, which saved me £388.82.
So far, so good, and it arrived the day before the wedding — but that’s when disaster struck.
The size 14 I ordered was too small and didn’t zip up at the back.
With no time left to sort another dress, I made it work by zipping it as far as it would go and wearing a blazer over the top.
Thank God it was a winter wedding.
That was my first lesson — leave time before the wedding to try the dress and, if possible, try two sizes.
My next wedding, in May, was black tie so I needed something floor-length and glam.
By Rotation is one of the bigger rental sites and has a wide variety of brands — including designer.
I picked a pink dress with statement bow from designer Bernadette.
It would retail at £690, but I rented it for three days for £42, saving £648.
It allowed me to wear something I could never have afforded to buy.
But while £42 was a steal, I didn’t check the T&Cs, which said I had to pay for my own postage.
This cost around £7, while with some rentals the price includes the return.
This time I went up a size and ordered a 16, which was a great fit.
The dress got many compliments — and I loved saying it was rented.
Sites such as By Rotation not only offer “managed lendings”, where you borrow from the firm, you can also rent from people’s personal wardrobes.
This leads me on to two of my other choices.
For a couple of summer weddings, I rented from two different sites, Hurr and Swished.
Both work in a similar way to By Rotation, in that other people upload photos of their dresses to the site and you borrow from their wardrobe.
First there was a pink dress with black bows which I rented for £83.26 from Hurr.
It was by Bernadette and would normally have cost £650.
It arrived a day late, but that was due to a problem with the postal system.
It meant I had one less day with the dress but it didn’t affect my wearing it to the wedding.
The second dress, from the same seller but via Swished, was another pink number, this time with a check detail and by brand Kitri.
It would have cost £195 new — I paid £42.70.
My one critique was there was little communication via email once you had rented and the website does not give much of an update.
Next on my hitlist, for my best friend’s July wedding in St Albans, Herts, was Hirestreet.
This is the most budget-friendly — I rented a dress for £19.
The majority of its pieces are from the high street and I got a lovely blue dress from Nobody’s Child which retailed at £95.
With the £6.95 shipping, it was a steal at £25.95, and this included the return.
Aside from the price, I was also happy when my order came days before it was due, meaning I got it for longer for the same money.
For my penultimate wedding, I tried MyWardrobeHQ, which is in store at Harrods.
But while staff were helpful, there was not a big enough choice in my size.
I could have ordered my size via the MyWardrobeHQ website but had left it too late.
So for that wedding I resorted to my existing wardrobe, a dress from Reserved.
For the final wedding, I used LK Bennett’s rental site LK Borrowed.
The model is different — you pay £79 a month to rent two items, but you get the first month free.
During the trial period, I picked a dress that would have cost £359.
The wedding was in Portugal and I chose a green and red floaty dress with frill detailing.
The best thing about using LK Borrowed is you can cancel your subscription before a month is up, so no need to get charged at all after your free trial.
So, seven weddings, six successful rentals and a whole saving of nearly £2,250 compared to the cost of buying those dresses new.
I also discovered that most of the sites offer dry cleaning as part of the fee, which covered me for a few spilt drinks.
You can also get extra protection insurance if you want to cover for serious damage.
Of course, there are some cons, sizing being one of them.
Not all brands use the same measurements, so you need to give yourself enough time to try a few options.
But renting is definitely not just for smaller sizes — I’m a 14/16 and there were lots of options, while some sites went up to a size 30.
At the start of this year I was terrified about how much I was likely to spend on weddings, but renting has cost far less than buying a new.
And it has allowed me to try out designers I could never afford, and lots of great styles.
Most importantly, I haven’t had to worry about wearing the same as someone else.
