I saved £2.2k by renting 7 guest dresses for my wedding but had a zip disaster

By the end of this year I will have attended SEVEN weddings.

As a fashion editor, my biggest concern was of course what I was going to wear.

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I have an irrational fear of wearing the same outfit as someone else to an event. My hands get clammy as I enter and nervously scan the venue.

And when you work in fashion, the pressure to be original is even greater.

Buying from Zara or online from Asos is too risky.

So I decided to challenge myself to rent an outfit for every wedding I had this year.

Not only would that mean I wouldn’t buy anything new that I would only wear once, but it would also reduce the chances of me ending up in the same dress as someone else.

And I hoped it would be better for my bank balance.

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My wedding season started in February when I attended my uncle’s big day in Lancashire.

I tried the John Lewis rental site, where I had over 650 dresses to choose from.

I chose a £459 floral LK Bennett for four days, the minimum hire period. It cost £70.18 to hire, saving me £388.82.

So far so good and it arrived the day before the wedding, but then disaster struck.

The size 14 I ordered was too small and had no zipper in the back.

Since I didn’t have time to look for another dress, I decided to do it anyway by unzipping it as far as possible and wearing a blazer over it.

Luckily it was a winter wedding.

That was my first lesson: make sure you have time before the wedding to try on the dress and, if possible, try on two sizes.

My next wedding, in May, was black tie, so I needed something floor-length and glamorous.

By Rotation is one of the larger rental sites and has a wide range of brands, including designer brands.

I chose a pink dress with a striking bow by designer Bernadette.

The retail price was £690, but I rented it for three days for £42, saving me £648.

This allowed me to wear something I would otherwise never have been able to afford.

But although £42 was a bargain, I hadn’t read the terms and conditions, which stated that I would have to pay for the postage myself.

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The cost for this is around £7. Some rental companies will already include the return price.

This time I went one size bigger and ordered size 16. It fit perfectly.

I received many compliments on the dress, and I was happy to say I rented it.

Sites like By Rotation not only offer ‘managed loans’ where you borrow money from the company, you can also borrow money from people’s personal wardrobes.

This brings me to two of my other choices.

For a few summer weddings I rented from two different venues: Hurr and Swished.

Both work in a similar way to By Rotation: other people upload photos of their dresses to the site and you borrow photos from their wardrobe.

First there was a pink dress with black bows which I rented from Hurr for £83.26.

It was Bernadette’s and would normally have cost £650.

It arrived a day late, but that was due to a problem with the postal system.

‘SERIOUS DAMAGE’

This meant I could wear the dress one less day, but it didn’t affect my ability to wear it to the wedding.

The second dress, from the same seller but via Swished, was also pink, this time with a diamond detail and from the brand Kitri.

New it would have cost £195, I paid £42.70.

The only criticism I had was that there was little communication via email after you had rented the property and the website did not provide many updates.

Next on my wish list for my best friend’s wedding in July in St Albans, Herts, was Hirestreet.

This is the most budget-friendly option: I rented a dress for £19.

Most of the clothes are from the high street and I bought a lovely blue dress from Nobody’s Child which cost £95 in store.

With £6.95 postage it was a bargain at £25.95 including returns.

Besides the price I was also happy that my order was delivered a few days earlier than the expected delivery time, so I could have it longer and pay the same amount of money.

For my penultimate wedding I tried MyWardrobeHQ, which is available at Harrods.

But although the staff was helpful, the selection in my size was not big enough.

I could have ordered my size through the MyWardrobeHQ website, but I was too late.

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For that wedding I went back to my existing wardrobe: a dress from Reserved.

For the last wedding I used the rental site LK Borrowed from LK Bennett.

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 chose a dress that would cost £359.

The wedding was in Portugal and I chose a green-red, airy dress with ruffles.

The best thing about LK Borrowed is that you can cancel your subscription before the month is up, so after your free trial you won’t have to pay anything.

So, seven weddings, six successful hires and a total saving of almost £2,250 compared to the cost of new dresses.

I also found that most places offer dry cleaning as part of the price, which helped me catch a few drinks I spilled.

You can also take out additional protection insurance if you want to insure yourself against serious damage.

Of course there are also disadvantages, one of which is size.

Not all brands use the same sizing, so you should give yourself plenty of time to try out a few options.

But renting is certainly not just for smaller sizes: I have size 14/16 and there were plenty of options, with some sites even going up to size 30.

Earlier this year I was worried about how much money I would spend on weddings, but renting is a lot cheaper than buying new.

And it’s given me the opportunity to try designers I would otherwise never be able to afford, and to discover so many great styles.

And most importantly, I don’t have to worry about wearing the same thing as someone else.

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