Bridal party attire: To buy or not to buy?

I know it’s not tradition but I hear a lot of brides and grooms now ask their bridal party to pay their own attire for the wedding.

We are going to ask our bridal party to because, let’s face it, we have 12 people in our bridal party and, well, our budget just won’t cover that.

Don’t get me wrong, I do feel bad asking people to buy things that may not wear again, which is why Mehdi and I am choosing outfits we hope they will wear again.

I know if I was asked to buy a Little Bo Peep outfit for a wedding that costs hundreds of dollars, I wouldn’t be too impressed.

We did discuss it with the bridal party when we asked each of them to be a part of our wedding.

Now, I have to decide whether I go with a colour scheme I want or to go with something that is fair to them because they are forking out the dough and should be able to re-use their outfits.

Initially, I wanted a beige, light brown coloured suit for the boys because it will look great for my circus themed wedding but now I am not sure if I can justify asking the groomsmen to buy a suit that there is a high chance they won’t ever wear again. After all, suits aren’t cheap!

So, now we are thinking of going back to black because we assume that all of them would have at least a black suit and, if not, well they’re going to need one at some stage in their life, so I won’t feel quite so bad getting them to buy one. But I can’t get the image below out of my mind. I really want something beigy like in this image.

What to do? ARGH. I wish someone could tell me.

PS: One of our Ask Samantha questions, addresses this exact question, Who pays for the bridesmaids’ dresses?