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

As a fashion editor, I naturally think primarily about what I will wear.

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I have an irrational fear of wearing the same outfit as someone else to an event – ​​my palms get sweaty when I arrive and nervously scan the venue.

And when you work in the fashion industry, the pressure to have an original look is even greater.

Buying off the rack at Zara or online at Asos is too risky.

So I thought I would challenge myself to rent an outfit for every wedding this year.

Not only would this mean that I wouldn’t buy something new to wear just once, but it would also reduce the chances that I would end up wearing the same dress as someone else.

And I hoped it would be kinder to my bank balance.

There has been a so-called ‘rental revolution’ in recent years and GlobalData predicts it will be worth £2.3 billion by 2029.

If money is tight, this is one way to get a designer look on a Primark budget.

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

I tried John Lewis’s rental site, which had over 650 dresses to choose from.

I chose a floral from LK Bennett for £459 for four days, the minimum rental period. The rental cost £70.18, saving me £388.82.

So far, so good. It arrived the day before the wedding, but then misfortune struck.

The size 14 I ordered was too small and didn’t have a back zipper.

Since I didn’t have time to look for another dress, I somehow managed to make it work by zipping it up as far as I could and putting a blazer over it.

Thank God it was a winter wedding.

That was my first lesson: take the time to try on the dress before the wedding 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 offers a wide selection of brands – including designer brands.

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

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

This allowed me to wear something I could never have afforded.

Although £42 was a bargain, I didn’t read the terms and conditions which stated I had to pay the postage myself.

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The cost is around £7, although some rentals include return.

This time I went a size larger and ordered 16, which fit great.

The dress received many compliments – and I was happy to say that it was rented.

Sites like By Rotation not only offer “managed borrowing” where you borrow from the company, but they also let you borrow other people’s private closets.

This brings me to two of my other decisions.

For a few summer weddings I rented from two different websites, Hurr and Swished.

Both work similarly to By Rotation, in that other people upload photos of their clothes to the site and you borrow something from their wardrobe.

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

It was from Bernadette 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 had to wear the dress one day less, but it didn’t affect whether I could wear it at the wedding.

The second dress, from the same seller but through Swished, was again pink, this time with check detail and from the brand Kitri.

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

My only criticism was that there was little communication via email after the rental and that the website rarely provides updates.

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

This is the cheapest – I rented a dress for £19.

Most of the pieces are from the high street and I got a beautiful blue dress from Nobody’s Child which retailed for £95.

With £6.95 postage it was a bargain at £25.95 and return was included.

Aside from the price, I was also pleased that my order arrived days before the agreed date, meaning I got more out of it for the same money.

For my second to last wedding, I tried MyWardrobeHQ, which is available at Harrods.

Although the staff was helpful, there wasn’t enough choice in my size.

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

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So for this wedding I went with 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 per month to rent two items, but the first month is free.

During the trial period I chose a dress that would have cost £359.

The wedding took place in Portugal and I chose a light dress in green and red with ruffle details.

The best thing about using LK Borrowed is that you can cancel your subscription before the end of a month, so you won’t be charged anything after your free trial.

So that’s seven weddings, six successful rentals and a total saving of almost £2,250 compared to the cost of buying these dresses new.

I’ve also found that most locations offer dry cleaning as part of the fee, which covers a few spilled drinks for me.

If you want to protect yourself against serious damage, you can also take out additional protection insurance.

Of course, there are also some disadvantages, the size is one of them.

Not all brands use the same measurements, so you need to take your time to try out a few options.

But you definitely can’t just rent smaller sizes – I’m a size 14/16 and there were plenty of options, while some locations went up to size 30.

At the beginning of the year I was terrified of how much money I would probably spend on weddings, but renting was much cheaper than buying a new one.

And it’s allowed me to try designers I could never afford and a lot of great styles.

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

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