Wedding Can you negotiate costs with a venue?

[Keepingthefaith21]

So we have started the tall task of finding a venue. After careful consideration and input from family members we have decided to try and pull off a local wedding. Although we have started our search and even met with a few coordinators I am curious: were any of you were able to negotiate better rates with your venues if you were booking late in the season?

FI and I have noticed that almost all our venue choices list November 1st as the start of their off-peak season rates. Our date is October 31, 2009. I am wondering if it is out of line to see if some of these venues would be willing to let us work with the off-peak rates considering we are only one day ahead of their typical range.

Just wondering if any of you could offer any bargaining advice you may have when trying to negotiate with venues.

 

[choro72]

I don''t like confrontation, so had it been up to myself, I would not have negotiated. FI however managed to get $500 knocked off the venue price. I don''t know what he said exactly, but I think it was along the line of "We really like your place, but your facility fee is killing us. Can you help us out here please?". We also have an ultra detailed spreadsheet of price comparisons between different venues so he used that as his leverage too.
Them: "We keep our food cost low to make up for the difference."
FI: "Nope, here are the prices from other places. It doesn''t make up for the difference at all!".

Good luck!

 

[emeraldlover1]

Date: 7/28/2008 5:30:43 PM
Author:Keepingthefaith21

So we have started the tall task of finding a venue. After careful consideration and input from family members we have decided to try and pull off a local wedding. Although we have started our search and even met with a few coordinators I am curious: were any of you were able to negotiate better rates with your venues if you were booking late in the season?

FI and I have noticed that almost all our venue choices list November 1st as the start of their off-peak season rates. Our date is October 31, 2009. I am wondering if it is out of line to see if some of these venues would be willing to let us work with the off-peak rates considering we are only one day ahead of their typical range.

Just wondering if any of you could offer any bargaining advice you may have when trying to negotiate with venues.

Yes, Yes, and Yes. I spoke with one of my work collegues about this last week because her wedding was on that date in 2006, I believe. There has to be a cut off day but since Nov. 1 just doesn''t happen to fall on the 1st doesn''t mean that you should have to pay high season pricing. She said that the venue they booked (which is really expensive, BTW) had no problem giving them the off peak pricing because it was so close to the cut off date. You should ask for it!!!!! This is a situation where your request is reasonable!

We didn''t need to negotiate that many things with our venue but we did put together our own unique package. For example, we asked not to have to pay for things that we didn''t want that were considered to be included. We are getting married at a church so we asked them to take off the included set up fee for the on site ceramony. They did. My friend that got married last weekend did the same thing with her venue. We also did the same thing with the photog that we picked.

 

[brazen_irish_hussy]

We didn''t negotiate on our venue because the price was cheap for what it was and it fills up fast, but the best advice I was given is to negotiate on more extras for the price, rather than a lower price most of the time as that is most cost effective for the vendor. You would not believe all the extra stuff we got from our photographers that way. It worked well with our caterer who appreciated we were looking for a deal but still willing to work with him on what was feasable, so we got appatizers (sp) done a different way which is much cheaper for us and still cost effective for him.

Sometimes, it is easier just to go cheaper though, which is what we did with our florist.

 

[Italiahaircolor]

What can it hurt? You''ll never know if you don''t ask!

However, there are so many ways to save money at a venue even if they are unwilling or unable to cut off the inital price.

*You can book your wedding on an "off" day like a Friday or Sunday. Using Saturday for either a celebatory BBQ or a rehearsal dinner. Using Friday or Sunday as your event day can often times take as much as 50% off the cost!

*Choose an all inclusive venue. Some halls will offer food, cake, flowers, table dressing and all sorts of other finishings for one lump sum. While you may "gasp" at the figure at first...once you break it down, you save-save-save!!

*Get married in the off season. June weddings are still the most popular...followed my May and July. If you want a good deal get married in a month that is less popular. October and November provide lovely fall themes....and so on. By getting married in another month, the halls will work with you far more than if you one of 15 brides interested in a June Saturday.

Remember: Halls don''t hurt for brides, esspecially on any given Saturday in June...so squeezing them down on the price might be harder than anticipated. Asking never hurts. But by being flexible you may certainly get more bang for your buck!

 

[miraclesrule]

Everything is negotiable. But I used to work in the hospitality industry so that gives me more insight into what is negotiable and what is not...and to what degree.

I didn't usew my clout or connections for my daughter although I tried to teach her by demonstrating how it was done with other venues that we initially thought about going with. It's just really hard to negotiate with venues unless you are already familiar with the industry and know people and are a natural at negotiation. Too many people just never even ask. This is probably why the people who are in the know and have connections are able to provide such "steals" for friends in the industry.

Always ask and use comparative shopping bargaining power. In this economy, the venue probably wants your business, unless you are seeking prime time on a Saturday night.

Good luck and Congrats on your engagement!!