Connecticut

Negotiating Venue Price

Has anyone negotiated their venue price down from the standard quoted price?  If so, how much were you able to save and how did you go about doing it?

Re: Negotiating Venue Price

  • Whippet8Whippet8 member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    we were able to negotiate about ten dollars off of the original quoted price. Mostly by asking for more things included, rather than actually paying less.

    we were off season though, I don't know how much you can negotiate in the summer/fall months that are more desireable.
    TTC Buddies with JennaHack and 102007(Congrats!)!
    Baby Blog
    Image and video hosting by TinyPic Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
  • ktanddevangktanddevang member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    It depends on the place. We were originally going to get married in April and some venues were more flexible with negotiations for our original date, but due to my school schedule we changed it to July and most places were pretty rigid with their prices. We did decide to get married on a Friday which saved us some money.
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • edited December 2011
    I didn't tried :(
  • edited December 2011
    Our venue wouldn't negotiate price.  It's a historical site and they said that they board of directors set the price, and it wasn't negotiable.

    We did, however, negotiate pricing with other vendors.  We offered to pay in cash for some things, and the vendors agreed to either include the tax in the price or give us other add ons.
    imageDaisypath Anniversary tickers
  • edited December 2011

    If you want to seriously negotiate price you also should be prepared to make concessions as well. For example, a Saturday in March as your date is going to give you much more leverage than a Saturday in June. Perhaps you can discuss Friday or Sunday pricing too. Also, many places may allow you to switch to a per person minimum instead of a bottom line food and beverage minimum. That way, you still have to spend a certain amount per plate but don't get screwed by a 25k minimum just because you are having a smaller wedding.

    As pps suggested too, sometimes asking for things to be included or upgraded without charge is a better way to go about saving money as most catering sales people still have to show a bottom line figure to their companies rather than the actual menu.

  • edited December 2011
    I was able to do SOME negotiating - We told the hotel (our venue) what we were hoping to pay and let them see what we could to do make that work - we lost the sorbet intermezzo and passed h'or d'eovours (sp?) but will have fruit and cheese and crackers out. Also, we got $100 take off of the potential set-up fee for the second buffet we're having at 10pm (we're having a plated dinner around 6 - traditional fish/beef/chicken options, then at 10 having a buffet of polish foods like kielbasa, pierogie, golumpkie, etc). I think that if there's somethign you're willing to forgo, or can tell them what your budget is, they might be able to see what they can do to make it work.
  • edited December 2011
    Ditto to some others here- my wedding is coming up in early March and we got sooo many add on's for our wedding. There was a day price, and an evening price. If we paid the evening price (10 dollars more per person), we got the room for the entire day, instead of just the set times they day - and if no one books the room next to us, we get that for our cocktail hour as well. Also, if we can extend the reception by as much time as we need to or want to, and we can do it the day of.

    There's so many other little things added in that we didn't have to pay for- but I know if we had a summer wedding, this would not have happened.
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • edited December 2011
    While we weren't able to get the price per head down (or the annoying 20% service charge, grrr), we were able to swap a few things that we wanted (e.g. upgrade the alcohol instead of having a chocolate fountain).  We were just happy to find a place that didn't have a minimum guest count - negotiating that was virtually impossible.
  • aeggeaaeggea member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Thanks so much!!  This has been really helpful!
  • Jbolton212Jbolton212 member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Im having my wedding in NYC, a 3 day weekend, I will take all your advice thanks a ton... I was going to try to negotiate a more discounted room rate, better champagne, and maybe even a free or discounted honeymoon at one of their sister hotels, do you guys think that could work?

    thanks,
    Jon
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards