about negotiating?

Re: about negotiating?

• realtwistedsister member

  

  September 2013

  I had a dream last night where my wedding venue coordinator was told to give us their best deal which is another $1000 off. Aww, I was so bummed when I woke up and realized that I spent $5,000 on the venue instead. wah!
  

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• Sue-n-Kevin member

  

  September 2013

  Negotiating with "standard" venues like banquet halls and hotel banquet rooms is harder because if you don't hire them, someone else will. It's simply supply and demand. They also tend to have the most stringent "bottom line" prices as far as guaranteed costs, ie to hire them you have to guarantee at least a minimum of $10K no matter what.

  The best way to bring down your costs is to 1) reduce your guest list, 2) reduce your preferred food items. The alternative if you still want a standard venue is to schedule your wedding during the "non-prime wedding season" of November through March when fewer weddings occur and venues may have reduced per person fees. Some also offer reduced rates for Friday or Sunday events.

  Unfortunately sometimes the rate is the rate is the rate. The best you can do is see if you can get something different than what they offer if what they offer isn't what you want. For example, if a set price of $50 per person includes appetizers, but you don't want appetizers, ask if they will offer a discount on the price of alcohol? Sometimes they will negotiate swaps of different items for things you don't want, but more often than not, the price per person doesn't change.

  Good luck.

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• kittykinst member

  

  September 2013 edited September 2013

  I got them to move down the venue/catering cost by 200 bucks, but that is a tiny fraction of the overall cost. Our coordinator didn't seem to like us trying to negotiate, he quickly let us know that he doesn't get paid commission. I was a little shocked. I wasn't insinuating that he was making bank on us.  The price just seemed kinda high. Especially since our first guesstimate was $3000 less!

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