Hello All,
I've been lurking a little bit and have gotten some great advice from these boards. This is my first post so I just ask you go a little easy on me hehehe. Wedding planning and logistics is tough enough.
So when I first started the planning process and picked my bridesmaids, my fiance's sister (FSIL and bridesmaid) was ready to jump at the chance to start organizing everything and was stating her case to me because the last wedding she was in (as MOH), the bride didn't want to do much so she did almost everything. I'm already hearing from my other bridesmaids and MOH that she tries to control everything.
I like to plan and be hands-on for an event I'm hosting but so that she feels she can help organize something, I let her do our room block. However, I told her that if there are any contracts to sign, that I would like either me or my fiance to look it over first and sign it under one of our names. In addition, even though it's not required by me or my fiance, we plan on hosting a brunch the next day to say goodbye to everyone since there will be quite a few people traveling out of state and we can afford it. However, I always try to negotiate prices a bit since it doesn't hurt to ask. She told me that she would negotiate the brunch price because we had so many people. Well, in short, I felt like she didn't really try. She sent me the email of her "negotiation", which read "Hi (sales manager), the bride wants to know if you can reduce the price of brunch. Thanks."
If I were the sales manager, that's an easy "No" for me, which was what his answer was to her. I guess I was a little peeved because I felt like I would've tried a little harder. Anyway, I haven't signed the contract for brunch yet. A few weeks later, I called the manager myself because. I had a number of questions about other things and had to block some rooms for my family anyway.
So after all of my other questions and him confirming the number of rooms so far, I say "So, I'm having a pretty big wedding as you can see and giving you a lot of business. I was interested in hosting a brunch, but do you think we can work something out on the price? I know $_____ is the price on the contract but its a little out of my price range (not really but I had to lay it on). I'd be really happy if you can do a little better." Boom, I got a discount right there. That shaved off at least $200+. Not much but it adds up and I'll take what I can get.
I let my FSIL know that I had blocked rooms for my family and also let her know that I talked to him about brunch and that he has offered me a discount. She said "ok". But I guess she wasn't okay with it because she told my fiance that I overstepped my boundaries and that I undermined her, etc. Sure, I probably did to an extent, but at the end of the day, it's me and my fiance paying for it. She texted me telling me that she doesn't like how I plan things and that she has much more experience in hospitality than I do. I told her, that I know she is good at it and that I appreciated that she tried. I explained that sometimes, things like this work out with the couple is directly involved.
Anyway, so yes, I went directly to the source and got what I wanted but was this really that bad?