Hello Ladies,
I’ve been a long time lurker here and now I need advice. Please go easy on me!!
My brother is getting married next year to a nice girl. My husband and I will be paying for the majority of the wedding. My mom is helping some and my father is paying for the photographer. The bride has no family and she’s still paying off her mother’s funeral costs, so without our help they wouldn’t be able to have a wedding. We don’t mind paying and we are able to. Of course, I wouldn’t mind saving where we can.
I work in the party business and I have a lot of connections. Some of these connections, also really good friends, have already reached out to me and offered their services at greatly reduced prices for the wedding. A venue owner has offered his venue that holds up to 300 people for less than $400. My moms best friend is a caterer, who also catered my wedding, has offered her services at just the cost of the food. Same with a florist, who just said pay for the flowers and she’d do the rest. Obviously if we were to use their services I would pay them something and also have my brother write a TY card and tip them or give a nice gift.
Would it be wrong/pushy of us to nicely suggest my brother and his FI use these services? I don’t want the bride to feel like this isn’t her wedding (I have no interest in her colors, dress choices, food choices, how the flowers will look, invites etc etc. She can choose what she wants when it comes to all that), but I also don’t want to spend loads of money on services that I can get for a better price.
In addition, if it is not wrong/pushy, how should I word it? I’ve always been blunt and direct, but nice, with my brother on all things, but his FI is rather "sensitive". Should I just mention it when she’s not around so that I can be blunt and direct? Or should she be there and I just need to be careful so I don’t hurt her feelings? Thanks!