Negotiating with Prices?

Plaurat

Hi everyone,

Is it okay to negociate for prices? Specifically for the venue and catering?

Thanks for your replies in advance.

JN382

It depends.. if the venue is at say, a State or County park, then no. Otherwise, I'm sure you could try, but I don't know how successful you'll be. I think with catering you have to remember that whomever you go with has to buy the food, prepare it, serve it, etc.. I don't know how much of that is negotiable.

pitbullmommy315

We kind of "neogotiated" with our venue. My FI's dad is friends with the owners of Borio's (our venue). We couldn't afford to pay full price for Borio's, it's pretty expensive, so we neogotiated with them a little bit and got a good deal. However, that's obviously a different situation because we know the owners. I doubt they would have neogotiated with ordinary customers, but I guess it's worth a try depending on what venue/caterer you're looking at.

kpdorr

My dad did some negotiating with our tent/event rental people. We are getting married at a little bit of an off time, and he is paying cash so we had some leverage. I would say a little bit of negotiating is ok, if you have something to offer. Vendors don't want to feel undercut- our approach was that we are comfortable paying what we need to, but we want to be sure we are getting the best deal possible. Somethings were a little flexible, others weren't.

MelissaC315

I would think if you're getting married on a Friday or Sunday or during the off season (Nov-April) that venues, bakers, caterers, etc. would be much more willing to work with you and cut you a deal.

Ddiva5

Yes. Try it... the worst thing that can happend is that they say no.

sbolger17

Our venue provided some of the services that our caterer provided in the package, so we were able to get our catering bill reduced a little because of that.  I don't know that I would call it a "negotiation," but it was a discussion that was easily resolved.

whereismymind32

I have negotiated with some of my vendors, especially if they have their pricing stucture in "packages" then I ask for some of the less important things to be left out and see if that drops the price. I also shaved off a few hundred our photographer by offering to pay in cash. With my florist, I set the budget and she worked within it. With our band we just told them their asking price was out of our budget and they came down a little for us. It makes my FI squeamish because he feels it's insulting, but I see it as business. They're selling a product and I'm a consumer. They can refuse to offer a lower price as easily as I can find someone else to buy it from.  Most people are willing to work with you because they want your business.

oxj7822

When I tried negotiating, those wendors that agreed to drop their prices also wanted to substitute products for a lower quality ones. So it didn't work for me.