Venue Minimums

BeachLover2885

If your venue had a minimum for your wedding, did you meet it? If not, were you able to negotiate with the venue?

Our minimum is 125 but we only have 108 guests (including FI and I). We invited over 180 people but a lot declined (many were OOT, going on vacation, etc.) We are going today to the venue to make our final payment so I'm hoping we can talk to them about the numbers a little bit. Even if we add our vendors, we still wouldn't meet 125. 

bells24412

Yes, our min. was 235 and we are shy of that. We have to spend the rest of the money on other foods.

rachael7183

Ours was 200 but we exceeded by 15

k8888

The original minimum was 125 but we negotiated it down to 110 before we even booked.  We made the 110 minimum.

jneelpsych88

Our venue did minimums by $$$ rather than head count. So we had a 6k minimum to meet and we chose our dinner selections, appetizers, salads, and desserts based on that. We havent met it yet but we havent picked out appetizers yet. 

LADY324

Yes we met ours we invited 241 and we will end up with 203 we had to guarantee 175.

BeachLover2885

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_july-2012-weddings_venue-minimums?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:066005ef-215f-48b1-8655-328b41e07c52Discussion:b77f7cbc-71e1-4cb7-b340-7a1564d3de6fPost:60620728-2a0b-4687-ae9e-309a45dab50a">Re: Venue Minimums</a>:
[QUOTE]The original minimum was 125 but we negotiated it down to 110 before we even booked.  We made the 110 minimum.
Posted by k8888[/QUOTE]

<div>We should have done that! I honestly thought we were going to be way over 125 b/c we kept adding people to our guest list. FI is good at negotiating so we'll see what happens! </div>

colleenm18

Our venue has a 175 person minimum we had to meet.. we are at 177 so we are there   Plus we are still waiting on a few responses!

Amanda1443994

We will prob. be under our minimum. We have a 150 guest min. but are looking at around 140. I haven't even thought about negotiating--just figured we'd pay the difference. But now hearing what everyone else did we'll def. try to work something out with them.

kmdeck26

I agree with PP.... Just meet your minimum by adding more food! Some appetizers, or alcohol, or other things...

littlemoments324

We need a 130 minimum...we're sitting at 130 even right now, but we're waiting to hear from about 10-15 people I think...

mbody

Our venue doesn't have a person minimum, but they do have a $$ minimum. I don't really understand # minimums. It makes more sense that you have to spend a certain amount. Why would they care if someone spends $15,000 on 150 people or $15,000 on 200 people?

BmoreBride311

Ours has a maximum, but not a min. I didn't realize min. were so common. I guess we were lucky to not have one.

BrightFirefly

We had a tight window. We need a minimum of 75..to get the extra perks - such as included chair covers + honeymoon night, etc - but we cannot exceed 80.

We also had to meet a 2,500 minimum.

We will make both.

BeachLover2885

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_july-2012-weddings_venue-minimums?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:066005ef-215f-48b1-8655-328b41e07c52Discussion:b77f7cbc-71e1-4cb7-b340-7a1564d3de6fPost:a9acda6e-271b-49ba-86b8-01e18c7dc085">Re: Venue Minimums</a>:
[QUOTE]We will prob. be under our minimum. We have a 150 guest min. but are looking at around 140. I haven't even thought about negotiating--just figured we'd pay the difference. But now hearing what everyone else did we'll def. try to work something out with them.
Posted by Amanda1443994[/QUOTE]

<div>You should definitely be able to negotiate! We met with our venue this afternoon and they are throwing in an ice sculpture/luge during the cocktail hour and plates of Italian cookies and pastries on the tables during the dessert course. We also don't have to pay for the vendor meals now, and the venue said we could add guests if needed up until the day of the wedding. </div>

Lisariqua

We neededa minimum of 150,our final count is 166

terbear22

We need 190.  We have 180 right now...still waiting on some responses...