Advice on Negotiating Lower Price at Wedding Venue during January

joysyear

HI Ladies,

Need some advice here, I've read that hosting my wedding in January will greatly reduce the venue cost in Los Angeles. So my fiance and I have been out despereatly seeking some places.

We've settled on 2 Sportsman's Lodge or Ramsey's at the club However both places are giving us there standard year around rate's which on our budget we really can't afford. Can you give me some tips on  how to negotiate a better price. We'd like to do it for about 35pp which come's ruffly up to 4500 for 100p (taxes & grauity)

any advice?

Thank you
joysyear

Mellie35

I don't really think you can get a better price in January. I never ran into that when I was planning my wedding. Sometimes, you can save a bit if you have it on a Friday or a Sunday.

I did want to say that our wedding was at Ramsey's. It was amazing. They were so great to work with and it is such the perfect place for weddings under 100 people. That being said, we paid about $7500 for approximately 80 people.

joysyear

Thanks Mellie for the advice, I met with Jessie at the Ramsey today it's a beautiful venue and the menu looks really good I think I may just lower my guest list to try and save some money. and maybe consider a Sunday wedding.

Mellie35

Please feel free to ask me any questions you may have.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_california-los-angeles_advice-negotiating-lower-price-wedding-venue-during-january?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:68Discussion:fb8fd5fa-7df0-409d-ac33-6b1eaacab8d4Post:7cfd88e8-af38-4e2d-9556-03af98f0b905">Re: Advice on Negotiating Lower Price at Wedding Venue during January</a>:
[QUOTE]I don't really think you can get a better price in January. I never ran into that when I was planning my wedding. <strong>Sometimes, you can save a bit if you have it on a Friday or a Sunday. I did want to say that our wedding was at Ramsey's. It was amazing. They were so great to work with and it is such the perfect place for weddings under 100 people. That being said, we paid about $7500 for approximately 80 people.</strong>
Posted by Mellie35[/QUOTE]

Same here, similar cost and guest list. We also had our wedding on a Sunday and I think we saved some money there. Overall, I think Jesse was really willing to negotiate with us to get us what we wanted at a price we were comfortable with. I have been to Sportsman's Lodge and it's nice, but I LOVED having our wedding at Ramsey's.

I know someone who was able to negotiate a discount at the Mariott in Marina del Rey during the "off season" (her wedding was in March) but 1) her wedding was still in the $30k range and 2) I'm pretty sure many SoCal venues don't stick to the "off-season" rules since the weather is pretty pleasant here all year long.

cristinasu

Not all places do offer 'off-season' discounts and they try to convince that the weather in california is so nice that January isn't a bad month for a wedding.
I still negotiated very hard with them and reminded that after the holiday season, the hotel ballrooms are more likely to be unbooked. 
Eventually, the hotel gave us at least 30% discount. And a week later, for personal reasons, we had to move our date by a few months, which made our date no longer in the off-season. However, the venue still carried the same pricing for the earlier date.

I think that it really depends on the venue. Btw, I think Ramsey's is a great venue!
Good choice!

Good luck with it!