How did you bring down costs with your venue?

Original post by cherryblossom

Sep 04, 2009 12:52 AM

What are some ways you have negotiated lower lower prices with your venues?

Did you do a buffet instead of sit-down? Three course meal instead of 4? Were you able to negotiate a lower price by paying in full at booking? etc.

depoc1011 Posted: Sep 04, 2009 11:54 AM

Re: How did you bring down costs with your venue?

Posted by LaBellaVita622

Posted by cherryblossom

Posted by LaBellaVita622

I booked on a thursday

That's not a problem for your guests?

Unfortunately we're paying for it ourselfves & 'our guests' realize we do not come from money & who ever wants to be there will be there..there's plenty of times I've had to go to Sunday night wedding's & be up for work the next day. This is what worked for us..& like Christina said this is a wasy for us to get our dream place, all the vendor's that we want, take a great honeymoon, & buy a house :) ..& yes weekdays weddings themselves are becoming more popular..when we booked our DJ he told us they had a wedding to do the next monday night & it was not a holiday tuesday morning..I think with this economy people understand why we're kind of altering the usual way fo doing things..& if they want to help pay for it then 'll have it on my friday night it june that I wanted..but if not then they don't then they dan't have to come & that's fine..I have patients of mine from work asking to be invited so I'm not worried about anything...I know if I need people they'd come haha

im coming in a heart beatt!

QUIA Posted: Sep 04, 2009 12:12 PM

Re: How did you bring down costs with your venue?

We told the banquet manager our budget pp after taxes and gratuity..... and he decided he could of that price and add ALOT to the package if we went with a SAturday DAY... it worked out well actually because I was soooo against a day wedding... BUT WE GOT ALOT MORE.. INCLUDING MARTINI STATIONS, CHOCL FOUNTAINS & SEAFOOD AT COCKTAIL HR.... We are the only wedding there and he pushed the ceremony ( on site ) to start at 12:30 instead of 12 so I was happy about that :)

Def let them know your budget & see if they can work with you! Be reasonable..... My room also dosent have much natural light.. so I also gave it beacuse even during the day the room is DIM.. so it looks light its night time.. LOL!

Good Luck

I also agree the ppl that love you will be there no matter what...

netsirk10 Posted: Sep 04, 2009 12:20 PM

Re: How did you bring down costs with your venue?

it is not necessarily true that a sit down dinner is cheaper. my bm told me that the it really depends on what you want. their least expensive dinner could be a buffet and their most expensive dinner could be a buffet. it really varies. what we did to cut down on costs was cut out certain parts of the ch hour. we did not think it was necessary to pay $6 pp for passed appetizers and we also took out the carving station because you get so much food as it is. hth!

Cassie15 Posted: Sep 04, 2009 12:27 PM

Re: How did you bring down costs with your venue?

Posted by cherryblossom

Posted by Cassie15

If you do a sit down dinner, it's actually cheaper than buffets. Buffets require stations to be refilled whereas sit down course consist of 3-4 course entree. You certainly ask them to lower the cost for vegetarian, children, vendor meals. I read this tip from the Budget Handbook guide, not sure if you want to try this-- most vendors immediately charge higher when they hear the key word 'wedding'. However, if you let your venue know it's for a reunion or bachelorette/rehearsal dinner then they'll lower the prices for you. The only drawback is your wedding cake, if you are also planning to book your cake with the same venue then that might be a problem if you get the discount. Also, ask which season are slower as well as the time/day of the year. This way you are guaranteed a lower price pp.

All good information.!...

But wouldn't the venues be kind of angry when they discover that they've been lied to? I thought of doing this... but I don't want them to get even with me later on my wedding day for not being upfront with them.

It was just a tip from the Budget Brides handbook. You would have to be really smooth to pull it off. It would def be a prob if you're doing your cake at the venue. If you have a small wedding, you might be able to get away with it. Let's say a wedding less than 100. For larger weddings, it's harder to keep it discreet. They can't tamper with your wedding once you already booked with them. Unless, they want their venue filed with BBB. Or if you want a more honest approach, let them know your budget and work from there. From experience, this can be both a pos and neg, if let's say the venue was planning to charge you lower, you already stated the budget which actually helps them make more profit out of you. If this not the case and your budget falls under their norm, they might either choose to work or not work with you.

ckontra2 Posted: Sep 04, 2009 12:42 PM

Re: How did you bring down costs with your venue?

Posted by slyman1101

i had to sleep with my banquet manager...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA jk!!!!

taking one for the team! haha

I'm having a thursday wedding...I found vendors are more willing to negotiate prices because it is extra business. As far as guests...we sent out the save the dates a year in advance, so they have time to plan. We are also doing it on a holiday weekend so some people will have off on Friday anyway. I figure the people that are close to us will be there .

JenBill61210 Posted: Sep 04, 2009 12:49 PM

Re: How did you bring down costs with your venue?

We went with a saturday daytime wedding vs. saturday night. its saving us about $40 pp!

rdubs Posted: Sep 04, 2009 02:12 PM

Re: How did you bring down costs with your venue?

In addition to choosing a specific day, if you have a figure in your mind that you want to spend with everything (tax/tip) included, tell the RH and see what they can come back with. This is their job to make it work and they want the business.

We negotiated A LOT with Water's Edge, I'd say we were going back and forth for about 2 weeks and were given about 10 different combination of numbers and situations (the woman told us she has never worked so hard in her life). We told them that we wanted to spend X in total, so what can you do for us? They gave us this, cut back on that, etc. etc. until we settled on the perfect number.

In the end, we lost nothing from our reception/cocktail hour but lowered the price significantly. We also had them add things to the contract (raw bar, boat cruise) that we could always decide to add at a later date but wanted to the dollar amount they quoted us at in writing.

Regardless of how far off your budget is from what the RH is quoting you, they can make it work, regardless of time of day of your weddding. Make THEM do the work to get to a number you can live with.

MottsGirl Posted: Sep 04, 2009 03:52 PM

Re: How did you bring down costs with your venue?

We booked for a Friday night in March, which is an off-peak time of the year.

CloudNine Posted: Sep 04, 2009 06:37 PM

Re: How did you bring down costs with your venue?

we booked in the winter and that saved us $80pp at our hall!! and we were still able to do a saturday night wedding because of that.

greeneyed bride Posted: Sep 04, 2009 08:05 PM

Re: How did you bring down costs with your venue?

First I choose a beautiful, but less popular reception hall, Timber Point CC, which I love.. But More importantly..... I let them choose my date!
I wasn't hung up in having a long engagement, I got engaged at the end of June, and started looking immediately, probably booked 2 Weeks later. They offered me a SATURDAY NIGHT with only a 100 person min (their usual Sat Nt min.is 150) . II couldn't believe it. It turned out to be a 6 month engagement and the planning portion will be just over 5 months.

And you know what, I am only at 2mo's and I've got every big thing done or at least on the way to done! It was for me not too short and not too long . This defiantly wouldn't work for everyone but Its an option.

Im getting Married Posted: Sep 04, 2009 09:17 PM

Re: How did you bring down costs with your venue?

We upped our minimum and they lowered they pp. We thought we were getting a good deal to begin with for a Saturday night but I wanted to neg.

ETA: Orignally wanted a May wedding but BM was like 'do it 4/30' get May weather for April prices.

Soon2BMrsDavidson Posted: Sep 04, 2009 10:23 PM

Re: How did you bring down costs with your venue?

We are getting married in January which is kind of off- season so my RH was eager to book a large event. We also chose to do a Friday night rather than Saturday night.

For my RH, a buffet is actually cheaper than a sit- down dinner. We're not going to have servers though (it was gonna cost us at least another 700-800 bucks). That's really more our style so I don't think anyone will be offended by having to serve themselves.

Also we had a referral from someone actually on LIW so my BM made very generous discounts for us....

JAAMS Posted: Sep 05, 2009 03:14 PM

Re: How did you bring down costs with your venue?

Posted by cherryblossom

Posted by Cassie15

If you do a sit down dinner, it's actually cheaper than buffets. Buffets require stations to be refilled whereas sit down course consist of 3-4 course entree. You certainly ask them to lower the cost for vegetarian, children, vendor meals. I read this tip from the Budget Handbook guide, not sure if you want to try this-- most vendors immediately charge higher when they hear the key word 'wedding'. However, if you let your venue know it's for a reunion or bachelorette/rehearsal dinner then they'll lower the prices for you. The only drawback is your wedding cake, if you are also planning to book your cake with the same venue then that might be a problem if you get the discount. Also, ask which season are slower as well as the time/day of the year. This way you are guaranteed a lower price pp.

All good information.!...

But wouldn't the venues be kind of angry when they discover that they've been lied to? I thought of doing this... but I don't want them to get even with me later on my wedding day for not being upfront with them.

Yes. Because they usually write the type of event on the contract, so if you're not having the celebration that you signed that you are, you are technically breaking a contract.

Nitania13 Posted: Sep 05, 2009 03:19 PM

Re: How did you bring down costs with your venue?

We booked on a Sunday and used our religion as the excuse, lol.

meli722 Posted: Sep 05, 2009 04:56 PM

Re: How did you bring down costs with your venue?

Sunday instead of Saturday, we also got married in a cheaper month (not the cheapest because i didnt want a Winter wedding), but it was cheaper then the month i orignially wanted.

RitasEngaged Posted: Sep 05, 2009 05:06 PM

Re: How did you bring down costs with your venue?

I am having a sunday wedding in March - that cuts cost tremondously

and anything i wanted to add i made sure to do it at showcases because when you book things than i got 20 percent off

JAAMS Posted: Sep 06, 2009 12:37 PM

Re: How did you bring down costs with your venue?

We chose to have our wedding in November instead of October

sophisticat13 Posted: Sep 06, 2009 09:40 PM

Re: How did you bring down costs with your venue?

We booked a Sunday and did not add any 'extras' except for our cake upgrade

LIVineBride09 Posted: Sep 07, 2009 12:31 AM

Re: How did you bring down costs with your venue?

we booked on a Saturday morning... it's saving us with a lot of stuff but I'm still wayyyyyyyy over my original budget because I got all wrapped up in everything!

LaBellaVita622 Posted: Sep 08, 2009 08:16 PM

Re: How did you bring down costs with your venue?

Posted by depoc1011

Posted by LaBellaVita622

Posted by cherryblossom

Posted by LaBellaVita622

I booked on a thursday

That's not a problem for your guests?

Unfortunately we're paying for it ourselfves & 'our guests' realize we do not come from money & who ever wants to be there will be there..there's plenty of times I've had to go to Sunday night wedding's & be up for work the next day. This is what worked for us..& like Christina said this is a wasy for us to get our dream place, all the vendor's that we want, take a great honeymoon, & buy a house :) ..& yes weekdays weddings themselves are becoming more popular..when we booked our DJ he told us they had a wedding to do the next monday night & it was not a holiday tuesday morning..I think with this economy people understand why we're kind of altering the usual way fo doing things..& if they want to help pay for it then 'll have it on my friday night it june that I wanted..but if not then they don't then they dan't have to come & that's fine..I have patients of mine from work asking to be invited so I'm not worried about anything...I know if I need people they'd come haha

im coming in a heart beatt!