Wedding reception - negotiating?

bingobangobongo

Planning our wedding reception, and different places vary in price and what incentives they have on offer.

Our first choice is working out slightly dearer, as they provide less extras than other venues.

How open to negotiation would they be - would they come down in price for etc room hire, wine etc? Or would I just embarass myself by even asking??

Anyone have any experience?

Thanks

Indigo's_Mum

I'd just ask. You'll never know if you don't.

Also, a lot of places have a special offer if you book on their bridal open day (if they have one), so it might be worth asking what that would be. I did and got the honeymoon suite and a room for each set of parents thrown in free, just for booking on the bridal open day.

cifpower

My friend had her wedding at the Slieve Donard 3 years ago. She and her 2 sisters are lactose intolerant and was told this wouldn't be an issue for the meal. When they did a recce a few weeks before the wedding they had dinner but for some reason they put butter in the gravy even though they were told it was dairy free. The sisters were violently ill for 4 days and the hotel gave them the whole wedding dinner absolutely free by way of apology.

tara747

cifpower wrote: »

My friend had her wedding at the Slieve Donard 3 years ago. She and her 2 sisters are lactose intolerant and was told this wouldn't be an issue for the meal. When they did a recce a few weeks before the wedding they had dinner but for some reason they put butter in the gravy even though they were told it was dairy free. The sisters were violently ill for 4 days and the hotel gave them the whole wedding dinner absolutely free by way of apology.

:eek: The whole dinner? How many guests were there?

jenny-wren

Hmm. I've been to two weddings at the Slieve Donard and, whilst the setting is beautiful, the food was appalling. It's the only four star hotel I know that hasn't learnt how to cook an apple pie so they're not serving raw pastry in the middle!!

Had our own reception (many years back) at the Stormont Hotel and I have to say everything about it was fantastic.

Jaime-V

Yes - if you dont ask you dont get We got a fab deal with Malone Lodge in Belfast by asking for a better deal, even better than we expected woohoo. Definately go and see a good few hotels etc and compare the facilities etc, there was a vast difference in the ones we seen. We would have loved the Culloden but it was far tooooooo expensive.

Good luck:beer:

rjh090384

depends where it is. we got a bit of fat our reception at park avenue hotel and we also negotiated on corkage and also said we got some bottles aas a wedding present and could they waiver the corkage on this and they did! cannot fault them best day ever. however my friend got married at ballygally and they would not budge an inch on anything!

bingobangobongo

Thanks folks - we have provisionally booked the dunadry but have not yet paid the deposit. Will def have a word with them to see if they can do anything for us

Girlzmum

jenny-wren wrote: »

Hmm. I've been to two weddings at the Slieve Donard and, whilst the setting is beautiful, the food was appalling. It's the only four star hotel I know that hasn't learnt how to cook an apple pie so they're not serving raw pastry in the middle!!

Last time I went to the Culloden they burnt the chocolate sauce for profiteroles, don't think I'll go back.

dmxdave

bingobangobongo wrote: »

Thanks folks - we have provisionally booked the dunadry but have not yet paid the deposit. Will def have a word with them to see if they can do anything for us

A lot depends on the day of the week you want. If it's Friday or Saturday it's unlikely they will budge much as they know there will be others wanting the same day. Midweek as it isn't so popular means they will do more to secure the booking.

Another thing to concider is the number of receptions on in one day.

Not that i'm an expert as it's coming up 20 years since I was involved in ours :rotfl: (it was the Park Avenue and was a brilliant day too!)

Have a great day wherever you end up

cifpower

tara747 wrote: »

:eek: The whole dinner? How many guests were there?

There were around 50 ot 60 I believe.

My friend's father provided the wine and he was just charges £1 per bottle for corkage.