Wedding Venue Price Negotiations

LondonBoy

Hi All

A few questions that you may b able to assist me with.

We have found the venue we like and are about to discuss the ins out of the prices with the wedding planner. We are looking to have 100 day guests and no additional evening guests. The venues all inclusive package caters for 100 for the day with 130 for the evening buffet. We are therefore over catering for 30 people in the evening or (easy maths) 30%.

Using the venues published prices this equates to an extra charge of £500. We have two options here, i either want a reduced price to reflect the absence of evening guests or i am happy to pay the extra £500 but want 30 portions of the buffet to be provided to the guests that are staying in the hotel the evening before he wedding.

Has anyone had experience with this situation?

Also we will have around 10 guests that are between 16 and 17. I assume we shouldn't be paying for a full drinks package for them as they wont be drinking alcohol? Or are they allowed to drink alcohol as they are having a meal? They would normally each have a glass of wine at a family event so its a bit of a gray area. Its around a £200 difference in cost so want to be sure. I don't want to pay for them to have the full package and then they only receive orange squash.

As always thanks in advance

Horace

Remember that the wedding planner at the venue works for them and not for you.

Advise them that you will only have 100 guests in total for both day and evening event and therefore ask them for a reduction for 30 covers that won't be there. There is no harm in being cheeky and asking for 30 meals to be provided the evening beforehand but be prepared for them to refuse, try negotiating some special room rates for your guests if they book with the hotel and say "i am part of Londonboy's wedding party" (use your real name to avoid confusion:D).

The 16/17 year olds will not be able to have wine with their meal - what they do at family events at home is one thing but the hotel will not risk losing their drinks license by serving alcohol to underage teenagers. Ask whether the drinks package covers all guests or just the adults, ask if soft drinks can be provided for the teens and if they can reduce the price to reflect the fact that not everyone will be having alcohol (soft drinks are not just orange squash - ask for lime & lemonade, fruit juice, non-alcholic cocktails aka mocktails).

Ask and be prepared to negotiate hard - don't let them know that you will be prepared to pay the additional £500 or whatever - try and get them right down to what you want to pay or meet them half way.

HTH

kr15snw

Our hotel were good with negotiations, they were happy as long as they got the same amount of money at the end of the day.

We negotiated with the drinks package and instead of having the usual:

1 welcome drink of bucks fizz / fruit punch
2 glasses of wine with a meal
1 glass of sparkling wine

We're having:

1 welcome drink of their choice from the bar
unlimited fruit juice and water with meal
1 glass of sparkling wine for the toast

Maybe you could ask for the £500 to be used somewhere else? Like extra drinks or meals the night before (instead of a buffet do they have a restaurant they could be fed in?)

LondonBoy

Thanks for the comments.

So on the all inclusive package we should be looking for a reduction to reflect the 10 teenagers (aged 12-18 years)

There is a published price reduction for kids (under 12) i assume the prices for teens should meet in the middle of the kids and adult price. If thats the case thats at least a £200 saving!

I'll update the thread when i get a confimred quote

Thanks again

LondonBoy

Re drinks packages. I'm on top of this i think.

I'm after their standard package which is 1 reception glass, 2 glasses with meal, 1 toast glass. At all the receptions i have been to the majority of men when provided with a choice will opt for a beer if its on offer. So we are laying on 100 bottles of beer in ice buckets (waiter to serve) with the theory being the men will take the beer leaving the women to have two glasses of wine each. Pimms will also be available should they require it. Only problem i can see with this is i the venue dont pour 100 galsses of wine to begin with?

katsmasterplan

You can usually compromise with drinks if you have people who don't drink alcohol, or kids.
Our kids are having a seperate drinks package for cheaper, and our adult guests are having 1 x punch, 3 x glasses of wine with meal, 1 x champagne for the toast, for £6.50 per head so pretty good.

snapping_crocodile

Horace wrote: »

Remember that the wedding planner at the venue works for them and not for you.


The 16/17 year olds will not be able to have wine with their meal - what they do at family events at home is one thing but the hotel will not risk losing their drinks license by serving alcohol to underage teenagers. Ask whether the drinks package covers all guests or just the adults, ask if soft drinks can be provided for the teens and if they can reduce the price to reflect the fact that not everyone will be having alcohol (soft drinks are not just orange squash - ask for lime & lemonade, fruit juice, non-alcholic cocktails aka mocktails).
HTH

The law actually allows 16 and 17 year olds to drink wine, beer or cider with a meal, though they are of course not allowed to purchase it

With regards to the OP questions, then go ahead and try and haggle, nothing ventured nothing gained and all that

LondonBoy

So went to see the venue and got the evening buffet reduced from £17.50 to £6.95 a head. That's £1,000 saved, Very happy about this. They will be serving the wedding cake as buffet desert too which is what we wanted.

Drinks are still problematic. They want to charge £4.50 per glass of pimms. This seems very high. Pimms was meant to be a cheaper alternative to wine but is now more expensive. We can't afford to put jugs out at that price and i have asked the hotel to take a second look at the pricing so will see what come back. Does anyone how any per glass/jug prices on pimms?

On beer they want to charge £3.65 per bottle yet a pint there is only £3.50?
We had planned to have bottles of beers in ice buckets for guests to help themselves to but it now seems better value to put money behind the bar for pints which we didn't want to do. We wanted all the drinks out on display and people to help themselves.

Second round negotiation should be fun.

Horace

Pimms isnt a cheap alternative because it is a spirit based drink - it has a gin base and gin isnt exactly cheap. Ask about jugs of Sangria - wine based but cheaper instead.

LondonBoy

Horace, thanks for the info but Mrs Londonboy wants Pimms, just not at £4.50 a glass.

Horace

Are they making the Pimms with champagne or with lemonade?

Ask them if buying a jug of Pimms works out cheaper than buying it by the glass.