Can anyone help me negotiate costs here on the venue ??

poppyscorner

Hi Guys

Will try to keep this as short as poss but basically i've found my dream venue I have entered into negotiations with them but we are at the very early stages of it and I'm not sure what to say to them i'll outline the costs below and please tell me where I should be negotiating and where is good etc etc the reason for negotiating is that bar 1 place we've seen this venue is the most expensive choice 2 for us comes in at £3,782 and thats a hotel with a deer park attached and it is lovely but this first choice for me just has the wow factor if that makes sense anyway

Venue hires are civil marriage cost £300 dining at venue £200 dancing cost £200 these are all half this price as the wedding is taking place in November so a total of £350 plus use of the heated marquee £265 which won't be discounted at any time of year so total cost £615

wedding breakfast cost £34.05 per adult and we have 55 adults so thats £1872.75 child cost is £255.38 for 15 children so in total £2128.13

drinks are

bucks fizz - 30 glasses @ £2.60 £78
Bottled lager - 25 bottles @£3.50 £87.50
Dinner wine - 2 glasses per guest @ 6.25 ea £343.75
Toast wine 55 @ 3.55 £195.25
Coffee after meal [EMAIL="55@2.55"]55 @ 2.55[/EMAIL] £140.25

Iced water will be laid on tables for guests at no extra cost

8 x jugs juice for children @ £5.85 £46.80

Total for drinks is £704.50 we have though about taking our own but they want £10.40 per 75cl bottle wine and £12.85 per 75cl bottle of sparkling wine and £15.35 per 75cl bottle champagne

I have no idea how much wine and stuff I would need in total for providing my own so if anyone could give me any pointers it would be greatfully received

Evening buffet

catering for 120 not allowed to cater below numbers

£ 1284

total cost £4918.69

we really also want canapes but they cost an extra £389.73 bringing the total to £5308.42

Thanks in advance xx

ETA : This is 1st choice venue http://www.dissingtonhall.co.uk/

This is the second http://www.whitworthhall.co.uk/

Sammy85_2

Hi

Congratulations

Firstly, i think both venues look lovely.

Venue Hire - cost for civil ceremony sounds about right, but im not sure about this hire charge for dining there. They are getting enough money out of you for the food so i wouldnt want to pay another charge ontop.

Wine - get them to price it per bottle rather than per glass. Its usually cheaper. You can also compare then the cost of their wine vs your wine plus corkage.

I would say that if you did wine yourself then i would work it at a half bottle per person. So an 8 person table gets 4 bottles.

Champagne/Fizzy wine, i think you get 4-6 people per bottle, maybe more as champagne flutes are quite small. Have a test one night and find out!

I would get them to include coffee with the meal costs. I think its rather cheeky to charge extra ontop for a cup of coffee. I doubt your guest would even miss it if you knocked it off the list all together.

Kids juice - is this pure orange juice? i would hope so at that price. If its just a drop of cordial in a jug of water then that is rediculous.

Canapes - great idea if your guests will be milling around whilst you have photos done. If they wont be waiting round for long then probably not worth it as you'll be serving the breakfast soon anyway.

hunnycat

i wrote a big reply and my pc crashed and lost it :mad:

wont write it all again as sammy85 has covered most of what i was going to say:)

my package is £25 pp for the meal which includes coffee at the end, we dont have to pay any room hire at all.

You can either add it together then take an amount off and negotiate that way as an overall discount or negotiate individually on prices such as the coffee.

I only negotiated our drinks prices as everything else was pretty cheap and we get a lot added into our packege for the price.

Sammy85_2

Ours is £25 too with no room hire charge.

3 course meal and coffee.

Havent yet started negotiations, but i wont be settling for the first price they give me.

poppyscorner

So far I have emailed them to discuss this they have 4 weding co - ordinators there is someone else working above them and then the venue owners at the top its not a huge chain of people and they all seem to know whats going on when you talk to them

Do you think its advisable to continue the negotiations via email or go up it seems that whatever you ask they need to discuss with venue owners anyway I can copy and paste 1st email to them and they're reply if that helps at all

Thanks for your help I really appreciate it
xx

Sammy85_2

I would make a list of areas you want to discuss and negotiate on and then go though it with them in person.

By email you make it easier for them to just say no out of hand because you're not sat there infront of them.

paulwf

They seem to be charging £18 for a bottle of wine that probably won't be anything better than you get in 3 for £10 supermarket deals and at least £10 a bottle for bucks fizz which you can get for under £3. £2.55 for coffee in that kind of quantity is also ridiculous.

To then charge £200 for allowing you to dine there and making it sound like they are doing you a favour as it is half price is taking the biscuit...I'd rather hire a nice restaurant out for the day at half the catering cost and no venue fee. I guess I'm just tight though

paulwf

They're probably going to be clearing £2K profit even with staff and all the other myriad costs of running a business. The important questions are how much do they need your business - i.e. can they book out every single day or do they need every customer they can get - and how desperately do you want the venue?

I would work out the total price and offer them £1K less on a take it or leave it basis. It will still be more than worth their while unless they can book all their slots.

poppyscorner

Yeah their return email to me said that we could work out something that suits my budget and also hits their minimum spend actually i'll copy and paste that

"Hopefully we can manage to sort out a package that suits yourselves ( and budget) and also hits our minimum spend etc"

I feel very awkward about it if I'm honest I hate doing things like this face to face I am so not confident in it they do know how much cheaper option 2 is they asked so I told them and I said i'd be prepared quite honestly to go to 4.5k for their venue but no more

She said she was sure we cold arrange something and then she offered to do a mock invoice to say how much things would cost

This arrived yesterday and the total was £4673 but rather than reduce things or include extras they just knocked off some stuff I said that I wanted lol

xx

Sammy85_2

paulwf wrote: »

I would work out the total price and offer them £1K less on a take it or leave it basis. It will still be more than worth their while unless they can book all their slots.

I wouldnt just knock £1k off in one go though, i think any venue but the most desperate would say no to that.

I'd knock off a bit here and there and get a few things thrown in. Unless they go through adding it all up it wont seem like such a big discount to them.

You can always try things like, buying 10 bottle of wine and they chuck in a couple free. Or you pay corkage on so many bottles and they let you bring so many without corkage. Even if they only give one bottle free with every ten thats a saving of around £15 at least to you and only a couple of quid cost to them.

The evening buffet - i would really try to get them to undercater. Or perhaps you could try the buy 10 get one free thing here too. Then you're still catering for everyone but not paying for it!

poppyscorner

paulwf wrote: »

They're probably going to be clearing £2K profit even with staff and all the other myriad costs of running a business. The important questions are how much do they need your business - i.e. can they book out every single day or do they need every customer they can get - and how desperately do you want the venue?

I would work out the total price and offer them £1K less on a take it or leave it basis. It will still be more than worth their while unless they can book all their slots.

I doubt very much that they can book it out everyday they are non residential venue so they only make money from weddings conferences etc I guessed that since theyre hires were half price in november that that is one of there quietest months.

I do love it it is what I want really but my conscience isn't going to allow me to pay £1600 + on top of venue 2 which is acceptable and although different it is also very nice I got the pit of my tummy feeling as I walked around there too I really liked it it just had that little something missing

I think i'm still thinking whether if I didnt go to choice one id regret it later on

Choice 2 is easier its a hotel and our guests wont have to be kicked out after the evening lots of them will just roll up into bed us included:D

With choice 2 we have a bridal suite included choice 1 obviously has none of that