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Hints on haggling down reception cost

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Has anyone got any hints on getting a few £££ off venue hire and catering?

The problem (if you can call it that!) is that the venue and caterers are quite good value, particularly the venue. So we can't just turn around and say look how much cheaper x, y, z are, because they aren't, and they'll know that.

The catering staff are non-negotiable as they come with the venue, which we don't have a problem with, but we can't negotiate by saying we can bring in these other guys who are cheaper.

We don't have an itemised breakdown of costs yet, so we're not sure what's included and what's not. But I think the only approach will be to say something along the lines of "Oh, we didn't realise there was a £100 corkage fee. We're running to a very tight budget, is there any way we can negotiate the price down a little?".

Anyone had any success with this approach or any other sneaky tricks?!

Thanks for any help.

Comments

  • daisiegg
    daisiegg Posts: 5,395 Forumite
    If you think it's reasonable then surely you should pay it and be pleased. These people have to make a living.

    However, I think lots of people have had more success with getting extras added rather than getting money off. Particularly if it is a popular venue and you want to get married at a popular time chances are they'll be quite confident they will fill the date with someone else who WILL pay full price so they won't be inclined to negotiate.

    So my advice would be if you are desperate to make it cheaper somehow, you might have more success getting them to throw in extra things rather than bringing the price down. For example, our venue is really expensive but they wouldn't knock anything off the price for us, but they did throw in a few extra bedrooms on the wedding night which has sorted out all of our immediate family members, which is good.

    Good luck with your wedding planning!
  • lazer
    lazer Posts: 3,402 Forumite
    We did manage to get our venue down a bit on price - but were more succesful at getting added extras as well

    We got an extra night in the brial suite
    rooms for parents

    And a few other bits and pieces
    Weight loss challenge, lose 15lb in 6 weeks before Christmas.
  • I love to haggle. I haggle on everything. We managed to get our venue to knock £1000 off the cost of our wedding (they went from 4k to 3k) by doing the following:

    1) first off, understand where the expensive bits are in their per-head quote. They were quoting all sorts of fancy schmancy foods for our reception - salmon, glazed this and that etc. We didn't want fancy - we wanted a BBQ!

    2) understand what stuff doesn't really cost the venue anything but they could throw in for free to sweeten the deal if they're not willing to bring the cost down. Things like, a free night in the hotel for the bride and groom, big bows on the chairs if they already have them in stock etc.

    2) GET OTHER QUOTES! This is a super important bargaining tool. We found another (less fancy) venue whose facilities would have done in a pinch, but they were by no means our first choice. They gave us a surprisingly affordable quote, with lots of added bells and whistles. We were seriously tempted, but the place just didn't have the same marvellous "feel" as the first place.

    3) Don't let yourself be the "bad cop" in the negotiation process. You're going to have to deal with the events coordinator at your venue. We ended up using the following tack with our (lovely) wedding/events manager: "my parents are paying for the wedding, and they want us to 'think really hard' about going with your more expensive venue. They're overseas, they don't understand the ineffible difference between your venue and the other one. The other venue is cheaper by £1,000, and they're giving us all these added bells and whistles (free night's stay, evening buffet, extra wine etc). We REALLY want to go with your venue, but if you have any wiggle room on price or package, that would really help win over my parents." (this was not entirely untrue, though they aren't paying for it all, they're making a kind contribution)

    It worked a treat - the venue came back with a very generous counter offer, simpler (yummier!) BBQ food, free nights stay for the two of us, some added extras, PLUS they undercut the price of the other venue.

    You should DEFINITELY haggle with your venue - but like I said, try to make it sound like you're actually on their side, you love their venue but you're fighting against someone else who holds the purse strings who you need to convince.

    I'm sure this won't work with every venue, especially the ones which are booked out over a year in advance, but it's always always ALWAYS worth a shot. :)

    Good luck! Let us know how you go!
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