Cutting corners to use a space we like

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Haggling on costs with the venue - any suggestions?

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Need suggestions: unique spring wedding within 2 hrs of NYC

Cutting corners to use a space we like

posted 2 years ago in New York City

Member

4 posts

Wannabee

nicebird April 2, 2011

Hi!

I'm working on planning a wedding for early next spring for 130-150 people, and while we're looking outside of NYC, I'm also doing a little research on in-town ideas, and just came across a venue that looks totally amazing, but not as cheap as we need it to be. I'm basically looking for info about caterers and rental agencies to see if it's even possible to pull this off, or if the costs would just be too high. The space is $7,500 to rent all day, and our budget is about $25,000 (slightly flexible). Does anybody have personal experience with rental vendors in Brooklyn or Manhattan, or with a good caterer that prices reasonably? Am I crazy to even bother? Dress, flowers, and DJ are not major cost concerns in that total, btw.

Thanks!!

2 years ago

Member

198 posts

Blushing bee

futuremrscrawford October 2, 2010 NYC

Hi Nicebird!

If $25000 is your TOTAL budget (i'm confused when you say 'flowers, DJ' are not major cost concerns) - you're already spending almost a 1/3 on nothing. Most venues in NYC include catering; our wedding is in Manhattan near Grand Central, includes all catering/cocktail buffet/4-course dinner/cake/all alcohol, and is around 1/3 of our budget.

you can make it work...but I imaging after food/alcohol (and maybe chair/light rental?), you will be left with only $5000 to go towards flowers/dress/band/photographer/videographer/invitations/bridal presents/suite. You can always always make it work, just know where your priorities are, and if this venue doesn't carry much meaning other than being pretty, I would consider spending near $8000 elsewhere?

sorry to be debbie downer!

2 years ago

Member

101 posts

Blushing bee

Salsals July 9, 2011 New York, NY

I posted a similar question in the Money section a few months back, and got some helpful advice from the 'Bees. http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/venue-splure-or-save - if you want to check it out. I wound up going with a venue we can comfortably afford (even though I was reallllly tempted by some places we could 'almost' afford) - so far I'm happy with the decision and glad to have extra $ to spend elsewhere, but I'm not getting married until next year, so we'll see how it works out. I'm also confused, is $25K your total budget, or just your budget for the venue rental and food (since you say flowers, etc.) don't matter? If it is your total budget, then I think $7.5K is definitely too much to spend on just the venue (sorry), although I'm sure it doable if you really, really scrimped elsewhere. TheKnot.com has a good budget breakdown that tells you what portion of your budget to spend on different things, if you haven't seen that yet. Good luck!

2 years ago