Weddingbee boards

Fiance and I went to the reception venue we LOVE tonight to work out a contract.  We were a bit iffy on the price, but we were able to negotiate and get it lowered $9 a person!!!!!  We're looking at 100 people, so this is a $900 savings!

We are limiting the bar to beer, wine, mimosas, and bloody mary's only (for a brunch reception) and we shrank their quote for 2 hours to just 1 hour.  :-)  We also were able to save a bunch by reducing the 3 choice of entrees buffet down to 2 options.  I doubt anyone will even notice.

I am just so excited.  Things are coming together, and it looks like we'll be able to do our dream wedding on our modest budget after all.

Oh I can give tips!

Basically our venue had a "wedding brunch package" and we looked through it beforehand and decided what parts of it we really wanted and what we could do without.  We were upfront with the events coordinator and told her we were budget conscious since we're paying for our own wedding.  We used a lot of "we like this option, but how can we make it work for our budget?" and "how much could we save if we removed x?" and "how about substituting this for that?".  We also turned a 3 hour reception into a 4 hour reception for no extra cost by saying up front it was important to us and were looking for a venue that could give that to us.

One big thing is not to talk specific costs too much.  Don't say "can we lower that by $5" because then that is as low as they will go.  If you ask "how much would we save if we changed this to this?" and they give you a number, you can even take it further and say "is there any way we can reduce it one more dollar?"  Don't be afraid to ask.  They can say no, and you can back off if it's getting uncomfortable.

We also mentioned what another venue was willing to offer and asked if they could match it.

We found that this place just really wanted our business.  They can book an evening wedding any weekend of the year no problem, so having a saturday brunch is just extra income for them.  They were really willing to work with us because our business is better than having no business at that time!

Good luck, sunshinebride.  :-) 

It is a HUGE saving when you consider we're having 100 people.  And tax and gratuity are a percentage on that cost, so since we reduced the base cost, those will shrink too.  We're really happy.  We'll save money, and our event will still be nice and no one will even know what we took out!

Don't be afraid to negotiate, bees!  :-D