Whether you’ve just popped the all-important question to your partner and are starting to shop around and get ideas for venues, or you’re currently in the thick of planning and you’re looking for the best deal possible, you might currently be wondering how to go about negotiating the best wedding venue price.
If what we’ve said above sounds a little bit like your current predicament, then rest assured that you’ve clicked on the right article! Here at Orangerie Events, we know a thing or two about how stressful wedding planning can be, as well as how quickly the total cost can rack up, too!
From the wedding dress to the cake, evening band to the catering, weddings aren’t cheap – and the wedding venue can be one of the most expensive parts.
So, to make your journey to the biggest day of your life as smooth as can be (and as affordable as can be), we’re going to be talking you through our tips and tricks for negotiating your wedding venue price. Read on!
Negotiating Wedding Venue Prices: What To Remember
First things first, it’s very important to take into consideration that, no matter how haggling your skills might be, there will be some wedding venues out there that simply won’t budge when asked to negotiate, and will instead offer you a fixed price that you can either take or leave.
So, before we get into our top tricks for negotiating, we strongly recommend that you take the time to pick out around five potential venues that you and your partner like, as this will help to raise your chances of getting a venue to negotiate their price with you.
It’ll also mean that if you do happen to get your negotiation offer rejected by one venue, you won’t feel so disheartened as you’ll have a variety of other options to go and check out.
Needless to say, there are a variety of different venues out there that will happily negotiate their prices, so long as you know how to haggle properly!
Just remember that even though it can sometimes feel a little off-putting to ask a venue if they’ll be willing to lower their prices for you if you never ask you’ll never know – and if you do want to save some money, what harm can it do to ask? With all that being said – read on for our top tips.
Negotiating Wedding Venue Prices: Top Tips
Have confidence!
This is by far the most valuable tip that we can offer you. When it comes to negotiating prices, having confidence is key, and will show the venue owner that you mean business.
Before heading down to the venue for a tour, make sure that you have done your research prior to arriving at the venue, as this will ensure that you know exactly what it is that you want to ask for.
The most common negotiation price that venue owners usually tend to accept is a discount of around 10%. However, if that first negotiation offer gets rejected, you could alternatively consider paying full price, but ask the venue if they would be able to throw in a food package or evening reception party.
In addition to this, try and remember that just as much as you might want the venue, the venue will also want to do business with you – so try and see the negotiations as a kind of business deal where both parties can benefit, and you’ll find haggling a whole lot easier.
Don’t ask for the impossible
Though this one should certainly go without saying, make sure that you aren’t asking for huge discounts while negotiating, otherwise, the venue owner is highly unlikely to take you seriously or even consider any additional discount negotiations you may try and make.
As a general rule of thumb, you should go into the negotiation being prepared to be at least 85% of the original price, as anything less will likely be too much of a loss for the venue.
As we have said above already, there is a high chance that some wedding venues will flat out refuse to lower their prices even by 10%, which is where you could alternatively ask if the wedding venue could offer any additional services for the full price, such as catering or music.
This type of negotiation can prove to be very beneficial for newly wedded couples, as it will mean that they won’t then have to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars on catering or band hire for the evening festivities.
Know when to strike
Another hugely important part of determining whether your negotiation offer is successful or not is the time in which you decide to strike up the deal-making. First off, it’s very important to consider the time of year in which you are planning on tying the knot, as peak seasons of the year will likely make it harder to get a deal on the price.
The very best times of the year to negotiate a lower price on your wedding venue are the times of the year in which there isn’t too much interest, and these are usually weekends that aren’t in the peak season, as well as weekdays, particularly a Monday!
Say the right things
This one ties in closely with confidence, though it’s just as important to get right. We strongly recommend that you make sure to do your research prior to asking for a lower price, as this will allow you to understand whether or not your wedding venue in mind is even open to negotiating in the first place.
Once you have figured this out, you should then begin the negotiation by discussing the price, and what it entails.
From there, you can then open the conversation and query whether or not they will be able to reduce the price by 10 or 20%, and if not, you could then politely ask if they would be willing to include any extras in the package, such as catering.
