did anyone haggel with their venue?

Yep we did! There was meant to be a hire charge of £1500 which we managed to get waived and we've knocked them down on the kids meals as they were going to charge £20 for chicken nuggets, chips and squash which I thought was ridiculous! They've said that they will lower the price but am waiting to hear what it will be as they need to run it past the head chef for costings etc.

We just asked for a discount, simple as that. Although, we are getting married in november so I think they are more likely to waive charges if out of season. Normally if you get married in high season in a popular place, they dont need to lower prices as someone else will probably pay the full rate IYSWIM?

When are you planning on getting married? What were the quotes for? catering or venue or both?

Hi,

were planning on getting married at the end of september 2012/13 not sure which yet on a saterday and our venues are between linden hall, matfen hall and the grand hotel in tynemouth.

We live in newcastle by the way and our quotes are between £5385 (which isnt bad at all) to £9000 which is madness in my opinion!

think im just going to have to be very blunt!

kelly xx

We're getting married on a saturday next year in peak season and they told us the same that someone else would pay full price for it so they couldn't budge on their hire costs. We managed to get them to waive the kitchen hire cost instead meaning we could bring in our own caterers which takes the menu down from £40 a head, to a nice £25.00! We also refused to pay extra for the hire of the civil service room (my fiance told them politely that we were hiring the venue for the day, so why did we have to pay for an additional room!) I think it's just a case of being a bit ruthless, you do have more luck if you're getting married out of season though. Good luck and go for it girl! If you don't ask, you don't get!!!

Also, I forgot to say, if you can get them to invoice you before the VAT goes up in Jan (doesn't mean you have to pay for it!) you will save a couple of hundred on the hire costs you are talking about!

I did I got a few quotes and then played them off to each other, resulting in us saving £250 so well worth it. Also because Im getting married in December I used that as an excuse that it was out of season too...!!

Good luck xx

Hi,

We're currently trying to get a discount off our favourite venue - fingers crossed we can wait it out. I think you have to put your emotions to one side and treat it as if you were buying a car or similar, after all it is alot of money. All that can happen is that they can say no.

You can either be upfront about your budget (minus say 5% or so, so that you've got wriggle room) and ask how they could make it work for your numbers or else ask for something additional to be included free if you pay full price (such as canapes etc), depending which angle you're coming wrong.

D x

We didn't get a discount as such but booked a month before they were planning on raising their prices, payed the deposit and got it in writing that they were going to honour this years prices, oh and it's now gone up nearly £10 per person for the package deal (so i guess i saved £700)

A

Hi,

Haggling definitely works and not just with the venue with other parts of the wedding too. We got the corkage price reduced and the 'minimum spend' at the venue as well as getting them to negotiate what's included in the food. We have car hire cheaper than advertised, a photographer that threw in something extra and a florist who rounded down some of her prices. Again, like some of the other ladies on here I am getting married out of season (January) so I think that helps, but as they say in the north east - shy bairns get nowt!!

x