Help with haggling!

You'll only get a discount if you ASK. Always be polite, smile & just ask them whats the best price they can do.

I saved on a few things in the following ways:

Wedding dress off ebay for half price & only worn for 8hrs previously. It was absolutely gorgeous & a genuine Maggie Sottero.

Veil: Pink margaret online here for a bargain price

SHoes: Factory outlet

Centrepiece vases: ebay

Centrepiece tealights: various charity shops

Flowers: Went to markets with mum & assembled the day before (she had done floristry classes years ago though)

Cake: Cooked by aunt & decorated by mum- again she had done cake decorating before

We saved by serving our cake as dessert, therefore only paying for a 2 course meal, not 3.

TOG: A friend of a friend who was starting out & gave a good dicount

VOG: My cousin did it

Be aware that most suppliers are running a real business - not many people like to take a pay cut.

However, its normally easier to ask for a discount on additional services.

Asking professional suppliers to reduce their fee because your honeymoon is more expensive than planned is not their fault. Hopefully you can see my point?

But.. Feb is normally fairly quiet for Weddings, venues and other suppiliers may have a seasonal discount (our venue has a Winter Package for November) and you may be able to "sell" suppliers the idea of a seasonal discount with a slightly reduced package.

It's obviously not fair on full-paying clients to offer a "special price" just because someone asks, but providing less time or fewer photos etc can make this easier to justify.

Also, the better quality suppliers may not need to discount to get the work - they may be busy enough, so I would expect some resistance from the better suppliers.

I hope this helps - from a Supplier perspective,

Jason

It is unlikely you will get many discounts I'm afraid. As Jason said, a lot of the 'better' suppliers don't need to offer them.

But you are getting married in February so you may get some out of season discounts.

We got married in March and not many things were discounted. We didn't really ask though as chose suppliers we felt gave good value for money in the first instance.

Like Teal we saved in other ways though.

We did get a 10% discount on our wedding rings as H had my ER designed and made at the same place.

We got a fantastic discount on our videographer as she was offering a special deal so she could try out new equipment.

Thanks for your advice Jason, i certainly don't want to offend any suppliers but, like everyone, we want the best possible service for the least amount of money!

We have my MIL doing the flowers, i am happy to buy my dress 2nd hand once i find the style i want, we are doing our own invitations and centre pieces.....but if we can get anything else under budget we are going to try ?

I'd be grateful for any ideas on this, too! I can't remember who posted this week about getting a wedding dress reduced from £1600 to £1200 "through some serious haggling". I wouldn't know where to start, or the most effective ways of asking. Are there particular ways of negotiating which are likely to be more successful?