Minimum number of rooms for hotel ... what to do

Hello and welcome to Hitched! Congratulations on your engagement and good luck with your planning!!

It's always worth asking for what you want at venues- the venue I really wanted and have been in love with for years on first talking to them, looked like it was going to be well out of our budget.... I was practically in tears as we walked round because from what the guy was saying, we would have to commit to spending much more than we wanted to, having more day guests than we wanted AND book the entire 20 rooms to have our dream wedding on a Saturday in May.

My H2B realised how upset I was and had the inspired thought to say to the guy 'this is where we want to get married, but we don't want that many people, or to book that many rooms OR to spend that much.... but we DO want that specific Saturday in May and we DO want it to be here.... is there any way to work around this?'

The guy was brilliant- he sat down there and then and worked out exactly how much we would need to spend to fulfil their need to make a living/profit and our wish for a smaller wedding- he worked out that if we spent a bit more on our evening guest's food and upgraded to a slightly more expensive menu for our reduced day numbers it would work for all of us... and as a direct result of our conversation they have now changed their 'rules' for summer Saturday weddings.... now instead of a minimum number of day guests and an insistence on booking all the rooms, they have a 'minimum spend' policy.... it's still probably 'out of budget' for some, but they have since told me that several couples have been able to book with them now that wouldn't have with their previous 'rules'- that's a Win-Win situation!

I'd go and look at the venues you love, but hold back on REALLY falling for them until you've ascertained if you can afford it or want to spend money on things (like rooms!) that you won't actually use or don't need in order to get the venue you love... I'd also look at several venues, including some you don't necessarily think will work or don't think you'll like just to give yourself lots of choice and some prices to compare.... you might find (as we did!) that although your ideal venue IS more expensive and you do have to book rooms you won't use, that actually it's not THAT much more expensive than other venues that you don't like as much!

Good luck!

Echoing the PP slightly.

If you don't ask you don't get - have a word with your venue and explain that there's no way you can really add any more people onto your guestlist to book the rooms etc etc. A lot of venues will be used to negotiation, so they may give you the option of compromise if you get married on a different date, or set time.

Always worth an ask