Negotiating on prices with vendors - is it common?

The simple answer, is that if you don't ask, you don't get!

Bartering is okay as long as you don't take the mickey -give them serious offers where they still make a profit, but you get a price you're happy with.

Everything has an unofficial "wedding tax" -as soon as you use the "w" word, the price goes up. Therefore, it would be reasonable to assume that they have a bit of wiggle room on price. Weddings are big business, so as long as they can still make a profit, most vendors would be game for a bit of negotiation. (Or you could just say it's a party and see if they notice)

Just a word of warning, your wedding date will factor into how much you can get away with -off peak weddings can wrangle a good deal because business is slow. Peak season (weekends, usually June-August) is a sellers market as they can have their pick of bookings.

Just a quick example, a florist may not have a lot of business on a Wednesday so will jump for joy and will be more than happy to negotiate / throw in extras to secure a booking for a Wednesday wedding. Yes it's a little inconvenient for guests, but if money is the issue that's usually the way to go.

Saturdays are busy because most weddings are on Saturdays (most convenient day of the week)-so the florist can have the pick of the bunch (pun intended haha) and may not negotiate as much because they could have 3 or more other brides willing to pay full price for that day.

Hope this makes sense x

I'm getting married on a Friday in April so I managed to get the price reduced a little bit, we saved around £600 on the venue we did however have a number of things that we didn't want knocked off so that we were all happy with the deal. Things like rattan bunting which just wasn't us.

Hi there!

im the same as you, I am usually mortified if someone in with barters but I did make an attempt at it for or venue hire. I was looking at booking the venue for November and they had a flat rate all year round so (by email, because I'm a wuss!) I emailed and asked whether there was any flexibility on the price given I'm choosing a quiet month and they came back to me a few days later saying they would take £1000 off! Like the previous poster says, if you don't ask you don't get and they're probably well used to others asking so definitely try your hand!

Woaou! Congrats on the amazing saving here!
Yeah, our wedding is on a June Saturday - can't get worse haha! But worth a try! I'm a wuss too for this kind of stuff...

Thank you for such a detailed answer! You're right - if you don't ask, you don't get! So worth a try We're getting married on a Saturday in June so can't get more popular than this, haha! But we'll see how it goes! I asked quotes from so many different vendors, so maybe I can do at least a price match.

Worth a try and will let you know! xx

Sounds awesome! Congrats on saving such large amount! Makes a total difference

There is definitely no harm in asking! When we found our venue it was slightly over budget so we did ask if there was anything they could do. In the end they knocked £250 off which was a great help! ?

We're marrying on a Saturday in June - this Saturday in fact! We took advantage of organising a lot over 12 months in advance, so saved money on photographer & videographer this way, & then I also was honest with the caterers we'd booked & told them they were more expensive by far than our other options, & told then a price I'd be happy to pay & they met it, so you can lose nothing by asking IMO!

Hi--I have the same question! I am wondering this myself...some of the "prices" that they've given me quotes on seem up for negotiation, but I don't know. If you find an answer, I'd love to hear it. I'd love to negotiate prices down, but I'm a bit scared to ask and embarrass myself! Cheers!