Should I haggle with the photographer??

You can always try... have you got a figure in mind you would pay though? is there anything you could use to your favour (ie is it a week day or out of season) ?

My budget allows £1k for the photographer but I was counting on that being everything. This guy does a disc with the photos on so I was thinking of having that and ordering albums elsewhere so I think it's just the extra hours that I'd like that'll bump the price up, I'd like him to stay until after the first dance ideally. Unfortunately it's a saturday but it's 1st October so not the height of summer.

I would just contact him to disuss options. Be honest and tell him your budget. If he can't do it then he'll say.

Its worth a try, although for something that you know you really want and has family track record, are you prepared for him to say sorry, no.

Perhaps the disk idea may work, although I would use that in the short term and then return to him to complete the album once you have some spare money. Tesco, Asda lab or the like prints are not produced to the same quality as a pro lab produced profiled and calibrated prints.

Peter

Yes, I think you're right. I really do want him, and no-one else at the moment so I'll be honest about my budget and see what he can offer me. I have saved a bit on what I budgeted for a couple of other items so could stretch to a little bit more but he may be able to give me a better price so I'll try that first ?

thats what I would do - tell him your budget and ask what he could offer you for that, he may even have some suggestions himself how to work to your budget. I think its al in the way you approach it really.

Ask him if it's possible to let him have 1-2 hours off while you eat and add that time on at the end.

Ask him if you feed him a good meal would he stay longer [the meal maybe cheaper than the extra time and he may be grateful!]

Ask him if you can pay in installments, so that way it doesn't feel like a huge amount and you may be able to save a little extra to cover the extra time you'd like.

Ask someone else to add a bit of money to it in the form of a present so you can have the coverage you'd like.

Ask if he offers a wedding photography gift list service so lots of guests can pay little chunks off the total cost.

Ask him if he can discount the disc if you choose a limited number of images, not all of the them.

Good luck ?

Oh what brilliant ideas, thank you. I hadn't thought of any of those.

Hi Allgold, We're the same, I wanted to haggle with all the togs we were going to see, but OH said he wasn't sure we could, some of them are reasonably priced WITH an album and others are reasonably priced WITHOUT, and we would pay extra for one.

OH came up with a lovely Idea, if we do decide to choose someone who doesn't do an album with the cheaper option we would buy our own, and it means I can add things like, Our place settings as Mr & Mrs, and some dried flowers from my bouquet, and other little things that you wouldn't get if the album was included in the price.

I can't wait to meet up with the togs we have in mind, as they all seem lovely and I have a few questions to ask, but I'll need to write them down when I remember as my memories rubbish. lol

Lxx

Update! update! ?

We've booked the photographer! Went to see him today and he was great. Really nice guy, really relaxed, showed us all sorts of albums and samples and was really happy to sit and chat through everything. He knows our venue really well and it was so right that we booked him there and then. My initial worry was the cost wasn't it? Well he sorted that out for us without us even having to ask if we could negotiate! He charges x-amount of money from bridal preparations through to speeches then £100 per hour after that. I really wanted him to stay until after the first dance so the thought of another £500 or so on top of the original price was scary but before I even mentioned it he said he would do those extra hours for free for us. What a bloomin lovely bloke!!

Sooooo happy with today. Photographer I really wanted at a really good price.