Advice for negotiating prices with venues?

I've never heard of this. It's so competitive at a venue to even get the date you want - there's another bride with an appointment right after you willing to pay their set price. Find the venue you can afford and go with it.

I second what @BeachBride2016 says.

For just the venue cost, maybe they charge less in an off season or weekday?

I think the only negotiating that can be done is if it is an all inclusive venue and you want less than they are offering.

For example:

Say they offer open bar all night, but you just want beer and wine, they will reduce that package cost.

Instead of 5 appetizers, you only want 3.

Instead of extra desserts, you only want cake.

Established venues are not likely to negotiate with potential clients. Ask about discounts for off-season weddings (winter to pre-Easter dates). Ask about Friday and Sunday wedding prices. You'll probably get a decent discount for a Thursday evening wedding.

I've never heard of negotiating with a venue for a discount. I do know that most venues offer discounts for a weekday wedding, off-season wedding, or morning/afternoon wedding.

P.S. Please change your avatar when you get a chance

P.P.S. We're date twins!

I was able to play with the food/booze package but I still has to meet my minimum. My venue/ceremony is free since they are getting the money from the catering and bar bill.

I reworked some things to extend the open bar package. They offered 2 hours and I went with less apps and buffet options to get it to 4.5 hours, which is all but the last 30 minutes. If someone wants a drink at that time FH and I are paying the tab for that.

It depends on where you are, here there is so much competition and venues want your business there is some leeway. We got the middle package for the price of the lower one because it was mid week but that was also because I asked. They were also willing to swap around certain things and added in some extras when I asked. If your wedding is midweek and off season you might have some chance of negotiating as it is an extra day for them that they would find hard to sell.if it's a Saturday peak season,it would be much more difficult to negotiate anything. Best thing is think seriously about when you want it, are you willing to to off season, after that it might be possible to swap certain things around. It really depends in where and when you are looking.

Wow, thanks so much for all the great responses! This helps. I've been going through tons of pricing brochures and so far all of the venues I've reached out to seem willing to work with me to fall within our budget. We've seen one venue so far and really fell in love with it but I'm doing a bit more research before we commit.

Thanks again!

I was able to negotiate the fee for the ceremony at the venue I ended up booking with. I negotiated a lower minimum guarantee at another venue (and then they threw in other goodies) and were also going to waive the tax. Another venue was going to throw in a free ice sculpture and lowered the price pp.

You don't know until you ask.

Never hear of it to be honest. The again Americans aren't known to negotiate like other countries.

WE found a lot of success offering to pay in CASH. We got a discount from almost every vendor for doing this.

I don't imagine that LA has an off-season, but you may be able to get a non-prime time (weekday, morning, afternoon) for less. But, you usually have to give up something (negotiate) in return.

Everything is negotiable!

I would start with what @Kayla recommended

Much to FH's chagrin (he's a lawyer and is trying to prove his student loans were worth it), we didn't negotiate with our venue at all. It's owned by the city and they are never known for flexibility, and I didn't want to risk losing it.

We did actually receive multiple offers for negotiation after I sent "thanks but no thanks" emails to the other venues we toured. We're also off season, so I think that drove a lot of willingness to negotiate.

I always negotiate. I don't think it ever hurts to ask. There wasn't much wiggle room in our venue. They did throw in a champagne toast for free, but that's about it. I've found that other vendors are more willing to come down (photographer & florist in particular).

Fall is quickly becoming a popular time to have a wedding. That being said. I wouldn't recommend it.

We were able to get a lower price if we had it on a Sunday and if we paid in full. That was the only way they would lower the price. Most venues are set in their prices.

My Fiance who LOVES to negotiate told me: "perhaps the wedding industry can't go down on price, but you could try to get extras"

So with our photographer, he didn't word it as "can we get a discount on the 10 hr coverage?"

It was more like "can we get more coverage so we don't have to worry about the timeline as much, other vendors are offering full day at a lower price point and are you able to provide a couple of hrs additional coverage?"

May or may not work out in the end as they may choose to shoot less pics, but in reality we won't need them for the 10 hrs anyways.

But yeah, you can try to get extras like free rentals, linens or a cake/dessert, menus printed etc.

I didn't negotiate at all with vendors. Heck, after my walk through I was trying to decide and I got an email saying I still had my date but they had another bride who was willing to pay for it that day so if I wanted it I needed to decide and pay the deposit right away (which I did).

The only thing I did was more along the lines of 'Here is what I want to spend, what can I get for that?'.

Really great tips! Definitely going to keep all this in mind as we really dig into the hunt for our venue!