Did you negotiate contract terms?

Yes. Everything's negotiable. Especially if you can pay in cash. That's usually what we say to get the vendors to soften (not just for the wedding, but other events as well). My job entails a lot of negotiating & event planning, and FH is in sales so we have a few tricks up our sleeves

Do understand that the vendors may have good reasons for certain things, so if they're digging in on something it's worth finding out why, and there may be another creative solution. It's all about give & take to get everyone's needs covered It's less intimidating if you think of it as a conversation focused on mutual needs than a negotiation.

Are these vendors in Italy?

I have to tell you that 'being annoying' is not the way to get vendors to happily work with you, which is key. Yes, everyone should be very clear on what is being provided and what is being paid. But a reasonable change to you may not be a reasonable change for them, and most of us have done hundreds of weddings, probably some of them for lawyers.

And if you pay in cash because they are not paying taxes? Beware.

I asked for clarification in most of the contracts on some things. For example my venue charges a per hour rate based on number of guests. Our estimate puts us just over into a category, so I wanted to be sure that if we end up with a final guest count in the lower category, we would pay the lower per hour rate (which would save us several hundred dollars) so I had them spell that out in the contract. They also had an act of God cancellation clause that would have required us to cancel a week prior to the event, which clearly made no sense. I did get them to come down on the price for the on site accommodations for the night before and the night of the wedding.

DH is a lawyer (not contracts, but still - he pays attention). We successfully had a few things altered. A lot of wedding vendors just grab some contract templates off the web, and they don't necessarily realize what holes or outlandish provisions are in there. We had one vendor push back, but we reached a compromise pretty quickly.

I've asked for clarification on a few things. I did not negotiate costs. I feel like most vendors set their prices according to what they think they deserve/need. If they were within my budget, I used them. If they weren't, I found someone else.

For example..who am I to tell a florist that their work is worth less than what they think it is? I wanted something that was higher priced than I liked. So I told the florist that and we worked together to find a less expensive option. Its not like buying a car here.

Sure you can try to negotiate pricing and contract terms - but remember that the vendor can always say no!

I didn't negotiate any of my vendor contracts, but I did read them with a fine tooth comb and ask for clarification if necessary!

ETA: Also think about the kind of company you're negotiating with! It might be easier to make contract changes (depending on what the changes are obviously) if you're working with a sole proprietor - but it will be much more difficult if your vendor is part of a large company. For example - my venue coordinator can't just make one off contract changes on her own, she'd have to go through her bosses and get everything cleared past their legal department!

Paying in cash helps them avoid credit card fees, and have a guaranteed payment (i.e. not a check that might bounce, or a card that could get denied). It isn't necessarily shady.

We negotiated our venue contract but actually asked for things that costed us more, so I guess they were okay with that, lol.

We requested our DJ to change the wording in our contract- it said that the company could use pix for promotional purposes and we requested a privacy clause and the company obliged. Not sure if this answers your question.

We negotiated with our photographer- we mentioned that there were a lot of things in their package that we did not need, so they gave us a $150 discount and added an hour extra.

I support changes that either 1) puts in writing what was agreed upon verbally or 2) covers you in the off chance the vendors cannot deliver their services.

At the end of the day, the contract is legally binding, so it's being smart, not annoying.

We asked for clarifications. For example our venue is in the woods and there is a clear "road impassable in high water" sign. The venues contract states there will be no refunds for weather so I made them include something that stated if the venue was unreachable or hard to get to they would change our wedding date at no cost. As well as in our first meeting she slashed some prices since we had under 100 guests but when she sent me the contract the prices were the same. I asked her to change the prices to what we agreed upon and she was happy to do so. But if she wouldn't have talked to us about lower pricing I would not have negotiated it.

Misread the above. sorry.