Venue Search - Anyone ever tried this?

XmasProposal

Starting to look at wedding venues and comparing the various packages against each other is a pain most on this forum have probably experienced. So many variables between the packages and one's that initially look great value become far more expensive than others you initially discounted because of the cost when you add in the missing elements (wine, toast, evening food etc.).

My initial approach was to spreadsheet things out to allow easy comparison of the different packages but it's still a bit confusing. Especially knowing that every hotel can be negotiated with, that many of the packages include things we wouldn't be interested in etc.

It's got me to thinking: has anyone ever outlined their own package and requested the different hotels to quote for it? I'm half tempted to mail it to all the different places we'd be interested in as a single email so they can see they're tendering against each other!

Anyone tried this and had much luck? Or do wedding co-ordinators see it as a serious breach of etiquette, take the hump and quote accordingly?:o

deskgirl

When we were picking our venue I got caught up with all the packages too, thinking they were better value. In the end we went with a hotel that doesn't have a package but ended up approx the same per head.
One point I did query with a few hotels was in relation to the 1/2 a bottle of wine included per person in the packages. As this would be way too much wine for any wedding, I asked what would be done with the extra bottles and I was told it was 'up to' 1/2 a bottle per person so you were charged the same whether 70 were drank or 50!!
I would definitely recommend deciding on what you and your partner want in your ideal package and then asking for quotes based on that.

XmasProposal

Oh, another question on venues: anyone have any idea if another of those donedeal packages is likely in the coming months? We're working to a very tight budget and those packages look to be incredible value even allowing for the price of additions to them etc.

Gatica

Well looks like we weren't the only nerds who took it to the spreadsheet!
We did a comparison of ALL the venues we liked the look of. We compared full package prices and basic prices, as well as our ideal "package" from their price list. That gave us an idea of the type of venue it was cost-wise.
Then we mailed them all, but separately to get more accurate latest prices and so on. We picked to view them based on what we liked, to be honest, not based on the price. Then out of the ones we saw and that gave us new deals or prices, we updated the spreadsheet, which then had the most up to date info on the places we liked and we saw (filtering out the places we no longer wished to consider).
Our final decision was then a combination of what we could afford and our favourites - basically a bang for buck, or best all-round deal, balancing quality with cost.

I can see the advantages of mailing them all in the one "To:" address-bar: like you said, they may want to "up their game". However, if you're worried about them not liking it and it backfiring, you could enquire under his name or your parent's for example; and then from positive responses it won't matter anyway; and if you get negative responses from places you like, then you could try making a "separate" and individual enquiry using your own name. At the end of the day, if you get on with their coordinator and they want your custom, at that stage, they won't care that you had made a sneaky enquiry

Moonbeam

I made up my own package and got the hotels to quote for it:)
I looked at all the relevent hotels and their wedding packages 1st then made m changes.
I found the price alot of them have in their brochures for esp winter weddings is quite flexible.

Borderfox

From talking to managers in Hotels they are saying that couples are coming in and saying what the amount of guests are and the budget is and then asking the hotel to come up with a proposal. Its a buyers market and all the hotels are looking for business so haggle hard

Dolbert

XmasProposal wrote: »

Oh, another question on venues: anyone have any idea if another of those donedeal packages is likely in the coming months? We're working to a very tight budget and those packages look to be incredible value even allowing for the price of additions to them etc.

Just saw this post by clint_silver - seems to be still available! Otherwise I would imagine another Groupon deal will be around shortly. They tend to happen every few months and I would imagine any hotel doing it would wait til the New Year to advertise it - take advantage of all the impending Christmas engagements

stovecrazy

hi just wondering did you ever send email with your requirements to all hotels......if so how did it go? we're having quite a large wedding approx 320, really thought we would be in a good position to bargain, no such luck to date.

watna

deskgirl wrote: »

When we were picking our venue I got caught up with all the packages too, thinking they were better value. In the end we went with a hotel that doesn't have a package but ended up approx the same per head.
One point I did query with a few hotels was in relation to the 1/2 a bottle of wine included per person in the packages. As this would be way too much wine for any wedding, I asked what would be done with the extra bottles and I was told it was 'up to' 1/2 a bottle per person so you were charged the same whether 70 were drank or 50!!
I would definitely recommend deciding on what you and your partner want in your ideal package and then asking for quotes based on that.

God, I feel a bit ashamed that my friends/family are all p*ssheads now. We've decided 1/2 bottle per person is not nearly enough and we're getting some extra bottles for the table Are we bad?!

We were the same though, some of the pacakges looked really good at the beginning and then you'd realise some things weren't in it, like one place wanted to charge us extra to use their cake knife. Wtf? Am I going to bring a cake knife in a handbag with me or something? It can all be quite confusing. I found in the end that we had to compromise as well, no one venue had all the things included in the package that we wanted so we had to weigh it up and go for the best option for price.

Borderfox

Back in the Tiger days I heard that one particular place charged to cut the cake, €3 per slice and that Bride had 300 guests and she had bought the cake from the venue :eek:

tinkerbell

watna wrote: »

God, I feel a bit ashamed that my friends/family are all p*ssheads now. We've decided 1/2 bottle per person is not nearly enough and we're getting some extra bottles for the table Are we bad?!

A half bottle is normal! All events I've been at - work, wedding, whatever all had half bottle of wine per person. Think about it - it's only 2.5 glasses per person, that is a normal amount, people tend to have at least 2 with a meal.

watna

tinkerbell wrote: »

A half bottle is normal! All events I've been at - work, wedding, whatever all had half bottle of wine per person. Think about it - it's only 2.5 glasses per person, that is a normal amount, people tend to have at least 2 with a meal.

I thought that too - it's only really 2 glasses per person and you'd easily drink that at dinner alone. Glad I'm not the only one

We have lots of kiwis coming over to Ireland for the wedding, they drink a lot of wine!

Moonbeam

stovecrazy wrote: »

hi just wondering did you ever send email with your requirements to all hotels......if so how did it go? we're having quite a large wedding approx 320, really thought we would be in a good position to bargain, no such luck to date.

That is a huge amount of people I presume most hotels can't deal with those numbers.
Send them your exact requirements and ask them to quote for it then arrange to meet them and talk about it.

That is alot of bisness for any hotel between rooms and drink never mind the meal.

ABajaninCork

Wish I'd come across a venue search website when I organised mine!

I did the whole thing from the UK. It was PAINFUL trying to find suitable venues here in Cork. My husband, God love him was worse than useless!:D

In the end, my SiL found a great venue. The whole thing was done by e-mail, internet search then I just flew in, booked and paid deposits (venue, flowers, make-up etc.) for everything in 3 days.

A search engine would make life a WHOLE lot easier!!

Owen

There's a girl in Cork who runs Weddingdates.ie, is that what you're looking for OP?