Are wedding packages normally flexible?

EvaSwitch2 · 13-09-2017 1:22pm #1

Hi Everyone,
My first post to Boards to bare with me

I was just wondering if people know whether the per head prices that venues offer in their wedding packages are flexible? If the package on the website says €65 p.p is this the final price or is there wiggle room say if we are going to have a big number of guests!

Korvanica · 13-09-2017 1:23pm

You can usually add/remove different things to tailor the package to what you want/your budget.

EvaSwitch2 · 13-09-2017 1:39pm

Thanks Korvanica! We're going to view some venues this weekend, prices are ok but with the large number we will be having it's starting to look pretty expensive so hoping the venues are open to a bit of haggling!!

scarepanda · 13-09-2017 1:57pm

The price is usually the price. But depending on what your looking for you might get a few extras for the same price.

Also, if your planning on getting married in the 'off' season (usually November and February) you might get a higher package for the lower price, but again it depends on what your looking for, how busy/in demand the hotel is and how much the want your business.

SarahS2013 · 13-09-2017 2:37pm

As others have said, unlikely you'll get a reduction in the price per head but you may be able to add things like an extra option on the menu, parents room, prosecco & canapes reception etc etc

stargazer 68 · 14-09-2017 8:32am

As above you can usually get stuff added in complimentary - make sure that it is written onto your contract. Ours was and when the wedding coordinator left and the new one took over she had to go with the agreement - could tell she wasn't happy!!! But I have heard so many people having to fight for what was agreed as it wasn't written down.

scarepanda · 14-09-2017 8:57am

Dovies wrote: »

As above you can usually get stuff added in complimentary - make sure that it is written onto your contract. Ours was and when the wedding coordinator left and the new one took over she had to go with the agreement - could tell she wasn't happy!!! But I have heard so many people having to fight for what was agreed as it wasn't written down.

Don't just write it down, go through it in as much detail as possible and have a written copy of this. We're having this issue at the moment. The coordinator we were originally dealing with left and the manager that we were always going to be dealing with closer to the wedding is trying to either renege or change what was agreed. Some stuff I have written in detail, but some I don't because I never thought it would be an issue. But as the coordinator I was originally dealing with has left I can't fall back to her.

baby and crumble · 14-09-2017 9:18am

What we've done is work 90% of our issues via email (no phonecalls with the venue even if it's quicker) so we have a written record of everything. After our visits we've written an email to say "thanks for the visit today, just confirming that x, y,z"

Our venue has been amazing, so it's not been a problem yet, but it also means we have a record ourselves of everything agreed to be vendors/us, which we can search at any time.

Also- get yourself a separate wedding email that you can ditch after the wedding. Separation of church and state, and all that.

EvaSwitch2 · 14-09-2017 11:03am

Thanks so much for all the advice, so so helpful. I would never have thought about having all the small details in writing, but will definitely make sure I do now. Email is probably the handiest way to do that as will always have something to fall back on and I love the idea of setting up our own wedding email account, I would have done this when it came to RSVP stage but didn't think about using it for suppliers, etc. Great idea

baby and crumble · 14-09-2017 11:12am

EvaSwitch2 wrote: »

I love the idea of setting up our own wedding email account, I would have done this when it came to RSVP stage but didn't think about using it for suppliers, etc. Great idea

Best thing we ever did. We used it for entering competitions at wedding fairs too, meant that you don't get spammed in your personal account with crap for vendors you have no intention of ever using. It also means both can have access to the account and can answer queries as they come in depending on which of you is doing what, but both of you can see all the stuff that comes in easily. It's been a godsend tbh.

Honestly, if I could give people one piece of advice when starting to plan a wedding is get a wedding email and a wedding phone number from the outset.

PhoenixParker · 16-09-2017 4:05am

We did negotiate on the package price but what we did was go for the top package and ask for their best price on that. Got it for the price of the mid range package.

cooperguy · 18-09-2017 9:26pm

We negotiated by email and played two hotels off each other. We got €5 off per head and an extra couple of free rooms thrown into the package.

mcgiggles · 19-09-2017 2:23pm

cooperguy wrote:

We negotiated by email and played two hotels off each other. We got â‚¬5 off per head and an extra couple of free rooms thrown into the package.

We tried that and one hotel (the forerunner until this happened) was basically like "if you don't wana pay that, then we will find someone else who will"
That took them right out of the running and we are so glad cos the other hotel are so so good to us!

cooperguy · 20-09-2017 10:04pm

mcgiggles wrote: »

We tried that and one hotel (the forerunner until this happened) was basically like "if you don't wana pay that, then we will find someone else who will"
That took them right out of the running and we are so glad cos the other hotel are so so good to us!

We had a hotel like that as well.

Of course you don't necessarily have to tell the second hotel that the other one has stopped negotiating either

EvaSwitch2 · 21-09-2017 3:18pm

So we have narrowed it down to two hotels now and they are pretty much on par with their packages so it's impossible to chose between them. I am ringing them both tomorrow to talk shop and see how much they will negotiate; I have a feeling one of the hotels won't budge but will just have to see!

GingerLily · 21-09-2017 4:11pm

EvaSwitch2 wrote: »

So we have narrowed it down to two hotels now and they are pretty much on par with their packages so it's impossible to chose between them. I am ringing them both tomorrow to talk shop and see how much they will negotiate; I have a feeling one of the hotels won't budge but will just have to see!

If the prices are similar I think it's a good idea to compare out of package details.
For example, how many rooms will they allow you to reserve, what are the room rates? etc. What's the late bar policy?

Price isn't the only important detail IMO

EvaSwitch2 · 29-09-2017 12:29pm

Just as an update, we have chosen our wedding venue! Woo! Both venues were open to some negotiation, only one of them would come down on the price per head and they included extra comp rooms and things like that so we went with them as overall it seemed like better value for money!
So it is definitely worth tell hotels (and all suppliers for that matter) what your budget is and seeing if they can meet that or compromise!

Are wedding packages normally flexible?

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