The art of negotiation

Here are a few things that I have managed to negotiate for our wedding:

1) The fort is hosting a Civil War reenactment weekend on our wedding dates. This means that we will not have access to the bathrooms or the changing room. We found out about this the day we went to book the fort. That was also the day we found out that the 2007 rates went up $500 from the 2006 rates. By pointing out the change in rates that were not posted on the website along with the lack of bathroom facilities I negotiated $500 off the rental and the fort providing us with upgraded port-o-john facilities.

2) Mr Corn and I decided early on that we didn’t want to skimp on two things for our wedding: photography and a day-of-event coordinator. To get my dollar to go farther with a photographer, and considering my scrapbooking experience and tools, I negotiated doing my own wedding album. The album was included in the package, so we negotiated getting a CD with all of the images of our wedding, a $500 value.

3) Someone is holding a rehearsal dinner at the fort the night before my wedding. When I found this out from the site director, I asked for the persons’ contact information so that I could see about sharing some of their rentals. After contacting the other couple, I got the contact information for their tent company. My caterer was going to be providing our tent, chairs, tables, etc. By working with the tent company, both couples were able to save 25% on anything we shared. Since the people the night before us have tent that is three upgrades from ours, we were able to share with him, he gets a lower rate on all of his items and we get a nicer tent for the same cost.

I wanted to share these with you because every little bit helps. If you know someone who is getting married around your dates, offer to book them with your vendor and request a percentage off for both of you. If there is something at your venue that you don’t like, ask for a discount on the rate, or ask for something else in return. Mr Corn hates asking people to do these things, but as a former event planner, I can tell you that there is always room to negotiate and it never hurts to ask.