Quando, Quando, Quando?

One statement you need to get into your head when planning a fabulous wedding on flimsy funds, is flexibility = financial feasibility.

The time of year and the day greatly determines your wedding costs and your ability to negotiate.  It is simply a matter of economics.  If demand is greater than supply then this pushes up the market price.  This is true of every commodity, weddings are no exception.  Peak season for wedding is April-October and increasingly popular is winter weddings Dec-Jan.  Venues are likely to be less accommodating to negotiation for weddings in these times, even if you have the skill of a Jedi master!  That said it is not impossible.  Our wedding has been booked for August-peak wedding season and we still got a bargain and I am here to tell you how, here are my top tips!

1)    Know the must haves, should haves and could haves

Know the times, days and months that you are willing to compromise on and the things that you are not.  For us we wanted summer (July or August) but were flexible on both days and times.  This is good to identify for looking at ways to reduce cost further down the line (which I will come to at a later point). 

2)    Time (day) is money

Be flexible on your day.  Saturday is premium price territory that is a fact.  It is not to say you can’t save some money, but you are unlikely to get a great deal off.  If you are really looking to get the best value for money then opt for a midweek wedding.  It is true that most of your guests will need to take time off work to attend, but if you mean something to them this shouldn’t be a problem.  If you like this option, then I would suggest you pick a midweek day in the school holidays.  Teachers don’t have the flexibility as others to take days off in the week in term time and therefor booking midweek in the school holidays considers this.  In my own wedding we were happy to be flexible on the day of the week, choosing a Thursday (in school holidays).  This was great for our venue as they have an assured event mid-week and allows availability for Friday and Saturday for another wedding. 

Guaranteeing you will increase a standard Sunday-Thursday daytime/evening trade for a hotel (probably by a substantial amount) is a great platform to negotiate better menu prices, drinks packages, room rates etc.

3)    Wedding breakfast or evening meal?

One of the largest costs in your wedding will be your food and drink provision.  If you have a lot of guests this can quickly bump up a budget wedding to a bumper wedding.  David and I come from two large catholic families (and we are still breeding – queue mental image of monty pythons ‘the meaning of life’) and this was a major hurdle for us, as we had 150 guests.  I will talk about venue options more specifically later but for now let’s focus purely on timing.

It’s not rocket science to understand that if you feed your guests once, i.e later in the day, you will save yourself a lot of money.  Opting for an afternoon wedding, with perhaps a high tea (usual cost within hotels varies from £6.95-£15.00 per head) followed by an evening meal/buffet/bbq might just pay for your wedding dress, in the money you would save.  For other money saving options, look at moving away from a formal sit down meal for an informal buffet or BBQ later on in the day.  Run the numbers and see.   

4)    A wedding later means less expense for guests too

You might not be the only people on a budget, your guests shell out quite a bit of money too for your wedding, not just on the gifts but the outfits and accommodation.  Opting for an afternoon wedding gives your guests the option to travel the day of the wedding, saving on a hotel fee.

Getting a deal at a hotel - the right mind set

The right mind set!

I am a huge advocate for reciprocity and the collaborative solution.  Your aim in negotiation should always be to find win/win and not to get all you can at the expense of others.  Your wedding day has to be everything you hoped and you only get that if all parties helping to deliver that want to go the extra mile for you.  And, guess what, people go the extra mile for people they like!  You have needs and requirements; your venue also has needs and requirements.  This has to be profitable for you both.  Never forget that.  I believe really good business relationships start with mutual respect, honesty and good listening.  Just like your relationship with your fiancé.  Treat this no different and you will find yourself effortlessly knocking the price down without even realising it.

Planning your wedding style

Getting down to it – option 1 the DIY Wedding

Now, there were a few silver linings, my previous wedding (I would say marriage but that really would have been over egging the pudding) had at least given me some insight into the whole proceedings. I knew, from experience, that the moment you tell anyone you are planning a wedding pound signs appear in their eyes and everything miraculously goes up about 50%. This is something that actually makes my blood boil. Here is a live example of this in action. 

When I was looking for ‘low cost wedding venues’ I started with the idea of hiring a village hall. For your very valuable information, a few years ago the lottery fund invested a whole bunch of money improving old and dilapidated village halls and community centres. This meant that some village halls now had all the mod-cons needed to host a decent wedding venue. One of these village halls was a Village Hall on the out skirts of Sheffield. Now, this is a lovely hall, it is nice and roomy inside, has a good sized kitchen, is licenced to serve alcohol and looks out over the cricket field, perfect for a summer wedding. It was all looking promising. Then came the pricing…and make sure you are sat down for this. To hire this hall for a family occasion or birthday they would charge £600 including tables and chairs!  This was looking a possible option. Then, came the dreaded ‘wedding price’. Down in the small print was this. ‘For weddings we charge £1800 for the hire of the hall’!! Seriously, What???? That is an increase of well over 100%! I, stupidly, thought this price had to include venue decoration, table hire, chair hire, basically all that you would need to do to turn a village hall into a suitable wedding venue. When I asked what the £1000+ more was actually providing, this was the response:

 “Hi
Thank you for your enquiry
On a wedding we offer a service as opposed to just a bar at a party.
I am sorry we do not do weddings on Fridays.
Thanks
L”

Hummmmmm…On this occasion, I think not.

This is not to say there is not a little gem of a village hall near you, just waiting to be discovered. Most of the quint hall’s in small villages do not have websites or facebook pages so it takes a bit of good old fashioned stomping the country roads to find them. If you are keen to walk down this path, I would recommend having a romantic trip out and exploring the area. If you can, stay at a local B&B and ask the owner about the local halls, chances are they will know a few of the local ones in the surrounding villages too. They may also know of local farms that hire out their barns, as previous wedding guests may have stayed in the B&B. It’s all out there if you are prepared to but the work in-or know a super keen family member/friend that would be happy to do the work for you.

If you are liking this idea a few words of caution…do your numbers as the devil is in the detail! When I was pricing things up, this is how it looked:

Hall/Barn hire: £800-£1800
Food: £15 per head x 144 = £2160 (I sourced this from a fantastic organic café Home Made that do the most awesome buffets)
Wine and Prosecco: £350
Venue Decs: £1000
Total: £4310 - £5310 

Now, you may not want the full on venue decorations and you may be talented and skilled enough to do that yourself and save a £1000, but I was after a wedding that looked like it had cost £15,000 but actually cost £5000. This, DIY option, was actually coming out more expensive! When you factor in all the hassle of setting up, clearing away and the logistics of how on earth you are going to serve the guests, this was looking a pretty dumb option.

If this option you are interested here are a few tips:

1. Most supermarkets offer free hire of classes if you buy alcohol from them…you can earn back money on your loyalty points too.

2. Have your wedding late in the day and only feed guests once

3. If you are really on a budget why not ask family and friends to provide a dish (if you do this I strongly advice planning a menu and give your guest a specific dish-or you may end up with 30 M&S quiches) this could be part of your wedding gift.

4. Try decorating the venue yourself, search charity shops or ebay for plain white table clothes. If you have a local Asian fabric shop you can pick up some beautiful silks and tulle for very good prices, use for table runners and sashes, all they need is a hem.

5. Search ebay for chair cover hire or local event company’s may offer you bargain rates for collecting laundered covers and setting the venue up yourself- Typical price per chair cover is £3.50, DIY price £1.99. If they don’t quote you this ask and then haggle…£1.99 each is a fair price for this option, don’t be fooled.

6. One word IKEA….small single stem vases, orchids, silk flowers, funky glasses all of which you can make a ‘favour’ of for your guests.

7. Fairy lights and candles, they transform any venue

8. Shop about for booze. The supermarkets have some great offers on, wait for the bargains and stock up when you can. 

9. When hiring the venue, check out the ‘standard hall hire cost’ first, both for week days and weekends. This acts a point of leverage. If you know the hall can cover costs at £25 per hour then do not settle for £60 per hour just because you are having a wedding. Try for a win-win and meet in the middle. Also, ask for the total cost of the venue first before you start to negotiate. If this happens to include a full hourly rate when the hall will not be in use (typically 1am-8am) then highlight this and either request there is no charge in these hours or ask for a significantly reduced charge. Some will negotiate, some will not, what you do depends on how much you love the venue.

For us, this option was not coming up smelling of roses. It actually smelt like a lot of hard work and not much return on that investment. It was back to the lap top and calculator, ah my old friends I have missed you....