Archive for the 'Reception' Category
Money talks and cash speaks the loudest, so when you’re talking to a vendor or the reception hall, ask them if they offer any sort of discount for paying with cash and most places, if they aren’t huge outfits like a Marriott or a Sheraton, they will offer a bit of a discount.
Why are they willing to do this? Well, with a credit card they have to pay interchange processing fees which can run somewhere in the neighborhood of 3% - cash has no associated fee. If you pay with a check, while there are no fees, there’s always the risk that the check will bounce - cash won’t bounce.
If you’ve ever been to a wedding you’ll likely have seen, along with the invitation, information that indicated that the happy couple has negotiated a special rate with the hotel on a block of rooms. Well, now it’s your turn to negotiate this block of rooms and it’s your job to make sure two things happen:
- The deal is actually a deal and,
- You get something out of it.
When you negotiate, be sure to have a general idea of how many rooms you will need and for how many days. Hotels hate having empty rooms and hotels that occur on weekends where that hotel won’t be jam packed (concert or convention weekends would thus be a bad weekend to pick) are great opportunities to negotiate a better deal for your guests. After you get a deal, check to see that you can’t beat (or even match) that deal through travel websites - it’s not a deal if anyone can get it.
Second, make sure you get something out of it like a free room for yourself or some other perk. It’s not uncommon for a hotel to throw in a free room if you hold the reception there or get a whole block of rooms actually reserved and used.
Ounce per ounce, champagne is the most expensive alcohol beverage - even more expensive than the most top shelf liquor. Even with the cheapest champagne, this rule of thumb still holds true. Plus, champagne isn’t even that good! 
So, on your wedding night, consider using champagne (or even a non alcoholic apple cider) for toasts only.
I know it seems kind of overly frugal but ask the reception hall to box up the meals of guests that never made it to the reception. It really is unfortunate when guests RSVP and then don’t show up (they usually won’t do this on purpose) but you can take a little bit of the sting out of it by asking for the reception hall to box up the meals that go un-served. If you’re paying $100 a head and ten people don’t show, at least you’ll have ten prime rib dinners waiting for you instead of a big empty $1,000 hole.
Now, be prepared for the reception hall to reject your request for the meals to be boxed up because of health regulations but if you’re persistent, you might be able to walk away with at least a little something.
A rule of thumb is that the reception will account for 50% of your wedding costs and one of the most common techniques for reducing your wedding bill is to reduce the number of guests attending your joyous day. However, cutting guests may not save as much as you think and here’s why.
A reception hall will have a number of fixed costs such as the rental costs of the location, the catering staff, lights, etc; that the hall likely accounted for whenever they quoted the price per guest. So, when you go back and inform them that the number of guests will be pared down, they may come back and inform you that the cost per guest will increase.
So, be prepared not to save as much money as you thought if you decide to go the route of reducing the number of guests you invite.
You’re reading that correctly - find a venue that’s currently undergoing renovations. Now, why would I recommend such a ridiculous idea as to find a reception hall that’s being worked on? It’ll be covered in plastic sheets, plaster, and all sorts of construction goodness that will prevent you from really seeing what the end product will be. You’ll have to worry that the place won’t be complete in time to actually hold your wedding or your reception, you’ll have to worry that it won’t even really look like what their plan says it’ll look like, and you’ll have to put down a sizable deposit even though all those concerns are still plainly visible.
So, why would I even recommend doing such a thing? Because no one else will and a hotel loses money whenever its rooms go unused, conference and dining rooms included (if not especially). So, by looking past the scaffolding, you can snag yourself a really good deal by looking at venues under renovation. There is risk with this strategy but you can we rewarded for taking that risk.
Our first wedding cost cutting tip is a pretty well known one to anyone who has even though about weddings and that is you should cut out live cocktail hour music, if not cut live music all together. If you want live music, don’t get it during the cocktail hour because your guests will be chatting it up for that time anyway so their music will fall on deaf ears. Instead, play a Frank Sinatra CD (Try The Very Best of Frank Sinatra, a two-disc set of Frank’s very best) and save yourself a few extra dollars.
As for the rest of the wedding, skipping live music all together will not save you as much as you think because the alternative is a disc jockey, which aren’t cheap themselves, but will save you a couple dollars in the long run. Also, you can avoid tricky audio issues like feedback (since the microphone won’t be used too often) and bad singing (since it’ll be pre-recorded!).
I read a tip about putting disposable cameras, around two, on each of the dinner tables in lieu of hiring a professional photographer and I have to say that’s a ridiculous way to save money. Putting disposable cameras on each of the tables and having your guests take action shots is a great way to augment professionally taken photographs but it certainly isn’t a replacement, unless you really don’t care about photos at the reception (then it’s a perfectly good idea!).
Here are several reasons why a disposable camera is a bad idea (when used to replace a professional photographer):
- Camera Use Will Be Low - It’s likely no one has done any studies but the number of photos actually taken with the disposable camera probably won’t be particularly high. It certainly won’t be 100% and if photos of the reception are important to you then it certainly would be too big of a risk to take, don’t you think?
- Photo Quality Will Be Low - Unless you discover super high quality digital disposable cameras (at which point you’re no longer really saving much money anyway), the photo quality will be low.
- You Won’t Have Digital Copies Too - Chances are a professional photographer will take the photos digitally and your disposable cameras won’t.
Now, disposable cameras as a means of augmenting a professional photographer is a great idea because you can get so many more candid shots. A professional photographer can only take one photo at a time but an army of your closest friends, after they’ve been drinking heavily, can take a whole slew of photos!
Where should you go to buy disposable cameras? I personally would recommend eBay if you’re looking to save some money and willing to sacrifice on film quality.