How to negotiate with Wedding Vendors

Here's what you can do if you want to hire a vendor that isn't quite within your wedding budget.

If your wedding planning resources are encouraging you to simply ask your dream vendors to do the same amount of work for less money... YOU NEED TO FIND NEW RESOURCES.

Sure, I get that it's hard to plan the perfect wedding and stay on budget but it's important to know that the best vendors won't be willing to discount their services. In fact, they might be insulted by you asking.

However, there are some creative ways to get a lower price without asking a vendor for discount on their services.

Negotiating

When it comes to getting a lower price, negotiating the terms of your package is definitely worth a shot.

When I talk about negotiating this means you're asking them to customize the package to your exact needs so that you can get it closer to a price point where you and your budget are more comfortable.

For example, let's say that a photographer quoted you for an 8-hour package which could be a little bit more than you might actually need. You could ask if they're willing to take out an hour or two to get that price closer a little bit closer to your budget.

Trading

Believe it or not, trades happen in the wedding industry all the time.

Let's say you're a hairstylist and you want to book a particular wedding venue, then you could trade off some free haircuts for a reduced rate on the space rental fee.

When the Kansas City Royals went to the World Series in 2015, I had a client offer me a trade of World Series tickets for a free Wedding DJ Service. Naturally, I accepted the trade and sold the pair of tickets for 4 times higher than the amount that I would've booked his wedding for.

Trust me, trades do work!

Plus, if you're entrepreneur this would be a great way to create a new client for your business after your wedding day and the trade is fully paid off.

They're worth every penny

Any experienced wedding vendor has spent years building their reputation, figuring out what they bring to the table and the value of their work. By discounting their rates would only devalue the work that they do and it teaches people that they might not even be worth it at all.

The top vendors won't budge when it comes to their pricing because they have high demand and they're confident that they'll be working on your wedding day regardless if you hire them or not. And they're worth every penny.

Also, you'll want to take into consideration that someone with a higher price has built a more sustainable business and they're less likely to disappear and end up ghosting you a few weeks before your wedding day.

It's okay to ask for a smaller package or offer a trade of some sort, but don't get upset if they say no and stick to their guns on their rates.

Derrick Heydon is the owner of Crown DJ's LLC. Please follow @crowndjco on Instagram. And we'd love to be a part of your special night, check us out at crowndjs.com.