How to Negotiate Great Prices on Your Wedding

You may wonder how people manage to afford a beautiful, lavish wedding. Do they spend the rest of their lives paying it off? Well... beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and expensive is an opinion. Regardless of what you feel is important to invest in on your wedding day, it's certainly worth speaking up on your own behalf so you can save a little bank.

Image courtesy of GoGirlFinance.com

Some tips for how to negotiate for the best wedding day deal:

Go into this feeling confident. So many people won't even try to haggle on prices... why? Somewhere along the way someone told you to take whatever you get? Well, that's just not so! Practice haggling - the more you do it, the better you'll get at it.

Remember that wedding venue managers are people, too. They have overhead costs to cover, like the monthly rent and bills, the salaries of the people who work at their venue, and tons of other expenditures. They want to earn your business, not turn you away laughing. A little negotiation is all it takes to reach a compromise where both parties walk away feeling like they gained something.

Brainstorm ways to work it out. A Facebook friend shared her wedding-day success story with us. She got a very well-known and respected NJ wedding venue to come down on their price by 10 dollars per plate by guaranteeing at least 150 guests.

Determine what you can live without. Another friend pointed out that, after working with the Macy's Bridal Shop assistant, she was able to find a dress that looked nearly identical to one that had a designer label. By choosing the non-designer dress, she paid less than $500 for her wedding gown. In our case, a spring wedding would have been sweet, but we opted for November because prices were lower during that time of year.

Keep your expectations reasonable. As illustrated in the previous point, you may have to forgo certain luxuries if you want to save a bit of cash on your wedding. It's okay to not have the designer dress, get married at the venue that was your second choice and not your first, and so on. Remember that this day is not about being flashy or extravagant. It's about celebrating your love together, and sharing your joy with family and friends.