Recently, Mr. Cupcake had a job interview (sidenote: please cross your fingers he gets this one!), and the recruiter who helped him get the interview prepped him with some questions beforehand. He told Mr. C to have a few examples in mind of times that he negotiated, in both his former job and his personal life, to get a lower price on a big-ticket item. We were brainstorming together, and he mentioned the wedding. When I really thought about it, though, I realized that we/I did not really do much negotiating — if any — when it came to our wedding.
Maybe it's just my personality, but when someone tells me that something costs $X, I don't really debate it. I don't try to negotiate the same service/product for a lower price, although I could certainly see negotiating a slightly different service in order to get the price down. But it never really occurred to me to haggle with our vendors to get their prices down. If someone's prices seemed too high for what their services were, or they quoted too far outside of my budget range, I simply went elsewhere.
Perhaps I have a soft spot for vendors and their pricing since I work in a creative industry, and often work with brides and other people planning special events. I have experienced the other side of things, and I know how disheartening it can sometimes feel when a client wants the same great product but for a fraction of the cost. It can make me feel like my time, talents, and resources are not valued, and that is discouraging. I'm not saying that every vendor experiences that feeling — but I've certainly seen that side of things!
Maybe we missed out on some great deals by not negotiating services and products for our wedding, but I guess we'll never know. I've come to realize that negotiating is just not my nature, and it actually makes me feel pretty darn uncomfortable.
Have you negotiated with any (or all) of your wedding vendors? Have you reaped a lot of rewards (or extra savings) by haggling over prices, or has your negotiating it ever backfired?
Thursday, August 13, 2009
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2 comments:
I almost always negotiate! Unless I am at a big box kind of place or the grocery store, I'll ask for $5-$10 off. (Although my father also loves to negotiate and will do so at Sears - you'd think that was a joke, except he actually gets better deals that way!) Sometimes they say no, sometimes yes. I feel like vendors should price their items a touch high to anticipate negotiating. As far as planning a wedding goes, we received discounts on just about everything by negotiating. I think our florist was the only one who wouldn't budge.
I hate haggling. I'm bad at it, and it makes me horribly uncomfortable. Luckily, Sarah is VERY good at it.
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