Band charging €1,000 more for wedding than party

Have to agree with John Rambo on this - am currently trying to organise completely non traditional wedding, no church, only 70 guests, no formal hotel 'do' with band/dj/speeches etc.... have had conversations with hotels who told me that they could cater for private dinner party for 70 people no problem, and would arrange to price it for me, then asked me what the occasion was, and once wedding was mentioned was told i needed to consult with their 'wedding co-ordinator' - needless to say price goes up.

funny how dinner party for 70 costs more when there are a bride and groom present eh?
 
Why not just call it a celebration to recognise the signing of a civil contract between two families?
 
I'm in the process of booking a wedding myself and find the prices to be ridiculous. Lucky a close friend of mine is in a wedding band and will do the occasion for a reasonable price. As regards to the reception venue has anybody actually booked a venue for wedding without telling the hotel/venue that it's for a wedding? I'm interested as all the hotels I've been to have terms and conditions that say they can cancel if acquried under false pretences. Has anybody got any experience of this?
 
You can still haggle with the hotels, and get their prices down, as I'm sure you can with a band. The biggest mark up seems to come in the form of the wedding dress as far as I can see.
 
Sylvester3 said:
Why not just call it a celebration to recognise the signing of a civil contract between two families?
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Good thinking! Ill try that and see what response I get.

I have researched some venues - just to rent venue space, they couldnt care less what the occasion is, there is a set price for rental. Its the hotels Ive experienced the 'oh we need to assign the wedding co-ordinator to you' response from.
 
Very interesting reading. Like truthseeker I am currently trying to organise our wedding, non trad, civil ceremony, meal afterwards and back home for booze and dancing. Rang a hotel to book a private room for a meal and tried explaining that while it was a wedding meal, I didn't want red carpet, matching flowers, toastmasters and all that rubbish. Was immediately given the wedding co-ordinator spiel. Told her I wanted to be able to order from their normal a la carte menu which with 35 people would mean we would probably be leaving them over 3k. Despite their website advertising a room which was suitable for a max of 35 people, she told me that because there would be less than 60 people I would have to pay €450.00 for the use of the room. While the venue is exactly what I am looking for I am damned if I am paying 450 quid, to use a room designed for 35 people, because I don't have 60 people. Waiting for her to come back to me to see if the owner will waive the fee.
 
We had a similar experience when shopping around a few Dublin city centre hotels for somewhere to have a simply post registry office meal for close family and then a few drinks and finger food with friends. Most of the hotels still insisted on us talking to the banqueting manager who proceeded to show us hangar like function rooms in spite of what we had told them about our needs. Some were quite disdainful. Some were genuinely helpful and accommodating. We ended up choosing the Schoolhouse Hotel on Northumberland Road (reserving the restaurant for the afternoon and part of the bar for later) because the manager there at the time (2002) was particularly helpful and they gave us a reasonable deal.
 
Clubman is spot on with the restaraunt route. Im involved with a band that plays weddings, I see 40-50 weddings a year. Most venues milk it, but theyre in business to make money from the wedding trade. So if you dont want the hotel red carpet treatment, I would definitely advise a restaraunt rather then a hotel.

As to other comments, I would say that theres no best way of doing it. A DJ only gig may work for some crowds in some venues, but it will definitely not work for others.
 
Stifster said:
Thing is, if you asked for a cake as opposed to a wedding cake, you wouldn't get the bride and groom on top. They are very expensive those little plastic people.
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And they are becoming a significant percentage of our population. Its scary.
 
weddings/cars. two words which add significantly to purchase price. if its made of plastic and comes in a lucky bag or out of one of those toy machines its cost 50c. if its a part for a car its cost €20. the wedding cake price is definitely a scam. can you get a bakery to bake a cake and get someone else to ice it like a wedding cake? or even vice versa?
 
Tell that band to shove it and shop around, haggle a price with another act. 1000e extra is a joke.
 
we got married on a monday not a bank holiday just a regular monday. I negotiated every single quote down significantly based on the fact that they never get weddings booked in for mondays. in all i think the reception including the meal for 85 people and afters for 120+ and a round of drinks was 4000. I was quite pleaed with that. I git at least 20% off the first quoted price for everything and even though wedding was 2006 i worked with the 2005 quotes when negotiating. If you are having a wedding on a saturday expect to pay more cos the suppliers have people crawling over eachother for dates. I think our band and dj came to less than 1200 in the end.
 
sandrat's post raises some interesting points.
we got married on a monday not a bank holiday just a regular monday. I negotiated every single quote down significantly based on the fact that they never get weddings booked in for mondays.
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This is very true. theres circa 20000 weddings in Ireland per annum. 10 years ago Hotels gave reduced rates mon-tue-wed, now that reduced rate seems to be only mon-tue and in some places not at all. All other services should follow suit with price reductions. Note though, having a wedding on a monday means 120 people taking at least 1 day off work, babysitters in etc. so compromises may have to be met.

If you are having a wedding on a saturday expect to pay more cos the suppliers have people crawling over eachother for dates.
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Exactly, take that band who were only charging 500 and then asked for 1500. Id imagine people snapping their hands off for that price so it was inevitable that they put the price up based on that alone. If youre going out for 500e and you have 10 couples looking for the same date and they know 1500 is the going rate for a band for a wedding, why shouldnt they ask the going rate? Supply and demand etc.

You'll find bands will be more negotiable with price outside of peak season, ie, summer months and December when they can sell nights many times over and can afford to ask for more knowing theyll get it.
 
Yes put this band are really thaking the you know what. I spoke with two other people over the weekend, one who got married recently and the same band charged her €800. The other person is getting married this August and they're charging her €1000.
 
if they keep getting bookings for weddings then their price is sure to go up - supply and demand and all that.
 
Re: Band for Wedding - price upped €1000

Caveat said:
DJ only is better IMO - it's what we did. As long as the DJ is given good guidelines as to what to play I don't see any issues.
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we don't all need guidelines

The reason we charge more for a wedding than a normal party is that a more experienced Dj will do weddings as its more important.

More experienced guys charge more.

I'm doing this for 15 years and have done about 800 weddings. Therefore i charge more than a guy just starting out. I also have full insurance ( some hotels say all vendors entering must have it ). Also the level of equipment i carry for weddings is much higher than say a 21st. If you are going on after a band you need to have the same level and quality of sound.

I'll answer any other questions........oh and i'm on my honeymoon so i have a good view of both sides.
 
Stifster said:
Thing is, if you asked for a cake as opposed to a wedding cake, you wouldn't get the bride and groom on top. They are very expensive those little plastic people.
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Yes, we got ours a few years ago for about €10.
 
Re the hotels charging more when you say it's a wedding as opposed to a family function, definitely ring round and be firm about what you want and some hotels will accomodate you.

We had a civil ceremony and only wanted an informal get together afterwards, rather than the formal speeches and stuff.

We had picked a hotel we liked, and explained that we didn't want a "wedding reception" that we were treating it more as a "family reunion/celebration" scenario - food, wine, function room to ourselves, entertainment for the night arranged by us, plus the private bar in the function room was to be staffed all night so we wouldn't be traipsing through to the main bar all night. Did not have to pay for the privilege of using the function room (which the hotel also decorated FOC for us with fresh flowers etc) as our food and wine costs were over a certain minimum amount to make it viable for the hotel. This was a well established popular hotel in our home city too, so it's not like they were stuck for business and needed to crawl to us!

Just to note also, for anyone thinking of doing this and who are going the civil ceremony route, a main reason IMO that the hotel was ok with us doing the "family reunion" type celebration and not charging us wedding rates was the fact we told them there would not be a bride done up in white dress and veil, nor groom in top hat and tails, as most hotels have a policy of only one wedding per day so as to avoid confusion for the parties and the two brides wouldn't be "taking away" from each other on their big day.

The fact I reassured them that the dress was to be more casual - no obvious wedding party fare (ie I was in an evening dress rather than white dress, groom in suit but not tux/tails etc, and no huge gaggle of bridesmaids etc trailing round either), meant they could go ahead and book another wedding the same day as us (in thier other function room naturally!) without fear of the other bride who was doing the big white wedding thing getting in a strop over another woman "taking away from her big day"

So just to bear that in mind if you are going the civil ceremony route and don't plan on the traditional white dress- that alone could swing a hotel in your favour towards doing the family celebration style booking rather than a wedding booking IYKWIM.
 

Thanks for the info - hadnt thought of mentioning to any hotels that I wouldnt be decked out in traditional dress for the occasion.
 
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