One of the questions I get the most on e-mail is probably: How far in advance do we need to book you?
The answer: I don’t know. Probably anything from 1 day to 2 years. It all depends on the date.
Here is an example:
In 2013 – April 13 – Currently I still have that date open. It’s 2 months away.
In 2014 – April 12 – A bride just booked me. It’s 14 months away.
It’s the same weekend, but a whole year apart!
It’s always frustrating to get an e-mail saying: “We are getting married in September, are you still available?” That question has many answers. All depends on exactly which date.
I understand the reasoning behind the question. People are planning weddings, looking at venues and checking schedules. They have a few venues in mind which have different dates open. They are looking at the options.
However, if you have a specific date in mind please state that in your e-mail. If you have a venue and wedding time in mind please also advise that. The more info I have, the better to give you the correct info.
I sometimes get brides that will e-mail me the following: “We are a young couple with X situation. We are getting married on Easter weekend Saturday/Long Weekend in December/New Year’s day. Can you please give us a discount because of X reason?”
Now, my mother always told me when I was little: “Vra is vry”.
And I do appreciate the concept. But weddings are a lot like “airline seats”. You can’t expect do get a discount on flights the day before Christmas.
Same with weddings. There are certain month/dates that are our working Saturdays. These are the dates that we need to charge full price.
I have actually looked back on the past 3 years to check the Saturday closest to 16 December. I received 16 enquiries for Saturday 11 December 2010. It doesn’t make business sense to offer any discounts on this date and other prime wedding dates.
Iza and I got married during December 2009. We appreciated that all service providers need to ask their full prices in December. We didn’t expect a discount from anybody, even though we knew everybody really well. In the end, we decided on a Wednesday.
This gave the service providers an extra working day and made it easier to give us better rates. It was also a bit easier negotiating with service providers we didn’t personally know.
So my advice if you are on a tight budget: consider Fridays, Sundays and weekdays for your wedding.
1. Your dream service providers might actually still be available.
2. If you are lucky they might have a “non-Saturday” rate.
Consider Months that are not peak months:
January, May, June, July, August, November
I hope this gives you a little bit of insight into dates.
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