[Wedding Planning 101] | "Discount" is Not a Part of Our Vocabulary
daytoremember.net | Daniel Colvin Photography | The Briar Club | Houston, Texas | A Day To Remember Houston Luxury Wedding Planning and Design
As providers of services and/or products in the event industry, we all cringe at the sound of that dirty little "D-word": Discount. We get it, everyone loves a discount, a deal. Our goal has and will always be to offer our clients a value. We’ve all heard the quote, “You get what you pay for” and these words could not ring truer! Many people may be OK with a bargain, and that is completely fine, but our clients don’t come to us for a bargain or a discount, they come to us for the value and service.
When clients book us to plan their wedding, we aren’t just providing a service, we are providing an enjoyable experience. When you go to Nieman Marcus, are you expecting bargains and discounts? How about when you head out to Ross or Marshall’s? Yes, you may find those designer labels at the discount store, and they will be a bargain deal, but we all know it is a combination of last season’s model, maybe it was damaged or irregular; therefore, justifying the discounted price.
Our goal as your planner is to provide you with an amazing experience during the planning process, where you don’t have to worry about the dirty little details, the research, the legwork.
We know how easy it can seem you wanting to do everything yourself, because after all, you have about a year to get it all done, right?! We’ve been planning weddings and events for a long time and know how stressful this can be, even if you can’t see it right away. Once that five-month mark kicks in, a sense of panic starts to build up when you realize you really haven’t accomplished much because life got in the way and know that you have to go into overdrive to get everything done. Many times, this is where the costly mistakes come into play.
We all know how this scenario ends, and when couples come in wanting to pare down our services, we politely must decline. In paring down our services and our process, we lose the quality in the effort, just to save a few dollars, your BIG day suffers, and our reputation is affected. Our creative partners and venue colleagues know us and expect a level of services when partnering with us and we intend on living up to the expectations, not just for our sake, but for your sake!
Going back to our opening statement “As providers of services and/or products in the event industry, we all cringe at the sound of that dirty little "D-word": Discount.” Yes, we cringe because as a business, we too have overhead:
Rent
Staff
Taxes
Office Supplies [ we don’t just mean pens, but software, computers, etc.]
Marketing
Just to name a few
So, you can understand, why we cringe at that dirty little d-word. I mean, do we go into a restaurant, order from the menu and ask for a discount? When your boss asks you to put in extra hours of work without pay, are you willingly agreeing, or are you quick to say no? We don’t blame you! Nobody should be asking you to work for free!
Just as we will not offer discounts, we don’t ask our creative partners for discounts either. I’m sure you have read in numerous wedding blogs, magazines and what not, your wedding planner will provide discounts for you. Quite frankly, we’re not sure why these magazines and wedding blogs advice such a travesty. Bottom line, when we’re asking our creative partners for a discount, we are telling them “we don’t value you product/service”. In the end, you, the client suffers from these discounts! Now, we do have our creative partners offer a value, in the form of added services/perks and special rates, when they know we are the planner, simply because we are eliminating hours of legwork from their behalf. Essentially, they aren’t offering a discount, our creative partners are simply not having to charge for the legwork normally provided when a planner is not involved.
We will not provide you with discounts, we will offer you the best price points with the best creative partners who will mirror your needs, expectations and style. Our goal is to match you with the best creative partners, partners who are vetted; therefore, saving you hours of research and meetings!
We all want to be someone’s priority. When you value us, value your creative partners, we all will value you and ensure you are our priority. Discounts are tempting and for certain things, you may be OK with that notion. Question is: “Can you afford to discount your peace of mind for your wedding day?”
When discounts are provided, expectations are low.
Please know our goal isn’t to charge you a premium, our goal is to ensure you have an incredible “day to remember”! We strive to connect our couples with the right partners who have your best interest at heart. Our goal isn’t to offer discounts, our goal is to create an experience. When our couples have some hesitations, we strive on communication so we can work through the issues. You never know what all we can accomplish for you if you don’t communicate! We are creatives and we partner with creatives, so we will create something beautiful, memorable and amazing for you!