Something you may not know about venues is that they track the booking window of events. The booking window is just how far in advance an event is booked.
For most Indian weddings it’s between 10-12 months. This makes sense as it takes time to plan out the whole thing and most people need to give their friends and family enough time to make travel arrangements.
However, for the few that can tolerate a shorter booking window the more negotiating power they will have. Why? Because most events are booked well in advance. It’s now June, and most venues are booking events for next April, next summer etc. VERY few are still booking for the rest of this year. They’re not getting calls for this year.
But most venues probably still have space available on Saturdays and Sundays this year.
The reason this is advantageous to you is because the venues are more willing to reduce pricing in order to close your booking. They’d rather fill the space than leave it empty altogether.
{So How Can You Benefit From This?}
Engagement parties or roka ceremonies. Engagement parties aren’t usually as big as the wedding, and you could easily plan an engagement party within a few months.
Local weddings. If both people i.e. the bride and groom are both from the area and thus so are the vast majority of guests, then sometimes those couples can tolerate a shorter booking window.
Dates Matter Too. Not exactly related to the length of your booking window but January tends to be a pretty slow month at venues as they wrapped up corporate holiday events and in general, people “take a break”. Making it a good time to seek out a better deal.
Type of venue matters. When it comes to hotels there are resorts that are geared towards consumers. There are business hotels and convention hotels. Convention hotels love short term bookings because it’s like icing on the cake for them. They’re accustomed to booking big corporate events so when they get last minute weddings or engagements it’s awesome for them.
And convention hotels all look nice and have enough space for Indian weddings – making them a really good option.
The tradeoff is that compared to resort hotels, most convention hotels do have a more corporate look and feel. But this is subjective. Some people care about this more than others. We just want you to know the differences and possibilities so you are considering all your options. 🙂
{Real Example}
I had a 5 month engagement. Luckily the venue we wanted was still available on our preferred wedding date and they were super accommodating and willing to negotiate because their chances of booking another event – especially one that big – for those dates were very slim.
I got married at the beginning of December so my wedding didn’t conflict with our guests’ holiday travel plans. But we also knew that most people had probably made or were going to make travel plans and that our wedding would be an unexpected expense. And when you’re considering the average family of four with flights, hotels etc. it can really add up cost-wise.
So we hosted the hotel rooms for all of our out-of-town relatives as well as all of their meals. So we also removed that barrier – expense – that might have been a factor in their decision about whether or not to attend the wedding.
I share those details because it’s important to consider the logistics holistically. We knew we had a short window of time. We both have a lot of relatives and we wanted all of them to attend the wedding. So we optimized our decisions and thus our wedding budget around that.
{Venues Know Holiday Weekends Are Popular}
Venues now know that Indian weddings are very popular on holiday weekends so even if you get married on the Sunday of a holiday weekend (where Monday is off), they still give you Saturday pricing.
{Take Aways}
If you have the ability to book your wedding, engagement or other wedding event, closer to its date the more negotiating power you’ll have with venues. I would be remiss if I didn’t also note that there are tradeoffs, which you can probably guess: venues may not be available, vendors may not be available and some of your guests may already have plans.
The other big take away is to consider the logistics holistically. For each wedding decision it impacts 4 or 5 other things. Think of wedding decisions as clusters, write down the options, consider their pros and cons and then you’ll have complete info to make well informed decisions.
{ShaadiShop Testimonials}
“We just booked a full Indian wedding through ShaadiShop at the Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort. In addition to the business, we appreciate the exposure ShaadiShop creates about our venue, as the couple didn’t know about our resort until ShaadiShop told them about us. Additionally, we appreciate the pre-qualification work that ShaadiShop does to match couples and venues that are a good fit for each other. We had all the info needed to conduct the initial meeting. What a great service for venues to market to the South Asian community!” – Angie Florence, Catering Manager at The Waterfront Beach Resort, Huntington Beach, CA
“We’re so glad we joined ShaadiShop to market this hotel to the South Asian community in the Orange County area. Every wedding we close from their leads returns more than 3x our investment. Moreover, they pre-qualify leads and educate consumers creating a much better sales cycle for our catering team. Venues looking to reach this market, join ShaadiShop!” – Ryan Hurd, Catering Sales Manager, Wyndham Anaheim Garden Grove
“Shaadishop helped me not only find venues but also understand how they work, the fees, and tips that I wouldn’t have otherwise known. Definitely a need service in the desi community. “ Hinna S., Bride
“Cannot say enough good things about the service from Samta and ShaadiShop who helped us research venues for our wedding this year. We wanted a non-hotel venue, and to get married within 6 months. ShaadiShop immediately found us venues, contacted them and educated us about all the things we needed to think about while selecting a venue. They put all the info together in a fabulous, super impressive, spreadsheet that helped us compare venues – seriously amazing and such a great help. Working with them made the whole stressful process MUCH easier and I can’t believe it was all free! ShaadiShop’s website is fantastic and such a great service for South Asians – so glad I found them!” Anjli S., Bride
“We’re so glad we used ShaadiShop to book our venue. The info on the website is amazing and then they gave us such personalized attention! They were such a valuable resource for selecting venues, helping us understand policies and logistics. Their suggestions saved us a lot money too! They really understood us, what we wanted and helped us get it. AND it’s free! So glad there’s a service like this for South Asians. Awesome that there’s something like this for South Asians!” Janki K., Bride
“I worked with ShaadiShop to find a venue for my daughter’s wedding. The website is easy to use and has so much useful information. ShaadiShop made everything easy for me – getting quotes, suggesting venues, explaining fees and policies. Most importantly, my daughter and son-in-law are happy with the venue. ShaadiShop is a great and service for our community. I’m so glad I found them!” Charu S. Bride’s Mother