Outside Vendor Fees

[cksk2016]

Hi there

 

I'm getting married in April 2016. in Montego Bay, Jamaica. I've chosen to have our wedding ceremony and reception at a private venue so we can add that personal touch. Plus since I have 50 guests travelling from around the world to stay with us, I thought getting everyone off resort would be a welcome change of scenery for everyone. We are all staying at the Royalton White Sands. 

 

BUT here's the issue - RWS are trying to charge us $450 for each outside vendor fee to bring our photographer and make up artists etc to our rooms. I really don't see how they can justify trying to charge us this when we are just paying guests. We are  not using any of their wedding services so it's not as if it's a loss of earnings - they were never getting the business in the first place! I'm really annoyed as there's lots I could use the extra $1000 dollars on. Even with bringing 50 guests we are getting no discount so you'd think they might have some give here  

 

Have any other brides experienced this before? Any other brides got married off-resort?

 

Comments very much welcome!!

CK xx 

[vancouverpetunia]

I would guess that they are trying to charge that because they have those same vendors available onsite that you could hire directly. While you may never have intended to do that, it still is a potential source of revenue for them that they are losing. But that's just my guess - I haven't experienced this situation myself. Vendor fees SUCK!

[ashhtayy]

If I were in your position I would have assumed they would have charged a fee...but for a day pass, not a vendor fee.

 

A day pass at our resort is $99 and the vendor fee is $800. Big difference!

 

Are you doing any wedding festivities there? Welcome party, etc. How do they know it's a wedding? Maybe that doesn't matter now but if you are not doing any wedding festivities there I would try negotiating the fee down to the day pass fee per vendor.

[acw271011]

@cksk2016  I was in exactly this same position last October except in Mexico. We renewed our vows and had a super miniature size group, which ended up only being 4 of us. We had our ceremony off site then had a beautiful dinner in a really nice restaurant in Playa del Carmen. I had the same thing happen. I had our photographer booked and wanted him to do getting ready shots and a first look at the resort where we were staying. Plus I booked the makeup people to come and do my hair and makeup and my friend's hair and makeup so that we could get ready at the resort. Wrong! They only charged me $105 which is a day pass for the makeup people but the photographer charge ended up being $435 and it didn't matter how much we argued they were NOT getting on board. I had the same argument - we weren't using ANY of the resort facilities or vendors. We were leaving the resort. They didn't listen to any of it. They said we had to take a 2 hour package with their photographer which was going to cost $350 no matter what. I knew nothing about them, about their quality. I don't even remember the name right now. I told my husband that it didn't make sense for a photographer that we had already paid a fee to for a 5 hour package to not come to the resort and pay another $350 for someone I knew nothing about. I stood in the resort lobby and cried. To me it was just so unfair. My husband is so amazing. He stepped in and we paid the outside fee.

 

I really don't think you'll get around the outside fee for your photographer, but I would absolutely try and get the makeup people in for only a day pass instead. The one thing that works in Mexico (not sure with Jamaica) is that the top makeup people do airbrush makeup and the spas at the resorts don't so you can say you're getting a service that the resort doesn't provide. It doesn't always work but it's worth a shot.

 

I've been on this site since 2010 and the number of times I've heard from brides about the outside vendor fees they get charged..... if I had a nickel for reach time I'd be rich I think. It's one way resorts really do get you. Most of the vendors they use aren't really much good, especially the photographers. I've heard of brides here paying $800 and $1000 per vendor in fees, mostly for photographers, which really is outrageous. For us, in the end, we used the resort's gardens and little bridges for pictures. Since we paid the fee I made absolutely sure we went anywhere we wanted to for photos.

 

I'm absolutely certain you won't regret going off site. I'm soooooo happy we did. Places I looked at just didn't cater to really small groups. Wanting to stick us in a la carte restaurants with all of the other people around just wasn't on my radar. We got a great private room in a restaurant that closed us off form the rest of the venue and it was absolutely great!

 

The other thing to look into is whether or not your makeup people have an off site salon or somewhere that you can go to for having your hair and makeup done. I looked into it and if I had known ahead of time it would be an issue I would have picked a resort closer to town because it absolutely was doable. But it would have meant more than an hour's travel and we were already tight on time. That may be worth it for you if they're able to do it.

 

Good luck! it's a crummy thing that the resorts do and sometimes you need to be creative to make it work but if you can figure it out it will all be worth it.

[tiffanyt]

@@cksk2016 if you're getting airbrush makeup you can definitely get the vendor fee waived because that is something that they do not provide. I just did a site visit at RWS and the wedding coordinator said since they don't have airbrush in their salon then the fee will be waived.

As far as the photographer, I don't think there is a way around that, probably only if they are staying at the resort. But like@@ashhtayy said, maybe you can see if they can do a day pass because charging an off site fee for a wedding that isn't being done there is pretty crazy. Does your venue maybe have a space that you can get ready so you don't have to worry about the extra fees?

[Jnj]

Hi there

 

I'm getting married in April 2016. in Montego Bay, Jamaica. I've chosen to have our wedding ceremony and reception at a private venue so we can add that personal touch. Plus since I have 50 guests travelling from around the world to stay with us, I thought getting everyone off resort would be a welcome change of scenery for everyone. We are all staying at the Royalton White Sands. 

 

BUT here's the issue - RWS are trying to charge us $450 for each outside vendor fee to bring our photographer and make up artists etc to our rooms. I really don't see how they can justify trying to charge us this when we are just paying guests. We are  not using any of their wedding services so it's not as if it's a loss of earnings - they were never getting the business in the first place! I'm really annoyed as there's lots I could use the extra $1000 dollars on. Even with bringing 50 guests we are getting no discount so you'd think they might have some give here

 

Have any other brides experienced this before? Any other brides got married off-resort?

 

Comments very much welcome!!

CK xx 

Hi what was the final decision on the photographer? Did you have video as well?