meimei - You have to be clear on what you want - they will only give you things that are already in there - e.g. they will definitely give you more cards and abit more carpark. Really depends on what you want.
For myself, I negotiated to have no wines from them at all, but free corkage for everything I bring in. Cos I told them that this was the deal breaker for me - cos my fiance side drinks a LOT of wine and if I get Raffle's wine, I will go broke!! So you have to know what is your deal breaker and be prepared to walk away. A few times, I also told them that if they cannot give me the few things I must have, I'm prepared to go to another hotel.
I hope this helps you gals, although I know that this tactic may not work for everyone. For me, it got to the point that I was so frustrated, I wasn't willing to discuss anymore and I just said if really cannot, then I'll go elsewhere.
Normally for some small perks, they can provide - also we kinda 'purchased' more things from them, like we upgraded the menu a bit.. so we asked for some other stuff... also we didn't want the invites and wedding souvenirs.. so we changed that also. At the end of the day, we had to decide what we wanted and what we didn't want and negotiate from there. You can also do this, but this is usually a last ditch effort already - speak to someone higher up. But you must have a good case before you do this, if not that person also cannot help you.
Maybe you can post what your requests are here, and we can see if anyone had similar experience before?
For the lawn, they quoted me $2000 ++ for 2 hours use, but also have canapes and champangne for 20pax. The lawn is really expensive! But quite pretty... a lot of people pay for the lawn, so I don't think that they will back down on the rental of the lawn.
btw, I spoke to Tracey and she agreed to give me the bridal show perks. So I'm really happy! heehee... I signed the contract last week already. My wedding is on 16th Aug - you girls?