They did offer something ... a non time sensitive deadline, that's worth something in my book. Not 300 off of 700 but something.
That said i have a policy in my wedding photography business that if they're trying to lower prices just to lower prices then they're likely not the type of client i'm interested in having.
However if it's a friend and they have a budget they have to work with i try to get close to their budget but always make them stretch in the end.
Haha! Yeah, I guess the non time sensitive deadline is worth something. But nope... not going to discount the shoot, I tend to be way too busy with regular clients and I'd rather be in a rush than give a discount. That said, yes, I work with friends on occasion too and I do offer slight discounts to them. I also have one client that I often shoot 4 or 5 houses a week for, she gets a little bit of a "bulk" discount but I have never met this new person, they live in the SF Bay area and they own a second home that they use for additional income. They can afford full price. When I shoot for SF Bay area people, I often struggle to get paid anyway. Something about that crowd... they often think they can pull fast ones over on us little hick mountain folk service providers. Happens to my contractor friends all the time. Nope, I'll let my competition have that client haha! Cheers brotha!