Can we talk drink packages? How much was your open bar

We paid $55 a person for beer and wine at our winery wedding. A glass of wine at our venue is typically between $12-$16 so it was a good deal for us.

View Quoted Comment Thank you! Do you think your guest missed having liquor options?

Daughter's wedding was at a relatively high-end country club-type venue in So Cal. The basic package included cocktail hour and wine with dinner. We added a full premium bar for 5 hours for $35 pp (not including tax, service charge, or bartender tips; with those included, it was about $47 pp). Toward the end of the night, I asked a bartender if we "got our money's worth" and he assured me we did quite well compared to what we would have paid for a consumption bar. ) A cash bar was NEVER a consideration for us.

View Quoted Comment Our venue was a winery so no liquor license. Liquor would’ve never been an option. But we had an open bar with liquor at our welcome party and at our wedding it was really good local California wine, not two buck chuck or barefoot so everyone loved it! Quite a few people went back the next day and bought bottles of wine to take home.

$28 PP for beer & wine is great! Usually those options are plenty and much more appreciated by guests (and classier) than a cash bar. 👍

I got lucky with mine. Mine is costing 750 and I have 60 people and it's full open bar for 6 hours

View Quoted Comment Oh wow that’s a great deal

View Quoted Comment I agree I was thinking a partial open bar is way better than no open bar!

View Quoted Comment Thanks for sharing!

Ours was either $21 or $25/pp for beer and wine, can't remember which, so your price sounds about right. We were also able to bring in our own liquor, which we did, and the venue supplied the mixers at no additional charge. I've seen some packages on here that we're outrageously priced! If you're concerned about budget, having just beer and wine is perfectly acceptable.

We are doing just beer and wine. My venue doesn’t go by per person. We will start out with $500 down. If the bar already served almost $500 worth of beer and wine they will find my parents and ask them if they want to add more money or stop and make it cash bar.

Wow! That’s a lot in my opinion. We are paying 19 per person for 5 hour limited spirits/ beer & wine. But this could definitely be a regional thing.

My venue has 2 wedding packages and both include full open bar. I'm assuming the alcohol is $20pp since meals for adolescents/young adults 13-20 are the same entree options (instead of kid's chicken fingers) and are $100pp and the meal is $120pp for adults 21+.

This seems confusing.
Around here an open bar means they charge per drink. Not per person.
I'm not sure where you're from, but this just seems odd to me.
We're doing beer and wine. But we're buying our own and providing it til they drink the kegs and bottles dry.

That seems sort of pricey...our catering company is by no means cheap and even their drink package is only 32$ pp (liquor, beer, and wine)

Where the heck do you live??
We priced over 30 venues (toured 10) and the most expensive one was $22 for beer/wine, $27 for basic open, $32 for premium, $37 for platinum. Not including service fees. For 4 hours
The average was $14 beer/wine, 17 basic open, $20 premium, $23 or 24 for platinum. For 4 hours. Not including service fees.

View Quoted Comment Every venue I’ve toured in VA has a per person price per hour. That gives unlimited drinks to each person for however many hours you choose.

OP, our venue let’s us bring our own alcohol, so it’s much cheaper. But for the venues we toured we were seeing similar prices in our area. If you find a venue that lets you bring in your own alcohol, that’s a good way to cut costs.

We are paying for 3 hours of open bar. We are paying $16.00 per person for the 3 hours and that includes top shelf, wine, beer and soda. Open bar will be cocktail hour, we will shut down during dinner and then re-open from 7:30-9:30 for dancing any more drinks after that will be cash/card.

Mine is $35 pp open bar. Half price for those under 21.

5 hour open bar (beer, wine and liquor) for $36 pp in Palm Beach Florida