Cash Bar, Open Bar or a Combination of The Two

We paid for a one day event license so we could provide our own alcohol. We had a small wedding in the middle of the afternoon. We had wine, beer, hard cider and hard lemonade. Our guests loved it and we had more than enough.

@kudos2jen- I am from Alberta as well, and yes from my experience it's cash/Toonie bars all the way.

My best friend was killed by a drunk driver and I also lost several family members due to incidents with alcohol over the years. For this reason we never even considered an open bar and would not. We are serving drinks for an hour at dinner because I do feel that you need to provide cocktails at dinner, but then we are offering free soda for the rest of the night. I would never forgive myself if anyone drank to much and was in an accident on the way home, etc. I know it is their responsibility to monitor their own drinking but feel they do it more if the booze is not free. Tacky or not, It is what we are doing..it will be on our website that their is a complimentary cocktail hour during the dinner hour and Cash bar afterwards so they are prepared.

If I went to a wedding with a cash bar, I would gently open the card envelope, take out the cash gift to use for my drinks, and place the card back.

We (meaning FH & I) are adults hosting a grown up gathering, not a charge-at-the-door underage house party.

It's just not done in my circle/family/region/whatever.

We have too many heavy drinkers in the family so we decided to provide wine for the tables. When we spoke with family and friends about the fact we weren't having a bar they decided that they would rather had a cash bar because they had no problem paying for the drinks.

I personally don't drink and had one drink the entire night and it to me when my MIL knocked it out of my hand and it broke on the floor... While I was barefoot!

I don't think it really matters as long as your guests know and it works for you

Http://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/is-it-okay-to-not-have-an-open-bar/b99252e7dcb89a98.html

Try that thread.....

Lol @Elyse.

Gonna chime in my 2 cent here...

i went to a wedding that billed 250 lemon drops and 180 fireballs for 250 people... the couple ended up paying 7500$ on a bar alone...

That's in Utah... which mean approximately half of the guests don't drink.

I myself who don't drink and always a volunteer designated driver has 3 shots and 3 cocktails... Why? because it's very unlimited and very free

Learning from that, I am opening the bar but no shots and probably gonna cap it at ****$ and we will decide to either continue to open or cash bar from there....

Cash bars at the start are really tacky and kill the mood!

We did an open limited bar. Only wine and beer. We didn't want people going too crazy with the drinking so we kept it simple. I'm glad with our choice.

Thank you to all the ladies who shared their experiences. I appreciate it.

thanks Mandigurl but it's moot at this point.

In my opinion, the reception is a celebration of two lives beginning. In today's world, there are no set traditions. People just pick and choose what they agree with. I would bet most girls on here are not virgins, that use to be tradition. I bet many live together before marriage. How many of you are paying for your own wedding, a good majority I would guess or at least a big part of it, that use to be parents responsibility. Times change and it isn't right to pick and choose. I don't think it is fair to judge nor condemn and consider something a norm when nothing is the norm anymore. I am getting married again in my late forties. We are having a almost completely family reception on a military base. My grandchildren will be there. We are having a signature drink and toast and the children popcicles in a wine glass filled with 7-up. There will be an cash bar, because I am not promoting nor taking upon my soul what could happen if one of my loved ones had one too many.Just getting pulled over by the MP's could risk security clearances. No thank you. We are providing teas, coffee and water also. In our invitation after the menu selection "cash bar" will be written to let people know if they do want a drink , they will be able to get one.

A cash bar will still get people drunk, take a step into any bar and you will see this. Just sayin.

We have a 4 hour beer and wine and we will have a sign that says liquor drinks are on them I think that's fair. We saved 500 $ on that

Cash bars do not bother me. I had never been to an open bar until our own wedding. Our bartenders actually came up to us as we were eating dinner because our guests had already went through 2 kegs and we were onto our last one. (We had bottled beer there as well in case our kegs ran out). Everyone apparently thought only the beer/ wine was hosted so my husband made an announcement during his speech that the entire bar was actually hosted. We still have our friends and family talking about how they cannot believe the bar was free.

You serve what you can afford.

If you can't afford to serve alcohol, cut back on the types you serve, or don't serve it at all.

We specifically selected a BYOB venue where we could have more control on what is served.

We are doing an open bar. We went up a package tier to get it since it was important to FH and all our friends love their alcohol! I never have cash on me either so the one wedding I went to that had cash bar, I wasn't prepared for and just drank water all night. Boo.

Open bar. Always an open bar. Even if it means all you're giving out is wine, do you and bar

Cash bars are not appropriate at a wedding. You are supposed to be hosting your guests and that does not mean charging them for drinks. There is nothing wrong with a limited bar. If you can only afford to serve beer and wine, then do that.

And the fact that some couples buy their OWN alcohol, which they are able to buy at much lower prices compared to venue prices, and STILL charge their guests $2 or whatever per drink, is really very poor. I'm shocked people do that.

Cash bars are the norm in my area/circle of friends. It doesn't offend me in the least. The only 2 open bar weddings I've been to were limited to beer only. I was ecstatic. We will also be hosting a "beer only" open bar. Of course I would love to have a full open bar, but we are likely spending around $5000 on the entire wedding. I can't justify spending as much on a full open bar as my entire wedding.

Just curious... I don't normally carry my purse around with me at weddings, so what do you do with your money for cash bars? Stick cash in your bra or carry a purse around all night on the dance floor even. Just doesn't make sense to me. Most dresses don't have pockets.