Cash bar vs. Open Bar

Do they have a consumption bar? If so, can you try to estimate the cost?

What would the cost be if you just offered one red, one white, two kinds of beer and a couple of mixed drinks?

Is there any option of you providing your own alcohol? What is their corkage fee?

I have a lot of friends that are drinkers too that will be attending my wedding. That was actually a consideration I took into account when looking for a venue. The venue I picked allows us to bring our own alcohol and choose any cater we want. We picked a cater that had affordable pricing ($27 per person) so that we could spend even more on alcohol.

Consumption bars scare me....I think a lot of alcohol gets wasted at weddings. I know anytime I set down a half-full glass of chardonnay to go dancing at a wedding, I return to find it cleared by the catering staff, and then I have to go get a totally new glass. It just seems like a gamble.

I think the cash bar thing is regional. If it's normal in your area, I don't think it's that big of a deal, especially if you provide an open cocktail hour. Obviously the more you can host for your guests, the better. Is there any other budget area you can trim? Beer and wine is totally plenty, IMO.

If I went to your wedding and you had a cash bar, but gimongous gorgeous centerpieces, a fancy live band, and a couture dress, I might be put off. Not that you're doing that, just saying.

@Kris, that's something you can talk to catering staff about. We made sure glasses were not taken away unless they were empty. Also, because every guest had their seat, nobody was missing a drink.

Oh Mrs S that's good to know. I will talk to our caterer about that.....we get to bring our own alcohol so the cost is more reasonable, I just know that's super annoying to me as a guest when I come off the dance floor thirsty and have to make my way to the bar!

Great suggestion, thank you!

I'd say one hour of an open bar is at least better than nothing. Just find a way to make it clear to your guests so that no one is taken by surprise when suddenly the bar becomes cash.

Definitely make it clear to the guest to bring cash if they want to drink after cocktail hour. I've been to a wedding where the no one knew until they got there and everyone just had cards - no cash. The wedding was held on a ranch where there were no ATMs nearby. It left many guests frustrated. That's really the only problem I could see is if your guests aren't informed to bring cash to drink with.

We had a cash bar and had NO problems...people who wanted to drink went to the bar and paid for them..several times!

We did have a consumption tab for soda & water. I have no idea how long it lasted. No one said anything and the bartenders never came to me for more money.

If you can't afford an open bar, don't have one. I think you'll be oka

This has been discussed here many, many times, and every time it's a discussion without a clear "right answer".... In my area, NJ/NY, cash bars just are not done. But 54.00 per person for three hours seems like an AWFUL lot of money! An average person (on paper, lol) drinks two drinks the first hour, one the 2d hour, and one the third hour. And some will drink more, and some, not at all. But even in my area, that sounds like a LOT of money pp.

And if they all know that there is only one hour of open bar, I bet they'll drink twice as fast, lol!

In my cultural norm, not having an open bar is bad manners. We took this into consideration when planning every other element of our wedding. The two most important things to us were food and booze. After those were covered, we could have fun with the rest.

As someone else suggested, I would not be upset if you didn't have an over the top dress, etc and had a one hour open bar and a cash bar for the rest of the evening. Just make sure you make your guests aware.

I am quite impressed with the maturity of this thread so far. No tar or feathers yet. It really is a thing of cultural norms, we weren't even asked at any of the venues we looked at about an open bar, or given prices because it's just not done around here. I definitely do want to cover soda/water for my guests though. Do what is best for your guests and your pocketbook, and make sure if you're doing cash and that's not a given where you're from (which I'm guessing it's not) let your guests know, probably by word of mouth and wedding website (which I just typed wedsite...)

I keep seeing people post how it's so much per hour for an open bar. Is this a regional thing? We are paying $22 per person for a premium open bar. Pretty reasonable it seems from what I have seen.

22 per person per hour? or for the night?

For the night, 5 hours.

Wow that's amazing. I only found 2 venues that do per person complete open bar. For premium bar for 4 hours one was 45 per person and the other was 40.

Open bar at our venue would have doubled our price... so we provided open beer and wine for cocktail hour, a champagne toast, one wine pour with dinner, then had a cash bar after that. In the information sheet that went out with invitations we noted that it would be a cash bar and credit cards would not be accepted (because I was worried people wouldn't have the cash on them). I think it worked out just fine. We provided guests with 3 or 4 drinks on us, and if they wanted more, the bar was available to them. Everyone still had a great time!

Sorry for the late reply ladies...I have been sick in bed with bronchitis and the flu all week (no fun!!);

Anywho,@ maiburedneck; thats an awesome price!! I wish our venue had that option, but they don't.

@Kris S.; I wish we could trim the budget back even more to allow for more mula towards the open bar,but we are only doing what we can at this point...

@Anne Marie B; congrats on your recent wedding!!

Where we are getting hitched is a hotel and they are pretty strict on their pricing. On top of that, we are not allowed to bring in any outside food or beverage (besides the wedding cake) so that leaves out bringing in our own booze And, if we did a consumption bar, we would be in pretty big trouble, seeing as both FH and my Family are heavy, heavy, drinkers...

Whats the best way to word something like this on the invitations??

Hearing these stories, I am even more grateful that we got an open bar for 60 people for five hours for only $250.

What I am doing is unlimited wine, beer and sangria which is $12 a person and a cash bar

Hope you feel better!

I don't think it belongs on the invitations. You could maybe sneak it onto your website, if you have a reception page where you list the dinner menu or something. And spread via word of mouth.

If cash bars are just never done in your circle, I'd do what I can to get the word out so people aren't surprised. If someone's going to get huffy about it, I'd rather they do that at home and not at my wedding. I would also double check that the bar will accept other forms of payment besides cash. A lot of people don't carry cash anymore.

Could you add wine service with dinner? And then switch to the cash bar afterwards? Some non-drinkers might not think to get a glass of wine during cocktail hour, they might only think of it once they sit down for dinner and then it would be too late.