Cash Bar vs. Open Bar

I say either have an open bar or a dry reception. Personally I would be a little put off by a "cash bar" at a wedding. It's like you're in the club. If I'm inviting my friends to a formal dinner at home I don't expect them to pay me for the liquor. For that reason we have an open bar.

If you're receiving beer and wine as part of your package, just ask for a pairing suggestion from the caterer. Print the pairings on the menu, and forego the liquor all together.

^^^^ What Shileta said

We are doing unlimited beer and wine. A full open bar was just not in the budget. We will have a cash bar for mixed drinks. For my family and circle of friends, I don't think anyone will complain.

We are hoping to have enough $ to do a full open bar, but for right now we're doing beer & wine, but no cash option.

We're offering an open bar, but our venue allows us to bring our own alcohol. I've personally never been to a wedding with a cash bar. However, I think offering unlimited beer and wine is plenty (a limited open bar).

I'm old--and I have been to one wedding in my life that was full, open bar all night. We are hosting beer and two signature drinks--sangria and margaritas. Up to a certain amount. Our crowd is mostly in their 40s, and like to knock back a couple, but not get trashed. Our venue told us they have NEVER hosted a fully open bar, and it is our city's country club. I guess that's just how its done in the Cornhusker state. We are going to a wedding three weeks after ours, and have already been informed that it is a cash bar.

Ours is a fully open bar. We get to bring in our own alcohol and are charged a corkage fee per guest (around $3/person). Pop, water and mixings are included.

Having an open bar or a loonie/twoonie ($1 or $2) bar was one of our biggest priorities. We didn't want our guests having to shell out for drinks, or at least not very much. We managed to score an open bar.

In our circle, it is considered bad manners not to thank your guests with a good meal and a night of unlimited drinking and dancing. To us, that is what a wedding reception is. We are doing the same for my daughter.

However, the type of bar varies greatly by geographical region. I think as long as your guests are aware that you are limiting your bar to beer and wine, you will be fine. In the event they would like something different, they need to know to bring cash.

Unlimited beer, wine and champagne. There will be no other alcoholic options so therefore no "cash" bar.

I think beer and whine are fine. Though you might want to look into having a signature drink for free as well. But honestly if people want more they can pay for it.

Someone else used the hosting a dinner at your house analogy for the guests not having to pay for liquor, but i think of it this way- if you are a guest at someones house you aren't going to expect them to have a certain type of drink, you will drink what they have or you would bring your own.

Same idea at the wedding, you either drink what they provide or they pay for their own. (and this is from someone who doesn't like beer or wine, only girly mixed drinks-which is why i say you might want to think abut adding a signature drink)

Though i do think it's bad if someone doesn't offer any form of drink for free.

Beer and wine for our reception the entire night, no hard alcohol. Wine on the table during dinner which we pay for but then after dinner, the guests pay for their own drinks. We're also paying for coffee and soda for the entire night. It's a good compromise to both the open/cash bar debate and between my FH and me. I was fine with a dry wedding (I don't drink) but I think some of our family would have aneurysms if we didn't have some form of alcohol there. Sad but true.

Agree with Shellie on the dinner party aspect. Most dinner parties, guests are polite enough to bring some form of alcohol, especially beer or wine. I have never gone to a dinner party where guests didn't bring SOMETHING (no italics option, sorry) be it a dessert or wine, etc. But I'm from Minnesota so maybe we do things differently there. I haven't been to any dinner parties or weddings outside of MN so I can't honestly say anything in relation to whether location matters or not when it comes to etiquette.

Luckily for us my DHs parents went traditional and according to them, it is tradition for the grooms parents to foot the bill for the alcohol so they did. That doesn't mean we didn't worry about cost, we did but what the hell, you are only supposed to get married once right?! But our wedding was on a Sunday and I saw the liquor bill, it wasn't bad at all! Also we got to bring in our own special bottles of champagne for the bridal party and the parents so that helped.

We are doing a cash bar whether it be thought of as tacky or not. When we are invited by a bar owner to come in and celebrate St. Pats or New Years, we sure don't get free drinks for celebrating with them. I am doing drink tickets for the bridal party because I do not want nor can I afford to have a $5000.00 drink tab. If people don't want to pay to drink alcohol then good news, water is free!!!

I planned to do a cash bar, but FH is considering changing that. I told him to discuss that with the providers. I don't drink so I was thinking that I would like to provide the champagne for the toast and that was it.

I say remember you have to live after that special day.....personally I think beer and wine are fine!!!! And if it's in the budget maybe add a speciality drink, however beyond that I wouldn't even stress about it!!!!!

Limited Open Bar of Wine and Beer

Our venue allows us to bring our own alcohol with insurance, so we decided that we only wanted beer and wine since that's mostly what all of our guests will drink. We are estimating about 5 16oz cups per guest. (160-175 guests)

I have a full bar in my house and I only drink when we go out and then it is only beer. : ) I think it is an old people thing. lololol

IMO, the difference between wedding guests and dinner party guests is that wedding guests don't show up empty handed. Usually, they bring a gift, or a card full of cash, and sometimes they pay for travel, attire, etc.

I wouldn't expect a dinner party host to have every item under the sun I want to eat or drink (try going to potlucks when you can't eat gluten lol). But, I wouldn't host a dinner party and say, "You can have beer and wine for free - there's also Jack Daniels but you have to pay for that." If I couldn't afford to give them the Jack, I'd stash it out of sight or drink it before they showed up. lol

I do think there are times you can't help it. Like some venues have built-in bars that can't be taken down or they have packages you can't change. I just think in general, it's better not to put things in front of your guests that you don't plan to serve them for free. Unless you see this all the time at weddings in your area - and then likely people won't think twice.

I am having a full open bar..but i think as long as your offering beer and wine for free its fine to have the cash bar for cocktails..I do agree with the others about maybe offering 1 signature drink..but just to have a cash bar and no other options is tacky and rude...I have heard someone say on here before that they don't drink so why pay for the guests alcohol. and they are just having a cash bar. that's like saying I am a vegetarian and i will have a vegetarian meal as an option for free but if you want meat it will be there but you have to pay for it..that's just ridiculous.

We have posted on our website what drinks we are hosting, and it is also on menu cards. 1 keg of beer, and six gallons of margaritas and six gallons of sangria should be plenty for our guests, many of whom do not drink or who are underage. So I think other than a few hard core drinkers--and we do have a few of those--who only drink their "one thing", we should be fine. We are also hosting all soft drinks. Our venue won't let us bring anything in, and they don't want to close the bar. So, that was really our only option other than drink tickets or to have full open bar for a few short hours. The guests we've talked to are really looking forward to our Mexican themed menu and drinks too! They think its really different and will be fun. (Sure hope so!)