Cash bar

@alexandra J. Yes Check! You never know, you could save a ton!!

We are doing that too... and stocking up on liquor when Costco has stuff on sale.

@Lana - NO. I used to think that too but I was wrong and so are you.

The ceremony is about you and your FH. The reception is thank your guests. There are no ifs, ands or butts about that.

Maybe you should cut something else from your budget so you can take care of your guests properly with booze, beer & wine!

Alcohol is not a must, if your guests want to drink let them pay. All you should provide is the champagne for the toast.

This almost ended somewhat civilly before it hit 200 comments.

Sigh.

Let's all keep saying the same thing for 200 more comments.

Alexandra... you really.. dont get it.

I'm gonna try to repeat one more time, reeeal slow. Your *contribution* is 5k. Your wedding *budget* is not 5k if you had family contribute money on top of that.

Your budget is the total being spent on your wedding by ALL involved.

There is nothing wrong with having family contribute. There is plenty wrong though, with saying "i had a 5k wedding for 95, you can totally do it!" while brushing over the fact that it was done with additional monetary help on top of that 5k. Those contributions from family is still money being spent on the wedding. Its misleading and just leads to frustration when people try to plan a similar event with exactly 5k, and find it cant realistically be done.

FH and I have had to pay for maybe 5k total towards our wedding. FH's mom paid for 3k worth of photography, and my parents are footing the bill for the venue and food/booze. Does that mean we're having a 5k wedding? lol, NO.

Wow, just wow. Out of curiosity, I just searched "cash bar" and the first several results were from 2012 or earlier... As entertained as I am with the glorious hot mess these posts turn into, I think we can all agree the WW search function needs some serious improvement. And to be on mobile.

But also, even the old search results proved cash bars were a bad idea in 2010, 2011, and 2012 and are still a bad idea on 2016..... just sayin

I am doing cash bar at my wedding and I really don't care if people are upset or not if you don't want to come because if that fine. Then obviously me getting married isnt that important to those people.

I don't think cash bar is a bad thing. Where I'm from that's what all the weddings I have been to have had and noone seemed to have a problem with it. And if the bride and groom want to pay for a portion of it then bartenders will hand out the tickets until the price that the bride and groom decided to pay for is done and after that it's a cash bar. Or I have seen couples just buy so many kegs and when that is gone it's cash for beer and all mixed drinks are cash the whole night. Now we are doing the tickets and setting a price limit and the rest will be cash bar. But around where I live everyone always has beer or mixes in their vehicle so for us it's not a big deal.

It's your wedding!! People shouldn't be going to drink and if they want to drink, then they can pay. Just mention it on the invite or at least before they get there. Not every wedding has to have an open bar. Don't go broke because people tell you to

Yep drink tickets I think might actually be the actual worst.

Before I became a WW addict lol, I never knew "cash bar" existed... if I go to a wedding and have to pay for drinks I would be soo upset! So this is def a no no for me, but I guess it's a personal decision.

It's only YOUR day if you bring two witnesses to the park. Once you have guests, ask them to travel, dress up and bring you a gift, it's their day too. And I be their day includes alcohol.

@Gryff; do you love the Amazon commercial with the little horse? ;-)

I have been to weddings that have a cash bar, some that have open bar for just cocktail hour, some that had open bar with a cap and once it was reached you had to pay, and some that were completely open bar all night all drinks. We are switching some things in our budget to do open bar for beer and wine and think our guests will be happy with that (hopefully!) I've never been offended by having to pay at a wedding but glad these posts come up to see everyone else's point of view, also helped me convince FH that we didn't open bar at least for beer and wine so thanks for that !!!

No cash bar pleaseeee! If it's not in your budget, do a modified bar or just do beer and wine

You could also have just 1 or 2 signature drinks.

Wow, it looks like all the really cheap hosts come out in the middle of the night!

Tip; if you drink at night, you'll fall asleep earlier.

@Jacks; I think people should have to play lawn games to win drink tickets. It can be a theme....

I'm from the UK, and I've never attended a wedding without a cash bar. My FH has worked in catering at Edinburgh Castle, and none of those weddings had an open bar. I think it's maybe dependent on where you're from. We're providing arrival bubbly, wine on the tables, and cocktails during the dancing, but there will also be a paid bar.

@niki no you don't get it my budget is $5000. I was all ready to buy the dress, cake, and had my rings situated for well under $5,000.

Oh dear lord lets spell it out.

95 x $ 26= $2,470

Amount budgeted for alcohol $400

Amount his family are giving us for rings $400

Amount my family gave us for attire $600

Dj $500

Cake $350

Bridal bouquet $52

How much the Officiant charges $80

Marriage license $100

Two hour rental in the park for ceremony $25

= $4,977 and that is WITH ALL of their contributions that were far more than what I would have paid. We have cut all non necessities so that our guests will have a good time. It IS possible to host 95 people on a $5000 budget. Do you get to hire the most expensive and amazing vendors? No but you get the best that you can afford.

Limos, hotel nights, flowers are not important to us. I haven't even bought the fabric bouquet yet because I dont really care to have one, but it's budget for just in case.

Had our families not helped us it would have been minus roughly $300 for attire , -$400 for rings and the cake was already accounted for. Which would have put us around $4300.

So for future reference, just because someone says their budget is a certain number, does not mean that they have spent all of that money. Even IF our family didn't contribute I would not have spent the whole budget.

Believe it or not some people don't want to spend upwards of 10-20 thousand on a wedding. There is absolutely nothing wrong with those who do want to spend that much and there's nothing wrong with those who don't.

I hope that was said reeaal slow enough for you.