Cash or Open bar???

There is no red tape; honestly, there is more red tape to a cash bar, and literally none of my venues allow it. It's time consuming during cocktail hour, (every drink takes three times as long to pour, ring up and deal with), none of the guests expect it (it is not the norm here, thank god) and thus very few of them have cash. I have literally seen two cash bars in my entire career; one was at a VFW with a liquor license that necessitated it, and the other was at a venue. (That was flat out ugly...)

If you can't afford your bar service, open or limited, you can't afford your guest list. It's really that simple.

Cash bars are the equivalent of breaking out in a rash on your vagina when you know you're going to have sex! Annoying, inconvenient and gross.

It's not 'gracious' to invite someone to your wedding and make them pay for drinks.

How is there red tape? We told to venue we wanted an open bar, they told us how much it cost, we signed a contract. Boom, now we'll have an open bar.

Smh

Go read the "worst wedding you've ever been to" thread. You'll see why everyone is saying open bar. No one likes a cash bar.

Another way of wording this, what are the pros and cons to treating your friends and family well? Or: what are the pros and cons of being cheapskates? Or: what are the pros and cons of treating people to a few drinks after they've spent a shit ton of money just to see me get married?

I def get the point of an open bar now as again i was simply inquiring as I have never seen things done any other way, but having read some other post I? was unclear to that option and simply asked for clarification which I got. Thanks for the input.

Do NOT, I repeat, NOT have a cash bar!!

Brittney, the way I see it is this: sure, some people say they won't mind paying for a cash bar and they love the people getting married and blah blah blah. But even if you wouldn't mind, wouldn't you be appreciative of not having to spend more money to attend someone's wedding and have a glass of wine? It's not only proper hosting, it's just the nice thing to do for people that you care enough about to ask them to celebrate this momentous occasion with you.

Outside of our immediate family and close friends, not one of our guests would have been insulted if we had a small wedding and did not include them. This "people need to be gracious to be invited to our special day" idea is bullshit! As is said on this forum ad nauseum, your wedding is not as important to anyone else as it is to you! You and your future spouse decided to throw the party and as such the cost to do so should be entirely yours. I don't care how common cash bars at weddings can be, they are still rude to your guests. As stated by other pps- there is nothing wrong with limiting your open bar to beer, wine and signature cocktails if you wish but a guest should never have to open their wallets to pay for a wedding they were invited to attend.

Brittney, we are glad you asked (that is, if you will actually consider our advice). These posts almost always end with the OP telling everyone "FU" and doing what they want anyway, and then deleting their post, which is why you are getting a general vibe of eye roll and snark. Because usually it's well-deserved and no one actually wanted our opinion, they were just looking for validation for their poor hosting.

This tends to be a hot topic on WW. I would recommend changing your avatar and spending some time lurking

I understand what everyone is saying about a cash bar however I attended a wedding in May and you had to pay $5.00 for a bracelet that let you drink all night. We did not mind that at all and neither did any of our friends.

Ashley, that sounds like a frat party entrance to me....Not exactly how I'd want my wedding to read

A bracelet? Like this is a NYC nightclub? lol come on!!!

Every open bar wedding I've ever been to has been a disaster. People falling all over the place, vomiting, ruining venue property which the couple then had to pay for. There is NOTHING wrong with a cash bar.

@taila lmao at spending some time lurking. Gotcha

Right but most people won't end up getting as drunk if they're paying for it. Every other part of their night is paid for. If they want to get plastered they can pay for that

I've never been to a wedding that had an open bar. It would've been nice, but I didn't feel like I was hosted poorly. Before joining WW, I had no idea cash bars were tacky.

They really aren't