Closing bar during dinner? Thoughts on signature drinks?

What about closing the bar for toasts/first dances? I drink with my dinner ,but people don't need to be getting up during introductions, first dance, cake cutting ,etc..

Also, Id skip the old fashioned. you're basically serving guests a cup full of whiskey.

We closed the bar for dinner, but we had tableside wine service during. It did end up saving us a bit.

I've never really understood closing the bar at any point of the reception. It might save some costs but most people grab their drinks before dinner anyways and then go back after dinner. I don't think it'd be worth the confusion.

Well the bar would be open for dinner, just beer and wine though. We aren't doing toasts. We'd probably open it after the first dance, that's a good idea. Yeah I'm not a fan of old fashions but they are FH favorite. If I can talk him out of it I will, ha.

Will you have wine service during dinner? If so, I think it is fine to close off signature drinks during dinner. The amount you save depends on the cost difference between your sig drinks and wine.

I have attended many weddings that closed the bar during dinner, but they always had wine service so people could still have a few glasses of wine with their meals. Soft drinks were also available from the servers.

If it saves you the money, then definitely close the bar during dinner, or as e=mc2 suggested, during toasts/dancing. It's only for an hour and people will be busy eating so I don't think they'll notice (and it's a relatively common practice).

Besides the lemon drop I'm not too excited about your signature drinks. Rum and coke is a well drink and old fashions are essentially just whiskey. I always think that signature drinks should be a little bit fancy (since they're signature). Maybe a whiskey sour instead?

I was trying to pick more well drink type drinks to keep costs down yet still keep FH happy by having hard alcohol. But of course we want our guests to be happy. I guess it's back to the drawing board for signature drinks!

It's pretty normal for the bar to be close at dinner. At least at the wedding and other events I've been to. I don't know if it's to save money or to not have people walking around while dinner is being served. I almost expect it to be close if it's a plated dinner.

I'm considering having the full bar for the cocktail hour, and then switching to wine and beer at dinner. I'm also considering signature drinks. Mine will be a Lemon Drop (twins!!!), and his will be Whiskey on the Rock. They're OUR signature drinks (literally exactly what we drink whenever we have drinks), so it makes more sense to have them as the signature drinks for our wedding. I'm definitely not trying to sound snarky because I totally understand what @Kmess is saying about signature being fancy, but we would use them since they're signature to us, not for the fancy factor.

Its too confusing. If you have wine at the tables I think fewer people will get up anyway so that should save you some money.

I wouldn't bother; most people will have a glass of wine at dinner; the bars are usually deserted when dinner is served. I'd go to the OF and the LD. Rum and coke? Eh.....unless you know your group love them? don't bother.

Love OF's by the way ;-)

Wait so the bar would be open all night but there would be no hard liquor served the hour or so of dinner? I still don't understand why this would be necessary?

Jeanne - I'm just thinking that if people have wine at dinner, at about $6.40 a glass, it will overall make the night cost less since signature drinks would be $10 a drink. It would mean one less hour of the expensive options.

I like the idea of wine on the table...would just one bottle of white and one of red be sufficient? Tables will be of 8.

I wouldn't close the bar as it might bring a lot of confusion like said.. But if you are on a budget why not just serve beer and wine? That is what we will be doing to cut cost down.

My venue shuts down the bar during the dinner and serves wine on the tables during meal. They said because people would get up during dinner service and it would take longer for the servers to get the meals out trying to navigate through people. If you are doing buffet I guess that's fine to not close.

@Kathryn I thought the same thing. Every seated dinner I've been to close the bar during dinner. I thought this was just the norm for the very reason you mention.

Can you pre-purchase larger quantities of alcohol? We looked at the consumption bar, but our money stretches so much further when we buy kegs and bottles. Oh, and our venue won't let us bring in outside food or drink.

Price Comparisons

Consumption bar

Domestic beer: $4/drink

Wine: $5/drink

Wells: $7/drink

Pre-purchased alcohol

Domestic beer: $275/keg ($1.67/drink)

Wine: $18/bottle ($3.60/drink)

Wells: $75/gallon ($4.69/drink)

With a 50% wine, 30% beer, 20% mixed drinks breakdown, that an average cost per drink difference of $1.86. For some perspective, if you were to spend $2,000 on alcohol, you can get about 617 drinks if you prepurchase, but only 392 if pay per drink.

P.S. I love math!

Yeah if it's just to save the $10 a drink for one hour, maybe just cut the signature drinks all together? There's no way cutting off hard liquor for an hour is going to save more than $100-$200 at most.

These are my choices!

http://www.rays.com/wp-content/uploads/rays/2015/10/5-Beverage-MenuFall-Winter-2015.pdf

Someone tell me what to do! lol. FH insists on having hard alcohol but I got him to agree to signature drinks to try to keep costs down. We would get the "hosted" price. $8.50 includes the alcohol and a mixer. Fancier drinks are around $10-$13.

It's so hard to budget when you have no idea what your guests will want to drink ;/ Hot tea and coffee are free since we're doing a plated dinner.