Consumption bar for 30 guests?

We did a mix of both. We had a package for 4 hours that was priced per person, and then during dinner for 2 hours it went to consumption because we also had red and white wine at each table. We had 40 guests. I think consumption is a good option if your guests don't drink much. If they do, then for your peace of mind, it is nice knowing the exact price you're paying so that's where a package is helpful.

ETA: correct typo

I am a little confused. If it is a seated dinner, why aren't the guests ordering the drinks from waiters? I think that you should still plan on 2 drinks in the first hour and one drink every hour after that, but I personally drink less when I am at a sit down dinner than when I am standing up/dancing at a wedding. I think that would be a good, conservative estimate though. You can estimate costs by choosing the average drink price and multiplying it by #hrs+1 and by #guests. i.e. $10 avg. price x [3 hrs+1=4] x 30 guests = $1200

I had a big wedding with an open bar, but I think for a guest list your size and the type of wedding you're having, consumption makes more sense. If you know you have wine drinkers, it's definitely more economical to order by the bottle instead of by the glass, so maybe you can see if they'll let you bring in a couple cases of wine, and then any beer or cocktails can just be ordered directly from the servers. They might have a corkage fee, so just make sure you compare price of the bottle plus corkage, against just ordering bottles off their menu.

Sorry, yes they would be ordering through the servers. I meant the servers would be using the main bar instead of providing us a separate bar area, etc.

I think consumption makes sense, but I would want to know how they distinguish between your guests and other people ordering from the same bar. The cynic in me would worry if other people you don't know try to put their drinks on your tab.

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Ah good idea! Thanks! And your avatar picture is amazing lol

I definitely think consumption for 30 people for a sit down dinner is a great way to go. The only thing I would suggest is that if people request specific wine bottles for the table, that you limit which ones they can choose from. You wouldn't want them to order a $100 bottle, when you really only budgeted for a $30 bottle.

See if the restaurant will work with you on curating a specific menu for your event. App/Dinner/Drinks/Dessert/Coffee&tea that way you're not unexpectedly paying for a massively expensive bottle of wine. You can do something like Wine Choices "Merlot, Cabernet, Chardonnay, Pinot grigio" and when one bottle is finished they just open another of the same kind.

I wouldn't let guests pick which bottle to open, only the type of wine available.

Then if they want beer or a cocktail they can just order what they want directly. (hopefully all of that made sense)

I have a guest list of 30 as well. We are going back and forth between open bar and consumption. Our concern is that many of the guests would not normally drink the lower prices liquor on the open bar list at our location. Let me know what you decide!

We did exactly what you are talking about with 25 people. We pre picked one white and two red wines for dinner and the restaurant had a full bar available so anyone could order whatever they liked from there as well. I was estimating about three glasses per person (knowing the drinking habits of our group) and we ended up just a little under that.

Most restaurants will have this type of option available for private parties like yours.

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Thanks! This is exactly what we're looking to do!

We had a consumption bar as well for 42 guests because the other option would have been a cash bar 😶. It worked out well.