Consumption Bar

Our venue is a golf course. Basically the options are open bar, ticket bar (we give a predetermined number of drinks to each guest, after that theyre on their own, and toonie bar (guest pays $2, we pay $5).

Given those options, which would you choose?

Western Canada makes throwing a proper wedding a drag. I dunno why everything is so expensive there. How many guests are you having?

@kemmie I know! Our liquor laws make prices crazy! And most venues with their own liquor license don't let you bring in your own. About 100

Yeah I'm In Toronto at we are paying $30pp+tax for a 7 hour open bar. To be honest most of the ladies from AB, MN and BC are I've seen on here are having cash bars or toonie bars. I'm not a fan of either but with a 12k alcohol bills I'd keel over! Can you do a limited bar? Beer, wine and a signature drink?

I'm in Manitoba, Canada. We cannot do an open bar. No way in hell! I have far too many heavy drinkers in my family and booze is too expensive. Instead, we are paying for each guest to have a drink for cocktail hour and putting 2 bottles of wine on each table for the toasts. Closer to the date, depending on our budget, we may give a drink to each guest for the dancing portion but that's it. There will be a cash bar if anyone wants to drink more. Frankly, an open bar in my family would be financial suicide lol and we refuse to have a cent of debt after this wedding.

7000 dollars.... holy guacamole! I would probably do only beer and wine. I would be happy with that as a guest just as long as it was free.

L&G - I would do the open bar. The other two choices suck.

I'm 110% sure I made the right choice. Our wedding was a fantastic time. DH and I saved and sacrificed to hold the party we wanted hosting our guests to the highest of standards; just as i recommend brides here to do. is a lot of money, yes. Do we go out less and have lots of extras now? No. But I wouldn't change it at all. And am more confident now that doimg anything other than properly hosting your guests is hugely inappropriate. Also for the record, we held the party we could afford, not relying on our families or anyone else to pay for it.

Thanks Emmy. Thats our goal too. I am fine with spending the money if its all consumed and my guests have a great time. Our original budget for liquor was $5000, so I'm just worried about the horror stories that I have had acquaintances experience of $12,000 where this is a lot of waste.