Alcohol- No great story started with a salad

It depends on if your venue allows it.

We are in very early stages and haven't booked a venue. But just interested in doing that if we are able to.

I'm using my own alcohol for me it's cheaper but a little more stressful making sure I have enough for my guest count ect. I priced out companies that provided the alcohol and the cheapest was double what I've spent.

Good to know! How did you figure out how much to get with your guest count?

We aren't, but did look at a venue that would let us bring our own, so had priced it out. Honestly if you're doing a FULL bar, it likely won't be much cheaper unless you're okay with running out of certain booze. If you want to do beer/wine/signature cocktail or punch, it's definitely cheaper to buy your own if your venue will allow!

Our venue provides a full open bar, and FH and FFIL want to bring a few cases of craft beer for the bartenders to serve at the reception (which our venue is totally fine with, obviously). Some venues will require you to bring your own alcohol. This is really a case-by-case situation.

@Jenna so most of the charts you find online are for 100 people my count is 120 so I just added a few more bottles of vodka and rum ect. I also sent the chart to my AMAZING bartender which she has been a life saver and she said the chart was spot on. Also I would say know your crowd now my crowd personally will drink whatever as long as it's free for majority of them but for the few who have a certain drink they like they will have the option to have that. If you know that your crowd is majority beer drinkers then definitely have more beer than hard liquor ect

Thanks @kiandra! I'll have to find a chart, probably on Pinterest :-)

We did! we hired bartenders and rented barware. We had top shelf liquor craft beer and Vineyard wine and we paid about $17 per person.

We way over bought on the liquor because we knew we could return it and I didn't really know what mix to buy for my crowd but I can return everything that wasn't open so it worked out okay.

I planned on each of my guess whether they were children or not having one alcoholic drink per hour. This way people like children who don't drink at all would balance out people who drink way more than that.

So if I had a hundred and fifty guests and a six-hour wedding I would figure 150 x 6 = 900 drinks.

They say you should plan on 50% wine 25%. 25% liquor. I knew that my group would be much bigger beer drinkers than anything else so I planned on 50% beer and 25% of each of the others and then I overestimated. I went with kegs of beer and barrels of wine. which worked out way cheaper but is also not storable afterwards so you either have to drink it or throw it away. Wine can go in the bottles if you have them (i saved some) packages simlar to what I had (fancy craft beers and top shelf booze) would have cost me about 32 dollars per person other wise. Let me know if I can help.

I should say it was definitely more work I had to pick up the kegs and keep them cool which wasn't exactly picking like a few days before the wedding but you know Everyone likes a baby pool full of kegs of beer. It may have been a little bit stressful but 100% worth it

Awesome information, thank you!

We are doing a keg and some mixed drinks then having BYOB.

@NTE I considered getting a kegs but I wondered what do you do with leftovers glad too know you either use or lose it. Honestly up until now I was still considering buying kegs

@Amanda I am hearing a lot more about BYOB at weddings. Did you just include that on the wedding invitations?

Here is the chart I'm using sorry on mobile so will post one at a time

Mixers

Please no BYOB! Don't make your guests bring their own alcohol. That's worse than a cash bar.

Check with your venue first they might not allow it!

@Lindsey good point. Was honestly curious how to even tell your guests it's BYOB and how that would be taken.

@Kiandra, thank you! That's super helpful!