Open Bar is a Must?!

We are having a consumption bar where you pay per drink that people purchase. Have you asked your venue if they can do that, and put a $ limit on the consumption bar? That way the tab won't go over a certain amount and it won't get too out of hand with how much you are being billed. If the limit it hit, you can either close the bar or turn it into a cash bar. This way you get to provide the alcohol for your guests initially, but if they end up drinking a lot and wanting to continue, then it is on them. I know lots of people on this site disagree but I have asked multiple of my guests how they would feel about this being done and they think it is fair. So it depends on your guests.

We are not doing any type of bar. We dont drink. We have let people know and no one seems that upset maybe because we are getting married upstairs of an old 1800s saloon? Idk. Lol. But no one seems that upset that there will be no alcohol unless they go downstairs to their own. I'm sure my future fil will bring in a bottle of whiskey to do shots because that's just a his family celebration thing they do

I think an open bar is a matter of choice, not a requirement depending on your circle and if your finances allow. There is a bar at the hotel, but I am not having an open because me and FH don't drink like that and many in our circle are not party animals and understand our position on this. This will be my second marriage and we didn't do an open bar then and people had a great time. So unless your circle requires/prefers drinks in order to party, you may want to consider it. I wouldn't add the stress of having one if you can't afford it.

View Quoted Comment Yes I bought my own alcohol and I'm charging my guests $3 a drink. I'm not going to sit here and have my guest get drunk and stupid on my budget. My fiance's family can drink and I'm not going to pay for them to get drunk at my wedding. If we were getting married at a venue that had a bar that the guests and had to buy the drinks they would be spending at least five to six bucks a drink. I'm not forcing anyone to put alcohol down their mouth if they don't want to pay for it then don't pay for it.

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How much are you charging your guests for dinner and cake? Just wondering in case I decide to go this route for my wedding.

Name calling and saying "lol you're a joke" is name calling. Not allowed. I corrected your spelling btw.

An open bar is a must. The two arguments that go one here seem to be 1) I don't drink so I don't wanna serve alcohol and 2) people will get drunk and stupid.

1) I don't drink yet at both weddings we served an open bar. We did this for the comfort of our guests. We serve it/offer it to guests in our home, a wedding that you are hosting is no different.

2) Who are you inviting? Your old frat buddies who think it is 1987? A licensed bartender will cut people off if needed.

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A bartender will prevent that. All cash bar does is make your guests pay to get sloppy drunk if they are that immature to get vomiting, fall down drunk in public. Maybe rethink your invitations.

View Quoted Comment So you're unwilling to provide the alcohol for your guests to "get drunk" but willing to profit from it? All I can say is that I wouldn't suggest other people consider this option.

I am going to do a consumption bar. Our wedding begins at 3pm on Sunday. I'm going to consider beer, wine and signature drink. The venue says i can tell them i want to charge $1,000 for everyone's drink or $500 or whatever amount i decide, then once the tab comes near i can either increase it or stop. Giving the option is great. I do realize here in Los Angeles which much traffic most of our guests don't drink in the last hour so i didn't really want to do hour wise. If i did i would have cut out the last hour and closed during dinner (mainly because my venue gives a glass of wine with dinner). Anywho i think their are many ways to offer your guests beverages. It is a nice thing to do and proper hosting. I will say it's definitely something to consider with the venue because some charge wayyy to much per person for alcohol, especially when you know everyone isn't going to drink. Most of the pricing is assuming each guest will have 2 drinks an hour. Open bars are not very common at the weddings i've attended and actually there hasn't been any bad feedback that ive heard you either buy or you don't. I hear more about bad food/cake and music than a cash bar being a concern. My friend's was cash bar and the entire dance floor was packed. However if i have the option to provide i will. I know it will be appreciated and most will actually be surprised they DON'T have to pay. I definitely say consider your own guests when determining the right method for you.

View Quoted Comment Similar situation, though FH is 24 and I’m (going to be) 22. Im not worried about any of my friends but some of FH’s college friends can sure drink a lot. An entirely “open bar” wasn’t an option for us (the way it came out at our venue was 2k for an open bar PER HOUR, 10k total, which is just not possible for us to swing) so we’re having a limited consumption bar. It’ll be an “open bar” until the tab hits 2k and then it becomes a cash bar.

For us it’s less about being worried that they’ll get too drunk, and more worried that they’ll just have 10 drinks which will literally cost us $100 given our venue’s ridiculous drink pricing. I’m more than happy to contribute 2k for my guests to have a couple drinks, but I’m not going to put myself into debt so a few of FH’s college buddies can get hammered at our Sunday afternoon wedding lol. They can drink as much as they want, but not on my dollar.

View Quoted Comment We are doing a consumption bar too! How much $ are you putting into it? Have you decided yet?

View Quoted Comment Most of the weddings I have gone to are like this or the guest have to pay the venue for the alcohol. So it makes no difference because they still have to pay for their hard liquor drinks.

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Initially i'm thinking $1,000 but i'll have enough on hand to go up to 2,000 similar to you. I don't think our 90 guests will get that far because many of them don't drink that much plus we have cocktail hour and wine with dinner, and champagne toast that is outside of the additional consumption cost. My FH is worried his family will see they are "free" and go to town lol hopefully not

Yes, I’ll be having a full, open bar, and yes, it’s really a must-have. I’ve never been to, let alone even heard of a wedding without a full, open bar.

View Quoted Comment How much does your venue charge per drink? Ours does $10 per glass of wine/champagne, $9 per beer, and $7 per mixed drink 😖

We’re thinking of having a sign by the bar that says to have 2 drinks on us and after that, additional beverages will be available for purchase. And FH is going to explain the situation in advance to his heavy-drinker friends and let them know that if they have more than 2 without paying themselves, they’re entirely just screwing over our other guests. Hopefully they’ll respect that! I feel like 2 drinks (or pay for more yourself) at a lunchtime wedding is reasonable

Due ro not bwing able to afford to host comfortably a lot if people we really had to make huge cuts and only invite 40 people so that we can make sure alcohol is free to them (as well as having enough of other things to make them comfortable) we are keeping it on the cheaper end with that too though by only having wine and beer.

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I can't recall right now but ours is cheaper for beer and wine only. So if we don't offer mixed drinks they can't purchase. So that's why i say i might add a signature drink but it may be a sangria signature drink and live the harder liquor off. Some say if they want to drink the harder liquor then they have to pay for it. My mom and FH agree to that, but i have a softer view and want to have extra just in case. But many venues were $23 pp/hr thats basically 2k an hour, so this is a massive savings to be able to control consumption cost.

View Quoted Comment Yep ours is $20 pp/hr so we’re in that boat!

We were thinking about just doing beer and wine, but mixed drinks are cheaper at our venue somehow. I think they just have really high-quality wine and beer lol

Personally, I find cash bars to be a bit of a slap in the face to guests. I would go with a limited selection bar and have a cap on the amount of money you can put towards it. We are selecting "house beers", "house wines" and 3 or 4 "signature/house cocktails" that we will provide for the guests. If they want something outside of that, then they would have to pay for it. But we also plan to offer several types of house beer/wine so that people have a choice. It is our way of providing "open bar" without breaking the bank

View Quoted Comment Smart idea! I don’t think our venue offers this, but I think you are being very reasonable paying $2k for drinks and letting people pay if they want more than that