Drinks/ hosted? non hosted?

@ Chelsea- You should be fine! Once you get closer to the final guest count, you can have a better idea of how many people are coming! I liked the flat fee we paid, I only got the per person amount by doing the math myself.

We put our venue and the flowers at our highest priority with the venue including our food and alcohol bills.

I'm just going to say it even though others have - a proper wedding that is held in the evening serves free booze. Hard liquor would be ideal but if you can't afford it than beer and wine that is widely popular. I.e. Bud or miller light and something heavier. I went to a wedding that had wine and two heavy beers and no liquor and it was brutal. I would have paid for miller light but it wasn't offered.

Okay, I'm a little (5 pages) late to this, but I posted this last week. This is how you should think of a cash bar at a wedding: You are having a dinner party for your friends and family. You pour them out a glass of wine or beer then you say, "that will be $5". DDs in the group drinking pop, that'll be $2.

Kind of appalling isn't it? Well, that's what a cash bar at a wedding is like. I personally have never been to a wedding with a cash bar, but my mother has, 30 years ago. And guess what, she still brings up how cheap it was.

@MrsK

Jessie for the best analogy WIN!

OKD!

JessieJV for the win!!

Honestly, I couldn't read six pages of comments, most of which have probably been posted on every thread like this that surfaces. Including mine.

Do wine, beer and soda if you can't afford an entire bar. Don't put wine on the tables; much of it will go to waste. Don't switch to a cash bar midway, and don't offer mixed drinks for a charge.

Keep it simple.

.

WTF Wednesday!

O and S covered it.

Alcohol isn't an afterthought. It's part of the catering experience.

And if you don't want opinions that aren't in line with yours, then don't post.

And Veronica?

Stop posting. You give terrible advice.

@Mrs. Lav that actually makes sense. I spent around 1K for 115 people for beer, wine, and sangria. It was an afternoon wedding and people only consumed about 50% of what I bought. I was able to get about $500 back from bevmo. So 1K for 200 could possibly be done. I didn´t go with the cheapest options either.

I would second everyone with the NO CASH BAR opinion. Our venue is consumption based only, which makes it difficult to guesstimate how much people will drink, but we are putting enough towards the bar so that every person can get 7 drinks throughout the night. On average. This should be plenty for it to be an "open bar." At least as far as our guests know!

Pretty much every single person on WW will tell you not to even think about a cash bar. Definitely go for the beer and wine route. And, keep it to that. Good luck!

@m I had to chuckle at "duces" as well! Your comment cracked me up.

Bottom line, YOU are throwing a party. At the party you provide food and drink. If you cant afford dinner and drinks, do cake and punch, brunch and mimosas... whatever you can think of. In return, guests travel a long way and bring a nice gift. Not a bad scenario. Plus you want your guests to have fun, not leave at 7 because no booze. We had about half our guests still at midnight after a 5 hour dance because drinks were still flowing and many had a hotel room.

I wish I had joined this when I first got engaged and was a BM in my friends wedding a month after. she had open bar for 1 hour! The rest was cash bar. It was terrible. I got maybe 2 drinks because they didn't hold it open for the bridal party. I spent the rest of the night sneaking alcohol from my car into my sodas.

Friend said that people should come to be apart of their wedding, not to get drunk. Well I came multiple times from 3 hours away to be apart of it, bought you several gifts and still had to bring my own booze. It's not in good taste and it honestly sours your guests to the whole wedding.

@Rachel clearly at YOUR wedding people will be staring at the wall and wondering how you found a husband!

Thank you ( most everyone) for your opinions, I had no idea this was a Bridezilla site! Yikes! I think I will just sit back and laugh at all the immature comments and people on here!

I'd rather be immature than a bad host any day of the week!

Ya, all of us who want to properly host our guests are such bridezillas.