Everyone's Favorite Topic: OPEN BAR!

This topic makes me so nervous because it feels so unpredictable to me. Luckily our venue allows us to BYOB's so we can buy our own liquor wholesale and save money. BUT all of the alcohol calculators I've found to see how much to buy give me totally different numbers. I don't want to run out (that would be bad!) but I really dont want to buy way to much either and waste money- even if it can be returned then I have to make sure someone gets it and gives it back to me at the end of the night!

First question is will your venue allow you to bring in your own bartender and liquor? One of our requirements for a vendor after visiting a few and seeing the prices in the $4k range just for the open bar was that we find a place where we can bring in our own stuff. We ended up getting a bartender to come in (with all of the insurance, mixers, fruits, etc...) for $1,065 and they will have a tip jar there. We are budgeting a little over $1,200 for liquor which includes 40 liters of liquor, 150 cans of beer and 27 bottles of wine for 150 people. We are erring on the side of caution knowing that we can keep all of the liquor after the wedding and that it won't go to waste.

I'm just doing beer and wine, and my venue said it would cost around $3000. There's no way I'm doing an open bar with the way my crowd drinks. I would definitely be spending at least 5000

Are you able to have an open bar but put a cap on it? Say, you'll only have an open bar up to X amount of dollars of booze served.

We did a open/cash bar combo. There was free booze from 4-6PM, bar closed for dinner, there were 2 bottles of wine provided for each table, however, there were extra, so if anyone wnated another bottle, they could have one. After dinner was served, the cash bar opened for $2/drinks. We brought in all the booze, mix, glasses, lemon/lime, etc ourselves.

Well we hour having an open bar for 150 people and its costing us $1800 but we can take that down to $1000 and make it a cash bar after we reach that limit which is what we are planning to do. It really depends on the options that your venue has to offer, but $3500 for a open bar for 100 people seems a little high where do you live if you dont mind me asking?

$20grand WOW, that's about the price for my entire wedding, yikes... that is NOT REALISTIC TO ME AT ALL (to others it might be but not me)

I think you definitely need to get a straight answer from your venue, the price varies from venue to venue, state to state, city to city etc... Your best bet is to get the actual price from them.

Our venue includes the price of the open bar in the per person fee, and when we talked to them they say if we don't want it they will give us a credit of $10 per person so I say if we decide to have an open bar, the cost will be $1500 for 150 guests plus 6%tax and 20% gratuity. good luck

Hmm, this is odd to me. I work at a casino doing wedding planning and such. We have multiple options as far as bars go. You can do a "host bar on consumption" which means you pay for what is consumed, or you can have a "host bar per hour, per person" which means you pay (as an example) $20.00 per person for 4 hours - this means your guests can drink as much as [the bartender] will allow.

My wedding venue is the same way - they do a host bar per hour, per person.

My venue charges by consumption -which gets dangerous, I wish they would do a per person price even if it was ridiculous at least its a solid number. .. they will allow us to do a "tape bar" which is a set amount and once we hit it the bar will turn into a cash bar.. We cannot bring in our own bartender or alcohol.. our package includes the bartender from the venue.

That is the one thing his family is paying for but our reception starts at noon so i really dont think people are going to abuse the bar. but we want champagin toast and wine for each table... hard drinks will be cash

We are doing a consumption bar and putting a cap on it at 1000 and after that it is a cash bar.

We also put the cap on ours, once it reaches $1,000 it turns to cash bar. It's just to expensive, even with a per person cost. Plus, I feel we need to get rid of the traditional "you must have open bar at your wedding or everyone will hate it" type stuff.

We are kind of in the same bind. We want everyone to have an alcoholic drink if they should choose to do so. The cost is a killer though! I had asked my venue if we could do an alcoholic fountian and she said she would ask the bartender. I am hoping she says yes so that we can budget to just pay for wine and beer and guests will still be able to have at least a "signature" mixed drink. If not, we will have to come up with a little over $2000 just for the bar tab! Yikes! Maybe look into something like that?

So, I did not read the previous posts (because I am lazy) but the "open bar" you are talking about is really a "hosted bar" where you will basically have a bar tap open and someone will need to pay it at the end of the night.

An "open bar" means that you pay a price per head (average $30 pp, but can range depending on your location) and they give you certain types of alcohol and everyone drinks all they want. This would be ideal if you know you are having a lot of people who are BIG drinkers.

I think a "hosted bar" with a cap would be your best bet if your on a strict budget. What you decide is ultimately up to you, but if at all possible I would try to do an "open bar" even if you have to restrict it to beer and wine, and the give the guests the option of a cash bar if they want liquor.

I also forgot to add that, I did go to a wedding and the bride had told me they paid $2500 for the bar, once that tab got to the price point, it would no longer be open bar. They had a 4 hour reception, 200 guests and I saw drinks being punched in as $3.50 up to $6.00 a drink. They actually came under and received some of that money back!

We had a cocktail hour and day wedding from 11-4pm. We placed a $3k budget which if we were getting close for the bartender to see my mom (the awesome go to lady) to see how we wanted to proceed. We had about 100 people and spent only about 2,000. It was a mid range bar choice with some premium liq, but not all. It worked out really well.

Luckily i don't have a lot of drinkers in my party. I don't know if this is faux pax or not, but I am setting my bar tab at a maximum and then after that, it will go to cash bar. We will have beer and wine. I am sure there might be people to complain, but then again, you can't make everyone happy.

You are not talking about an open bar. An open bar is where you pay a flat fee and everyone drinks for free all night. Many times it is included in the package.

You are talking about a consumption bar. People order drinks at the bar and you pay the tab. That can totally depend our your crowd, what they are drinking, and cost for different types of drinks.

If you wanted a consumption bar put a cap on it. You will have a set amount you are paying and that is it. Good luck!

We are getting two half barrels of beer and getting some wine. The mixed drinks and such will be cash bar. Most of our guests drink beer anyways. The two half barrels are costing us about $500.

I am doing open bar for four hrs and cash bar after that time... and they will close bar during the toasts...and maybe for dinner..

We are hosting an open bar for our guests. It will open at 5pm and stay open all night (until midnight when it is over). It will be wine and beer only. If the guests want a mixed drink it will be available to them, but they will have to pay for it. Based upon the prices we recieved from the venue it will only cost us around $500 for 120 guests (and they are heavy drinkers!).

It really all depends upon how much you have to purchase the drinks from the venue for or if you could supply your own.