Everyone's Favorite Topic: OPEN BAR!

We are getting 4 hours of open top shelf bar, closed for an hour during dinner. It's costing us about 2 grand for 120 people, which is pretty reasonable. The only thing that guest will have to pay for are shots and God help me if people start doing shots.

I have been going back and forth with the same situation and for 200ppl my bar cost was $4000..I'm sorry but I reuse to believe my guest will drink $4000 worth of alcohol In a period of 4 hours so we will be using the cash bar option with a limit.

Hahaha, FMB!! I know what you mean! Shots are bbbaaadddd!!! lol

We are doing beer and wine for sure. We are debating on a signature drink or a variety of liquors. I feel like we should just do beer and wine but that's just because I'm paranoid of the cost going up and up.....I mean, if we do a variety of liquors you also have to do mixers, etc. Ugh!!!

We have cocktail hour and top shelf open bar throughout the reception.

We were extremely lucky. The owner of our venue is a friend, and offered us an open bar for 60 people for 5 hours for a total cost of $250. The only limitation was that although it included hard liquor, it didn't include premium liquors. That was too good a deal to refuse!

We both disagree with open bar! We are having 2 signature drinks beer and champagne for our toast! We're keeping it simple!

On open bar is unlimited alochol based on flat fee per person. It includes everything on that particular level. An open bar does not just serve beer and wine only. That would be simply an unlimited beer and wine bar. What the OP is referring to is a host bar.

Open bars also come in different liquor varieties: Open bar - Top shelf premium(where you would find possibly Gray Goose and a Single Malt Scotch); Open Bar - Top Shelf Call Name, where you would find the names you recognize like perhaps Absolute Vodka and Dewars; Open Bar with rail liquor, where you would be served names you don't recognize at all, basically the least expenisve of any brand of liquor you could think of.

The bottom line is, you get what you pay for. However, on some host bars, the venue charges a pretty penny for mixed drinks and even just plain soda. So, if you are going host bar, find out the price of drinks and soda.

Good luck!

Wow, $20,000!!! Well, if cost is an issue, I would suggest having an open bar for a designated amount of time. If you're having a cocktail hour, you can start it then, and continue it until, before or after dinner.

Edit: Or you can just have it during cocktail hour only.

If you do not do the consumption bar you are talking about, please at least have a cash bar.

Our open bar is included in our PP price the hotel is charging us for our package. So I have no idea how much it is per person but probably around $20-$25 which is well worth it for our crowd. Evening wedding from 6-11:30pm; it's gonna get a little crazy which is fine with us.

We are hosting unlimited beer and wine... still up in the air about the champagne.. probably chanpage too cause it's only a few dollars more then a champagne toast would be and it's unlimited.... booze must be paid for by the guest....

Ours for four hours of open bar per person is 13 dollars for the middle tier selection plus 20$ gratuity..so for like 100 people ours comes to 1560 which I feel is very reasonable..our reception is 5 hours; it will be closed during dinner..plus our ballroom has two bars to cut down on guests' waiting time :-)

We're doing two signature cocktails, assorted beer and white and red wine on each table. That should be enough i hope!

We are doing an open bar (It was the ONE think my Dad wanted most, and he is paying for the wedding lol) if it was up to me I would be fine with beer and wine!

We went to a wedding in December that had an open bar for one hour, after that you couldn't even get a cash bar going. Besides the no drinking it was the most boring wedding I've ever been to, the few drinks I did have helped it out but overall it just felt like a slap in the face to get some drinks and then be told no more. I would have preferred no bar at all.

Most of my family does not drink so it was really a waste to do open bar. we are doing a hosted bar on consumption. we pay for all the drinks up to $1000 after that it is a cashbar.

i've done events before like this where theres a mix of drinkers and non-drinkers, most of the time they dont even hit the $1000 cap

My venue is including the open bar in the per person cost, and I agree with Jessica R that the consumption bar sounds different. The price cap might not be a bad idea.