Full Open Bar: Overrated or Underrated?

Overrated: Not needed and very costly. Make it unique to you. I think people will appreciate that. But do make it available. We are doing wine and beer because that's what we like.

I am definitely having this. I find it tacky to have a cash bar for your guests, when they took the time and money to celebrate your day with you

While I don't think open bars are overrated, I think full open ones are. Beer and Wine is fine all around.

Full open bar was a must for us, but wine/beer is fine if that's what your budget allows.

Underrated! I NEED a full open bar at my wedding. I’m having a destination wedding in a town no one lives in and is too far for everyone to drive, so I don’t feel comfortable making my guests pay for drinks after they’ve paid for travel and accommodations.

Overrated. Not having unlimited alcohol is not the end of the world. If someone only accepts a wedding invitation to go get super drunk, I wouldn’t want to invite them to begin with. Its more tacky to get hammered and make a fool of yourself at someone’s wedding.

Overrated. We are doing a hosted bar of beer and wine until the hosted amount runs out. It'll be cash bar after that, and that's just due to budget. I don't care if people on here think it's tacky, it's common around here.

I don't think it is either. If you can afford it a full open bar is great but it if not that is ok to

I’m indifferent on this one. I think OPEN beer & wine is completely sufficient. However, a full bar would also be nice. That being said, I think “signature cocktails” are stupid.
But a cash bar is never okay!!!

Overrated to all get out. This has been an argument in my family. Alcoholism runs in my family so I actively don't want an open bar. My FH and I don't really drink beer or wine but like a nice mixed drink on rare occassion. We're doing limited cocktails only and a champagne toast to prevent anyone getting stupid drunk and make me want to mom them on my big day.

Overrated. The wedding already costs thousands no need to spend money on a bar when people can chose not to drink if they do not want to pay or I suggest people bring nips. I dnt want anyone abusing the bar and getting hammered to the point where they cannot Drive.

Overrated. And in general if you say that it turns into a witch Hunt.
Nobody needs to consume alcohol.

We are having our wedding at a brewery so we feel a full open bar is necessary. We know not everyone likes craft beer so we want them to have wine and liquor options as well.

Underrated. How can open bar ever be overrated??! Lol
This is a must for our families! We all just love to have a good time, not that this can't be done without alcohol.

Based on interactions in the group, underrated! Making your guests pay for anything is pretty tacky in my opinion. I don’t go to weddings expecting to spend money.

Underrated! This is one of the few “non-negotiables” I had for our wedding!

I definitely did not plan to do a full open bar, BUT all the venues we fell in love with has it included in the package price, so it’s a nice extra for us! (Haven’t officially booked our reception venue yet, but I’m pretty sure we know which one we’re going to go with!)

To clarify, we were definitely going to at the very least pay for our guests’ wine and beer, but didn’t plan for a full cocktail open bar!

View Quoted Comment These are my thoughts exactly! Cash bar is tacky, but the whole shebang isn’t required!

I’m in the middle of overrated and underrated. I do think as bride and groom we should be offering drinks to our guests, but at the same time I don’t think it’s my job to get you trashed either. Our wedding celebration will be 5 hours long and for the first two hours we do have a full service open bar. After that it goes to cash bar (which does NOT always mean the guests have to carry cash. Our venue’s cash bar takes cards so I think the “cash bar” name is not entirely clear for those who are wondering). The venue said I can also prepay a set amount of beer and wine for after the open bar so that guests can still enjoy beer and wine up until that amount has been consumed. We still might not even do that just depends if we have room in the budget for an extra $500-$1000 closer to the date. Idk what kind of families a lot of these brides are from but I don’t have the good fortune of having any single person helping us pay for any portion of our wedding, and that’s 100% fine, but if my guests think that not having open bar all night is tacky then perhaps they aren’t there for the right reasons anyways. If I had the money, I would do it, but it’s all about what’s important to you and what you can budget for ! Good luck !