How do you budget for consumption bar?

You're having 150 people how many are over the age of 21?

$24 for corkage? That's a lot, how much is their wine per bottle?

How many hours is your reception?

We are inviting about 140 over the age of 21. I'm 37 so I don't know many underage people. Bringing beer is not an option. I thought of that too. Darn!

That sounds like a lot. We have around 150 guests too. Our bottles of wine are about $25 each and cocktails are only $6 or $7.

eta: Do you have the option of getting wine through them? If so how much are the bottles?

That's an insane corkage fee. What does their wine cost?

That corkage fee is ridiculous.. for 150 adults on my guest list (I dont expect all to show but anyways) I'm budgeting $2000 total for booze. Whether it will be that much is another story lol ETA I'm doing beer and wine and a signature drink. And my kegs (I have to use them, venue policy) are $250 each + tax and service charges. Beer and wine will be about $900 for 2 kegs and 12 bottles of wine (if I use their wine) and the rest is for signature drinks. Whether this is an accurate amount or not we will see. Im basing it off my uncles wedding (where 95% of 150 21+ guests were alcoholics) and they had half a keg left after buying 2.

Our venue only offered consumption bar, we took the number of guests over 21, multiplied by the price of a more expensive drink (I think I used $9, the price of most cocktails), multiplied by 6 (two drinks for cocktail hour and one drink per hour after that). We were of the opinion that overestimating this would be best so we wouldn't be surprised. We estimated around $8000 and the bill ended up being around $6000, so we were pleased.

For your venue, the range in pricing complicates things. I would probably assume all the wine is going to be opened (with the idea that overestimating is better), then multiply the number of adult guests by $48 (seems like a safe number to cover cocktails and beer per person) and add the two together.

ETA: Saw you posted the number of guests, so 140*$48=$6720, add that to #of wine bottles you're bringing * $24.

Your alcohol prices are crazy to me, especially considering they don't offer a flat-fee open bar.

Reception is 5 hours. I looked at their wine list and their cheapest bottle is $26 plus resort fees and corkage. I knew the venue would be pricey and on the paperwork they gave me they said $9 and of course I didn't take into account the resort fee or tax. That's my fault.

Tax and tip is included!! Guess that's the silver lining. HaHa!

LeahH is pretty spot on the budget - that is pretty average unless you have a heavy drinking crowd, but some will drink more, some less.

Why does your resort have a corkage fee for their own wine? That doesn't make sense? I would be negotiating with your venue about purchasing the wine through them.

As someone who worked in catering and bars for years and has bartended many weddings, your prices are ridiculous.

I'd definitely go with @LeahH's math!! Wayyy better to overestimate and potentially be pleasantly surprised if it comes in lower

I thought corkage fees were for outside wine? Why would they have a corkage fee on their own wine? Unfortunately, it looks like there's no way around having a huge alcohol bill at this venue. Leah's estimation is spot-on.

I would estimate 12,000-13,000 to be on the safe side, not including wine.

I don't have a comment about cost but I would probably tell them not to serve shots. That is a bad time waiting to happen

They do not have corkage for their own wine. We are bringing wine because my Aunt has tons that she wants to get rid of. The cheapest bottle on the menu is $26.00 plus a 23% resort fee and 8.25% tax. They will not open our bottles unless they have to, so that's a good thing. Signature cocktails are actually $1 more than regular cocktails because they use infused liquor.

Yike those are pricey and I am in your area.

I got lucky and got the old price list from last year by mistake and I negotiated on top of that. They are bit higher now.

Here's my bill for 65 guests, all over 21. One hour cocktails hours, 5 hours reception, no last call.

If your guests are not staying at the venue, I highly recommend doing a last call 30 mins before the event end.

Jesus Christ! Where do you live where shots are $12? I agree with Blair about avoiding them at the wedding. That's a disaster waiting to happen.