How much money should we put on the bar?

This really depends on how much drinks cost at your venue. At our venue, wine and mixed drinks cost $10 and beer cost $6. So for us, $1500 wouldn’t even get those 70 people who might drink 3 drinks each. Would non-alcoholic drinks be included in that number too?

We plan to have an open bar with a cap of $3000 then turning to a cash bar, we hope it wont get that high, but knowing our guest list, I'm sure it will.

So I would be very confused to go to a wedding at a winery and need to pay for drinks. We also got married at a winery and had open beer and wine. A glass of wine at our venue was $12-$16 so $1000 would’ve gotten everyone one drink. We paid $55 per person for everyone to have unlimited and had tableside service during dinner. At weddings I’ve been to where there’s been a dollar cap on the bar people double fist to get a bunch of drinks before the free ones run out.

Ours is the same as the above poster. We are paying $104 (depending on entree choice) per person for food and an upgraded open bar. I’m not sure what the break down is for how much is considered food and how much alcohol but i know we will come up on top paying this way as oppose to a cash bar. Does you venue have an open bar option? I think people will drink much more than 3 drinks each and id assume $10 a glass on average. I would definitely look into the price on that

We did something like this, we weren’t happy about it though but it was really the only option we could do without going broke over alcohol. Our venues drinks were ridiculously expensive… They were $10 per drink plus a 20% service fee plus tax. We really wanted to treat our guests the most we could possibly afford, but we knew our guests wouldn’t want us to spend more than we could afford either…

We ended up putting $2200 into the bar because that was the most we could possibly afford without it being a financial stressor. We had 100 guests and the $2200 lasted until the last hour of the reception. But keep in mind we also had a lot of guests who didn’t drink, and we also had an afternoon wedding so people were definitely drinking less than in the evening.

Basically I would say this isn’t the best idea, though that’s hypocritical because it something we did too lol. I wouldn’t recommend it as a “good” idea (because I honestly felt bad about doing it) but sometimes it is a necessary evil, and hopefully your friends and family will understand. You really need to just figure out what’s best for yourself and your situation... and balance treating your guests well while not going broke yourself!

I think that's fine! I'd make two signs so the bartenders can switch them out when it becomes a cash bar. It really depends on drink prices. I think typically you plan on 2 drinks per person during cocktail hour then 1 drink per person per hour at the reception but it depends on your crowd. Our full open bar for 125 people was $5,500.

I think it's tacky. If people know about the switch, they will load up at the beginning - this is what i've seen at everyone wedding that does this - then some people end up not getting a drink at all if they wait which isn't fair. If they don't know, then ppl get pissed about the bait and switch and probably don't have cash on them anyway. I'd talk to your venue (they have experience) about what an average amount would be for your size group and just plan to budget at least that much for the bar.

Or ask if they have a per person unlimited option.

That's one of the reasons we picked a venue where we can bring our own booze and we get the waiter with the catering company it's way easier to deal since i'll be having my wedding in Finland ( people there drink A LOT)