Misplaced drinks with consumption based bar

I'm actually shocked that the open bar is so expensive. I'm in NYC and our venue charges $12/pp for unlimited beer, wine, and brunch cocktails, or $18.95 for full open bar for four hours. I'm not sure about the consumption bar and how to make that work. Just curious - how many guests are you inviting?

I know, it's ridiculously expensive. I forgot to mention that if we do the consumption based bar we have to pay $150 for set up and $25/hr for a bartender.

We have 140 people on the list- 120 adults and 20 kids. I would say maybe 20 of the adults are non-drinkers or very light drinkers. Of course who knows which ones will actually show up.

Our bar will be by consumption and, unfortunately, I don't think there's a way to prevent waste. We're just going to limit the bar options. No top shelf!

I chose open bar just for peace of mind during the reception. I didn't want to become preoccupied with half empty beers and calculating the cost. I preferred to already know what the damage would be going into the evening.

I went to a wedding where the drinks were served in mason jars. We were informed that if you misplaced your mason jar once, they gave you a second one; if you misplaced it again, you were given a "solo cup of shame", haha. Not sure how the bartenders were able to keep track of who had received a second mason jar already, but I did see a few people walking around with solo cups. I don't know how they addressed half empty beers.

What about tax and tip? Does 42$/person include this? What about the consumption?

@MzRosaLu WOW! Good for you for finding such a reasonable price in NYC. I'm in New England and our open bar is $40-60 per person, depending on whether or not we choose just beer and wine or top shelf or something in between.

@Katia we're also considering doing it by consumption, but I'm leaning toward open bar because I don't want to have to be worried about it during the reception and fear getting a huge bill at the end of the night.

@Sparkles, in my case, the tax and tip is part of the catering costs. They lumped it all together on the estimate and it's between $40-60 per person, which is added to the cost per person for the meal and then tax and gratuity were added in. We do plan to tip the bartenders beyond that.

I don't think there is a way to prevent waste. Consumption will likely be cheaper unless you have super heavy drinkers. @ Nicole (MzRosaLou), wow that sounds like you got a fantastic deal. Most places I looked in NYC at were in the $40+ pp for open bar range.

Most of the open bars in my area (also NYC) that are not priced in with the package run from 33-50.0 PP, so that's not an insane amount...

I'd probably go with open, but it really depends on your group. I can tell you that when I was catering, we'd typically see 2 drinks per person (not all alcohol) in the first hour, one in the second, and about 1-2 for the remaining hours, again...not all alcohol....

Are these $35-45/pp quotes including tax and service charges? Just curious. The price I mentioned above doesn't include that, I'm wondering if that's the discrepancy. (sorry OP, don't mean to hijack your post!)

@MzRosaLu, no, it's $40-60 per person not counting taxes and tip.

Does the consumption include soda for the children and non-drinkers? Would you only be offering craft beer and wine? (Craft beer is very taste-specific)

If you have a high number of light drinkers and non-drinkers, I think the consumption bar will end up being a better deal for you. Flat fee packages are great for heavy drinking crowds.

Unfortunately, I don't think there is a way to prevent guests from leaving their drinks and getting new ones. You can talk to the venue though. Sometimes staff are too quick to clear away half-full glasses when the guest isn't even finished with their drink. I would speak to the venue about this.

The $42 per person does not include the 18% gratuity and there won't be tax in Oregon. I know the open bar includes soda and non-alcoholic beverages, but I'm not sure about the consumption based bar. I would hope so with all of the money that we are spending...

And yes, domestic beers are $5 each. My parents will probably want Bud Light and my friends will want PBR.

@Emily- that's a great point. I wonder if they will clear the drinks even faster if we are doing consumption based.

In all reality, we probably only have a group of 30 that will be heavy drinkers. But dang, can they drink.

I have heard of a few sketchy venues that get their staff to clear drinks faster with consumption bars to increase their profit. However, I doubt most reputable venues would purposely do that.

Does the average person drink 7 drinks over the course of a night? That seems kind of high as an average.

Why couldn't there be name tags for the cups? It seems useful in case two people with the same drink put them down next to each other anyway.

What will there be for kids/DDs to drink? Is the flat fee really just for beer and wine, not juice/soda?

I was thinking about coasters such as the one in the picture below. Has anyone seen this done before?

I would still prefer to use some sort of name tag system, but this will be challenging with a hosted bar at a venue with busing service. Plus people might use a variety of different glasses. I keep thinking of something like those little wine glass charms, but having trouble figuring out how that would work with a pint glass.

HAHA Solo cup of shame...

I went to a wedding once were the DJ told everyone to put there coaster (similar to one you posted above, but the saying was a little different) on top of their cups if they needed to leave it unattended but weren't done with it. The announcement was a little strange, and I don't know how many people complied, but my drink was never cleared away when the coaster was on top of it. So maybe it worked?

I would try and do some math and figure out what me better. Most people I know that had consumption thought it would be cheaper but it ended up being a lot more. The standard person put them down for 1 drink per hour, light drinkers 2 per the entire night, heavy drinks 2 per hour. I would start with the lowest cost alcohol and go up.