Open Bar and Signature Cocktails?

We did 4 types of beer, 4 wines and a bride and a groom drink.

We are having a full open bar!

We’re also having two signature cocktails:
- Blushing Bride: coconut rum, champagne, cranberry juice, pineapple juice, topped with fresh cranberries
- Golden Groom: vodka, Red Bull, garnished with a lime wedge

View Quoted Comment That blushing bride drink sounds AMAZING I want to try that!!

Are you doing an actual open bar where you pay a flat fee no matter how much people drink, or are you doing a consumption bar so you pay based on how much people drink? It sounds like you are doing the latter based on the way you described it... if so, we are doing that too, and we are just doing wine and beer. I’m a little disappointed because I was looking forward to coming up with a signature cocktail, but I don’t want to give the option of more expensive hard liquor when I’m sure everyone will be just as happy with wine and beer.

View Quoted Comment I know, right?! I’m obsessed with Malibu Bay Breezes so we just made them a little more fancy with the bubbly & garnish!

We have an open bar for reception. The signature cocktails are for the cocktail hour but of course can also be order at reception.
We are both Cuban and having a DW in Mexico so we did a Mango Margarita (Mexican part) and a Rasberry Mojito (Cuban part)

View Quoted Comment We did a consumption bar and in our case it worked out reallly well.. our venue charged per person/ per hour ... so it would have been 15$ x 180 x 6hours🙄 our bar tab ended up being half of that!!!

We are doing an open bar and this drink called a pineapple express. It has local (sc) reaper pepper vodka, hibiscus syrup, lime juice, ginger, and pineapple juice. Outrageously good and a tad spicy.

Our wedding was held at a restaurant and their bar has been listed as one of the best. Which was super dangerous for a brunch time wedding on Sunday.
On top of mimosas at arrival at 11:30am, we wanted two signature drinks-- an Aperol spritz and another of our favorites that they recreated for us that was made of bourbon, angostura bitters, cucumber, simple syrup.
Since their mixologists are intense they wanted to dream a bunch up on brunch theme so they made 4 others.
Everyone loved it, even my guests who don't drink alcohol had an option.
I've attached the menu since it's a lot to type!
Cheers and have the best time. Also maybe wise to task your maid of honor or best man to give you water to drink.

Our venue was BYOB, we did 4 types of beer, 4 types of wine, signature cocktails during cocktail hr only, and a champagne toast.
We did rum punch and long islands and they were really popular, especially the rum punch!
We ran out of those, but we have SO much beer left over!

Being in the distribution business and having been in F&B for 10 years... I would suggest :
White wine, red wine, beer, and 2 signature cocktails (one clear spirit - vodka, gin, rum, one dark spirit - bourbon whiskey, tequila). And champagne for a specific toast.

You can buy cases of inexpensive wine at $4-$6 per unit.... extremely affordable. 1 case of champagne to toast with everyone for similar pricing. Draft beer is most cost effective if you can access a kegerator, but if not.... cost effective beer in unit would be your domestics. And you can pre-batch your cocktails prior to regulate alcohol /materials usage and control cost.


Ie: signature cocktail : Lynchburg lemonade - whiskey lemonade, triple sec. Fresh lemons. Pre batch and keep in containers to be served day of.

Signature cocktail : perfect pear smash - pear, mint, limeade, vodka. Pre batch and keep in containers to be served day of.
(Both would be served over ice and would be approx 4oz serving per person).

There are tons of online resources to mathematically determine usage.


I find this to be most cost effective and the route that pleases most people. In essence an "open bar" but specific

View Quoted Comment Yeah ours is similar! $20 an hour for 120 people, would’ve added up to almost 10k! We’re also having a lunch reception so I can’t imagine people will drink that much anyway... I’ve asked several friends like how much they would expect to drink at a wedding between 12:30 and 3:30pm and they’re all like “1 glass of wine? MAYBE 2?” Plus I have several relatives who don’t drink at all. So paying for a full open bar would so not be worth it for us

We are thinking of only beer and wine and then 3 mixed drinks
my choice, one my fh, and ours.

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This is what we're doing and champagne since our wedding is on 12/31/19!!!!

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Me too!! Note to self, ask venue to make so we can try it!!!

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When you say pear , do you mean pear flavored liquor, some kind of extract, real pears? I'm asking because this drink sounds good and I want to try it

View Quoted Comment You could do it a few different ways.

You could dice up pears and submerge them in just enough water to cover them. And let sit in fridge a day and the add to mixture. Or you could juice some pears in a juicer. Or you could buy pear juice. Or you could get the diced pears in juice in the kids packaged fruit section and use those. Orrrrrr..... you could use pear flavored vodka.

Definitely hop on pinterest and look pear cocktails and have some fun at the House and play around making some trial runs

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Thanks so much!!!! I am definitely gonna look into that

The open bar is included in our venue, bottom self, domestic beers, & main stream import beers.

We both love mojitos, so our signature drink is a mojito, I want to add pineapples (as I love it) and pears (since our hashtag has “pair” in it).