Open bar, cash bar, limited bar?

Honour bar- people pay what they want. It usually works out people 'donate' $20 and drink whatever they want all night. Some will contribute nothing, others more. It normally works out to $2/drink and we cover most of the bar expenses.

In Canada a "toonie" bar is VERY common. It's a $2 coin per drink. People can get drunk for less than $20- most don't mind paying that.

A beer and wine bar doesn't save you much! It's more expensive per glass for beer and wine than it is liquor. It helps keep some people from getting really drunk quickly but cost wise it isn't necessarily a savings.

I'm doing cash bar.

I've supplied non alcoholic drinks which was like $800

It was going to be like $3000 for open bar and that just wasn't worth it to me for an early Monday wedding. However, in my social circle, everyone does cash bar so it's not a big concern.

We are doing cash bar as well. We will provide all non-alcoholic beverages and wine for each of the tables, but beyond that, it's cash.

Cash bars are also really common in my family/social circles, so it is what it is. I would love to be able to do an open bar, but the combination of alcoholic family members (claiming to be in recovery), many family members who are police (and thus uncomfortable with open), and finances, this makes most sense.

We are doing an open bar with 2 types of beer, 2 types of wine and 2 types of liquor. We have to pay a $1.00 corkage fee per brand so I am trying to keep it limited.

We're doing open bar but buying our own booze, and having a bartender from our favorite bar brunch spot bartend for us. She just asked us to put her up in a hotel for the night and a couple hundred. We'll end up giving her more just because we absolutely love her and see her almost every Sunday morning haha.

The caterer is providing mixers for our friends that want well drinks, we'll buy wine from a couple of our wine clubs because we'll get an awesome discount for being wine-o's, we were given a warehouse liquor place by our venue from our event rental company (Yay!), and my step-dad is brewing beer and a mead for us.

An open bar was included in our package. To save money we got the 2nd tier option (not premium but not well liquors). They are allowing us to supplement our bar so we'll buy a couple bottles of the really good stuff that we know our fam/friends drink.

Around here, open bars are only for the rich where daddy pays for the wedding. Our venue's automatic option was cash bar, and that is what we are doing. Fh and I and our friends typically assume we pay for our own drinks so nobody will be offended by having to pay. Our venue accepts only cash in the reception but there is an atm right outside the room. I don't know a single person who would assume the bar is open but we still intend on letting people know via word of mouth that the bar is cash only.

I've been to one wedding with a cash bar. I was actually shocked when I was told that it was $7.00 for the drink I ordered. I'd never been to a wedding with a cash bar. All other weddings have been open bar, top shelf. I went to a wedding this weekend, and I'm trying to figure out if it was a limited open bar/consumption. There were about twenty bottles lined up at the back of the bar, and that's what you could choose from (they had something for everyone and mixers available). At one point after dinner, I went to get another drink. The bartender took the bottle from the shelf and said, "After this one, you'll have to switch to something else. This is the last of it". That's when I realized why they had Absolut and a much cheaper vodka. Once the Absolut was gone, people got the cheaper stuff (fine...after the first two, nobody's critiquing the alcohol). It was fine. There are lots of ways to get creative with the alcohol.

Open bar. It's not top shelf, which was a sacrifice for me, but we had to save somewhere.

We did an open, (limited) bar with beer and wine, a signature cocktail, and vodka and whiskey with a select few chasers. Everyone had a blast. We had about 115 people for 5 hours. My best suggestion is to be sure you have transportation options available at the end of the night (we rented our hotel's shuttle, for example), or at least phone numbers ready for those who need transportation.

We had 1 red wine, 1 white wine, and 2 sparkling wines plus 3 types of beer.

Full open bar. I don't mind limited bars but I honestly think cash bars are super tacky. I know some people don't mind it but I think it's like inviting someone over to your house and then charging them. Plus it would be SUPER looked down upon in my area.

We are doing open cocktail hour and first hour of the reception then cash bar the rest of the night. If we have any money left over we may extend it by an hour or 2

We are doing open beer, wine and two signature drinks. We have to supply all our own own alcohol so it's easier to just do two signature drinks than try to bring in everything.

As a guest, I don't care if it's open bar, limited bar or cash bar. I'm there to celebrate the couple, open bar is awesome, but a cash bar wouldn't change my experience at all. I really don't get why some people get so upset over a cash bar, you are there for the couple and to share the day, not for some free drinks. Ok, rant over.

We are doing only wine and beer for the night up to the maximum $2000 I chose. Beer is $6 and wine is $7 and we have 150 guests.

My brother did a cash bar w/ open bar during the cocktail hour. Knowing this I loaded up during cocktail hour.

We did open beer and wine.

Limited to just beer and wine with a signature cocktail during cocktail hour or until it runs out. We also chose specific local beers, wine, and spirits to keep with our local theme.

Interesting ... first I understand this is a regional thing. In any event, the last handful of weddings I've gone to in Massachusetts were all cash bars, I never thought twice about it. Then, when FH and I began the initial planning process of what we want, he refused to have a cash bar and said it was tacky and he wasn't having it at his wedding. Ok. So, I remind him of the last few weddings we went to where we had to pay for drinks, and he said he didn't care about other people's weddings, it wasn't happening at his wedding. So, we compromised by only going to venues that will allow you to buy your own alcohol through an allowed liquor vendor (i.e. liquor store). We found a venue (that I fell in love with on first look) and we are now having open bar and buying all of our liquor. Apparently, this way, it saves a few hundred dollars. I suggested just beer, wine and 2 signature drinks to cut costs and he still refuses. I call him "GroomZilla" on this subject.