Open bar costs?

We are paying $110 per person for cocktail hour, dinner and a 4 hour open bar. Sorry I don't know the actual break down.

This question varies so much on location and hours.

When we were looking at all inclusive hotel venues, they were about $30-$65 pp, around $20-35pp for beer and wine only. The venue we picked allows us to supply our own alcohol, we are hiring a bartender through our caterer, it's a huge cost savings, it'll be easily less than $10 pp

Ours is included in the plates but other venues I looked at charged from $33 for beer and wine to $45 for a full open bar

Our venue required $250 up front for our open bar. Once that's used it becomes a cash bar, whether that's us adding more money or other ppl paying for their drinks. We're having about 40 ppl.

Ours is $30/PP for 4 hours.

Our top shelf open bar for 1 hour cocktail hour and four hour reception was $38PP; our guest list is 168.

I guess it does vary a lot lol

The difference between cash and open bar was $20/PP at our venue. They did have an option for a tab bar, though I don't think that's as convenient as open or consumption.

I'm buying alch and paying a bartender. Maybe around $30/HR for me

We lucked out and found a caterer that charges $16 pp for full open bar. The bartender is an additional charge per hour, though

What are drink tickets? I never heard of it

Drink tickets are rude. Please don't do drink tickets.

@Tallullah it's basically a coupon for a free drink. After you use them you have to pay.

We had an all-inclusive price o $175 that included 5 hours of top shelf open bar. That was 4 years ago, in a state without sales tax. My sister married in another state and all her charges were separate. She paid almost $53 per adult, for 4 hours of open bar - half that price for the few under 21. The fee included sales tax and the service charge (15-20%)

Ours was included.

Drink tickets blow the goat.

We're able to provide our own alcohol, so were looking at around 10-20 pp. The bartenders are included in our catering as are mixers and soda.

And yes, drink tickets are super tacky. Let adults be adults you don't need to police how much they drink. A good bartender will cut off someone who is visibly intoxicated.

Our top shelf bar is $30 PP

We're doing a partial open bar. Our reception will be 4 hours long but we'll have an open bar for only 3. I think that's ok since the bar usually closes 30 minutes before the end of a reception. For 3 hours, it'll cost $20 per person for house brand liquor.

All of our venues include an open bar in the package; some venues have different levels.

Don't do drink tickets, don't close the bar early, don't switch to a cash bar.

An open bar of some sort should be part of your initial budget, as much as food, music and photography. If you can't afford that, you can't afford your guest list.

Open Bar varies greatly depending on the venue - if your venue is all inclusive it will either be added into the price per plate or will be an additional amount. If you have to bring in your own caterer, you may either want to find a caterer who includes bar services, hire a bar services, or purchase alcohol wholesale and hire a bartender (if you are allowed to do this at your venue)

The venue we choose it is included in our pp price so we are paying about 100pp which includes 5 hours of open bar, full cocktail hour and 3 course meal, but at the other venue we seriously considered it was 86$pp with open wine bar included (at a winery) and then an additional 15-25pp for open beer or beer and, liquor.

Do your research and make sure you ask your venue how their open bar works.

ETA: Don't forget you will also probably have to pay a bartender fee PER bartender. That was not something I had considered at all for our budget, and while it wasn't a huge amount we also had to consider if we wanted two bartenders. Our wedding is right at the cusp of NEEDING two bartenders at our venue. which is 75ppl = 1 bartender. We are expecting about 125 and the coordinator said it could go either way. My dad insisted we add the second one in, just to be safe! but it was an extra 150 for the bartender!