Open bar is not an option, don't like the tackiness of a cash bar

"doing too much" hmm, I guess I'd rather be known for that than being an asshole to my friends.

Whatever you choose make sure you make it clear in your invite. If people need to have cash let them know beforehand. And it doesn't matter if there's ATM on site some of those ATM have really high fees to withdraw money.

LadyMonk, charging people $2 per drink so you can recoup the cost of your already-purchased alcohol which was far less expensive than typical venue prices to begin with, or even worse - making a PROFIT off of your guests at your wedding, is well beyond a regular cash bar in level of tackiness (for lack of better word). You don't have to be rich to be a good host.

Again as I said before Open Bars are not common in my area just like a lot of different aspects of a wedding vary from area to area. Which is another reason why an open bar at my venue is $10,000 for 200 people versus the $5 and $6k (or less) that I see others post about. My friends and family won't' view it as me being an "asshole." Dry church weddings are just as common as cash bars around here and they love the idea that there will even be alcohol. If open bar was realistic for our budget we would make it happen but since it's not we're doing what works for us!

Do what works best for you! I think having the wine on the table is a good idea. Open bar isn't an option for us either, so we are trying to find a middle ground. I actually have had almost all of our guests tell me NOT to do an open bar because they have seen how people take advantage of that and then the guests just become a mess.

Toonie bars can be done where you can't bring in alcohol (which is what I was thinking since a lot of venues you can't/except halls if you buy a license and have bar tenders), in which it wouldn't be a profit. And honestly drinks from venues cost WAY more than $2 here. We saw prices from $5 to $8. $2 would be less than half the cost.

You do have to be rich to have a full open bar here. Our cocktail hour was about $1500 for 1 hour for 90 people. (actually more like 80 adults)

Also I should add that we never considered doing a toonie bar. I'm just saying that it would be difficult to recuperate your costs here. If oil prices stay low, I would not be surprised if the price of alcohol goes up even higher.

TOONIE! $2

LadyMonk, a full open bar at a typical wedding venue is not required to be a good host. You can choose a different style of wedding where less alcohol is required such as breakfast with champagne and mimosas only, or an afternoon wedding with finger foods, cake and champagne. Good hosting has nothing to do with supplying unlimited types and amounts of alcohol.

But that is beside the point - my previous comment on the toonie bar was referring specifically to Nina's post. She indicates that she is making back some of the money she is spending on alcohol. She also said that she has seen couples MAKE money that way - but I believe her post has now been edited. That is what my comment was referencing not all "toonie bars" in general.

I'm in agreement with the limited bar option. I'd rather have something offered that I don't have to pay for (beer or wine) and have options if I do want to drink liquor. Even if it is just wine, that's better than nothing.

Cash bars are pretty common in my area as well, if that is all you can do then I think it is fine. Although this tends to be looked down upon, and a highly debatable topic...here are some options that I have seen at functions/events that I have attended.

* Pay for the alcohol during the cocktail hour only. Once cocktail hour has completed the bar turns into a cash bar

* Have limited open bar for beer/wine and cash for hard liquor.

* Pay for any no-alcoholic beverage that is ordered through the bar, and guests pay cash for the alcohol

* You can check with your venue/bar service to see if they have an option: Set a dollar limit on the open bar. For example, if you can only afford $500 towards alcohol, then the bar will track sales towards this amount. Once $500 has been reached, then the bar turns into a cash bar.

Ok, Emily I see what you're saying about the toonie bars now, and I agree, making money would be really awful.

I'm coming to see now that "toonie" is a really odd word... LOL! But I love the polar bear, don't you JenniferandRick

First off, I think OP is a troll, but I'll play along. At our vow renewal we had an open bar. We considered a limited bar with beer and wine, but the per person cost wasn't that much of a difference and we only had a count of 39 including us so we went with a full open bar.

As far as cash bars go, it's something I would never do and have never been to a wedding with one, but I would suggest letting your guests know somehow that it is a cash bar. We went to a surprise 75th birthday party recently and there was a cash bar and we didn't know ahead of time. Luckily we had cash on us and Hubby and I only ended up getting two drinks each because we had not come prepared to pay for our drinks.

So if it's not a morning or afternoon wedding, you're supposed to supply enough alcohol to last four or five hours with everyone drinking a glass or two per hour? Is that it? LOL

I don't see why an evening wedding can't just have two or three bottles of wine on the tables and people have 3 drinks max throughout the night. The alcohol doesn't need to be flowing for 5 hours straight. I don't see how you're a bad host if you only have enough money for like 2 hours of wine.

Going to pop some popcorn..... who wants some?

Nay, if he's a troll he's not doing a spectacular job. I think the whole cash bar thing is *so last year* for troll topics. I still don't know if David was a troll, but he did a lot better of a job!

@Nay I agree with you about letting people know ahead of time. Sometimes people think just because their is ATM on site it's fine but those damn things are so high that I hate using them.

The only thing I would add to previous posters (I'm team open bar by the way) is that, whatever you decide to do, you need to keep it consistent. There's nothing worse than going up for your second drink, seeing the person in front of you get another free drink, then the bartender telling you that, oops, the limit was set and now it's cash bar. Same thing with hosting just for cocktail hour. If you tell people in advance you're going to get people hoarding drinks, and if you don't tell people in advance you're going to get some awkward surprises. Either way it sucks for guests. Wine on the table sounds like a great idea, but as other posters mentioned, some tables won't touch it and other tables will inhale it in the first 30 minutes. And you might end up with a lot of opened, half-empty bottles.

And can we please stop using the excuses that cash bars a "regional" thing and that you have to have a cash bar because you're paying for the wedding yourself? Please. Tell me what region "only" has cash bars and I'll find you someone who lives there who has only ever seen open bars. Cash bars may be a family/social circle thing, but they're not regional. And a lot of us on here are paying for the wedding (or for most of the wedding) themselves. It's all about priorities and where you rank being a good host to your guests.

OP, I'm going to second e=mc2 that you can pay for the open bar yourself. That was incredibly generous of your soon-to-be father in law to pay for the wedding, but I'm sure in the next few months you could save enough money to host at least a limited open bar.

Is there a way you can just not have a bar and bartender? Instead have 3 bottles of wine on the tables and that's it. Do venues not allow this or something?

Most venues will not allow that, it is a liability issue. I would caution anyone who does that if it is even possible to invest in additional insurance.