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

Not all Canadians have cash or toonie bars. That's a west coast thing for whatever reason. We don't play that in Ontario. BOOZE FOR EVERYONE!!!

To the OP I say have a limited bar.

We are doing an open bar because it's only $1/head more than the beer/wine option. That was what our original plan was. If you can't swing anything, cash bar is fine. I would do that over a dry bar any day, if your friends and family are like mine.

SO......my DJ has a link to this post on his FB business page! Just clicked on it and linked right here. Yep

One keg is going to have about 124 pints in it, and each wine bottle has about 5 glasses of wine in it, so you might want to have more like 30-35 bottles of wine ($2 Chuck, anyone?) and an extra pony keg on hang to cover everyone, but then you should have 150 people covered, easily!

It's a nice gesture to try the bottles on the table for toasts and dinner but I like the "limited bar" idea that was suggested to an amount that you can afford as a first option. Just make sure you tell guests ahead of time so they bring cash.

@Monica that's interested, why did he do that? Not that I mind, I'm just curious.

@Kat I used an online calculator to figure I'd need about 1 keg and up to 30 bottles of wine, so I think you're about right too. I actually over estimated with the calculator, because most of my guests will not be drinking, so really I'm only serving alcohol to like 75ish at a max.

@Kemmie - you say "Not all Canadians have cash or toonie bars. That's a west coast thing for whatever reason."

i've heard of many EAST coast toonie and cash bars.

I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade, but according to Emily Post's wedding etiquette, you never have a cash bar at a wedding, it's considered rude. Personally, I don't care what anyone else does, it's not my wedding, I'm just saying what I read in the etiquette book.

I didn't read all the other comments so I apologize if someone already mentioned this, but I would worry about the awkward moment where the keg runs out and people start having to pay - will you have your MC announce the change? How will that work?

My FH and I are combining a few options. We'll have two wine bottles on the table, and giving 3 drink tickets per person, the rest will be a cash bar. I hadn't thought of what other people posted, though (how we'll end up with half-empty bottles), so I'm considering whether it'd be a good idea to put just one wine bottle per table and have the rest of the bottles on a table on the side for people to grab.

By the way, we don't want to profit on our guests with the cash bar (we're pricing the drinks pretty much at cost). We would have wished to have an open bar, but we can't afford it. I don't mind if other posters think I'm tacky - none of them are coming to my wedding

Blake, I too think that you've been very polite and classy given what people have told you