Open bar - pay per person or consumption?

We are having both. Open bar for cocktail hour. Our venue is including wine with dinner and a champagne toast. Then during and after dinner we will cover the bill per drink. We figured people would be slowing down by then.

Oh god if I paid consumption I'd be broke! Just FH, me, & the BP's tab would be ridiculous. Per person for sure.

At $80 per person that's 8 drinks each. Some people don't drink. Some will only have one or two. Lucy - I'm with you... My friends and I can cover this no issue but I'm thinking that if the "average" person has 5 drinks I may be better off paying by consumption.

I think my venue called it a Consumption tab. For an open bar it would've cost 5k for the per person rate. 16 of my guest are under aged and 32 of them don't drink (church older family) and 10 are children. So my coordinator said this was my best option. We're paying for up to 2,500 and when that has been depleted it will turn into a cash bar. My friends and family are more of social drinkers and the venues bar staff will cut people off for a while if they are repeatedly at the bar (safety reasons). My reception ends at 10 and we're having an after party where will will provide drinks at as well.

Per person. My friends and family are big drinkers so by consumption would've been insanely expensive. It ends up being about $8/per person/per hour.

Holy crap you have to pay $80 per person for open bar?!?!

Ugh consumption for 150 people $7,100

Yup. It's expensive here.

Holy Guacamole Batman.$80! Per drink...Do they only provide Ace of Spades?

Okay, I would definitely do consumption if I was in your shoes too then.

Per person. It was combined with our food cost into one package but I'd say it was around $20/person.

We have open bar for 8 hours, so it ends up being $64/PP. If you have a lot of drinkers, per person is almost always cheaper.

These prices are outrageous! Shit, I'm never complaining again. $20 a person for 6 hours.

They should at that price!! Emmy was your wedding in the evening? Mine is an afternoon cocktail party so I'm thinking people may only have 5/6 drinks. Who am I kidding.... Lol

Ours is Premium bar $38pp per hour. At least we get the good stuff! **Sigh**

ETA: We are closing the bar for dinner because we have wine service and also a champagne toast included in our food and beverage package.

Consumption based bills can be tricky. You will want to know if the venue does the tally by bottle weight (converting to # of drinks) or by glass count. Typically, if by bottle weight, one "drink" can equate to more than one drink on the bill because the pour is a little heavy.

Does the pp charge include champagne for toasting, wine with dinner? And how many hours does the pp charge cover? If you decide to extend the bar time on the day of, will that be pp or will it convert to consumption?

My DH works in accounting for a resort. His recommendation is usually to go with the pp bar (if possible) unless you have a good number of total non-drinkers. And decide your total bar time in advance because the extension charges on the day of are "total money makers," particularly if the extension fee is on consumption because of the "last call effect."

We're doing cash bar and unlimited drinks for me and FH the our guest have to pay. Only because we feel if we offer free drinks people may drink and drive.

…wow.

ETA: @Brittany You're really making all of your guests pay for their booze because you don't trust them to not drink and drive?! That is so rude. You know people are equally likely to drink and drive whether they paid for their drinks or they were free, right?

What.

the.

fuck.

ETA: you know people get DUIs/DWIs when they drive home from the bar or club right?

where they paid for their drinks.

FutureMrsChang $38 pp per hour is worse than my scenario. My $80 is for 3.5 hours. Songbird- drinks would be tallied like at a bar: per drink. I can pre-but bottles of wine if I do consumption which could work for my wino friends...

Brittany - people drink and drive even when paying; we always have drivers lined up for this.