Open bar Vs Cash bar

Btw Shay your avatar is so pretty!

Well this why I asked for options and views. But some of your a down right RUDE! This is my first post and getting use to this forum. I prefer to have an open bar. My friends and I love to drink and have unlimited drinks. The venue will NOT ALLOW me to bring my own liquor. I may just keep it simple and just do the beer and wine.

Well this why I asked for options and views. But some of your a down right RUDE! This is my first post and getting use to this forum. I prefer to have an open bar. My friends and I love to drink and have unlimited drinks. The venue will NOT ALLOW me to bring my own liquor. I may just keep it simple and just do the beer and wine.

Thank you so much @Tina BoBina

We are planning for 200 guest.

Shay - If you do a search on cash bars, you'll see why people feel so strongly here. This is an abused topic that is discussed DAILY.

Beer and wine for the win!

Shay, try not to take it as rude. We are trying to help you. Beer and wine is GREAT! 200 guests is a lot. Paying for a top shelf open bar for five hours for 200 people will cost a lot (believe me I know!). But no one here is telling you that is the only option for your open bar. There are other ways to properly host your guests. As long as your guests aren't asked to pull out their wallets if they want something else, you are doing it right. Also-I agree with Tina. Your picture is lovely.

Well thank you everyone. I will so look up cash bars.

Hi Shay. We can tell this is your first post. This topic doesn't go over well, and therefore we can tell you didn't lurk first for a week or two, get a feel of the community/forum, etc.

There seems to be a lot of jumping into the deep and and then getting irritated of the water.

Anywhoo, for 200 guests, you'll need more than 1 keg and 12 bottles of wine. I had 120ish guests and we went through 1 1/2 kegs and maybe 20 bottles of wine over the course of 5 hours. I only did beer and wine - and everyone was ok with that. No tickets, no cash exchanged, etc. We had no parent help (parents all dead except one), and we were on a limited budget, but no one paid for anything there. And no one got too terribly shit-faced. In fact, I think the only ones that got drunk were my husband and one of my bridesmaids.

Yeah I know my family likes to drink. Heck I want to drink and have a good time too. The venue coordinator is really helping me out to. So im happy for that

I agree with the consensus that cash bars are rude. I can't imagine making my family and friends pay for anything on that day.

If an open bar is out of your budget, consider just doing wine and beer or having a dry wedding. Dry weddings aren't too popular around here either but depending on the time of day you're having it, it may be acceptable.

I had a very short, day wedding (3hr), with a full lunch and appetizers. It was over by 3pm, so the lack of alcohol wasn't an issue.

If you're hosting a wedding at night with 6+ hr event time people are gonna want drinks come 5 or 6 o'clock.

But like Centerpiece said, cake and punch weddings are a lot more socially acceptable than doing a cash bar wedding. You don't want to make your guests pay for anything.

GL, Shay!

Natalie if someone has loans to pay they should probably be getting married at a courthouse.

Look very closely into the pricing you are paying for a cash bar. I recently found that it was close to the same cost (cheaper in my instance) to have the open bar than to pay for the bar tending fees, set up and tear down and chips pretzels.

I would try and avoid the whole ticket idea. If money is an issue, you could opt for beer and wine. Keep costs down, as hard liquor can be pricy and then you don't have to worry about mixes.

@Shay. Welcome to WW and the Internet. It's not so much that these guys are rude, it's that we have strong opinions and like a PP said you can't jump into the deep end and then be irritated by the water. There is actually a forum at the very very top that lists different topics that do not go over well on WW.

I'm doing the same thing. Or they can just pay for their own booze, I haven't decided yet. I don't think it's rude at all! Its more rude to get trashed and act stupid at someone's wedding. 2 drinks is very generous, and if they want more it should come out of their pocket. But the main reason I'm doing that is because the majority of my family are alcoholics and the tab would be huge. Its your day, do it your way! If guess don't like that they only get 2 free drinks tell them to shove it. As long as you're happy, who cares??

Oy, Brittany.

Britt... totes true. i feel ya.

Except I don't. You sound selfish. Gross.

True story time!

My favorite watering hole (bar) has weekly ladies nights where we get 3 drink tickets at the door. You know what happens once we get inside? We trade and give away our tickets if we don't want them. I'm not big on drinking in public, so you can bet that I let my friends have my tickets.

Why would a wedding be any different? People who don't want to drink will gove their tickets to the ones who do want to drink. If you truly do have alcoholics, this will be even more true, only the alcoholics will find other ways to get their fixes.

Unless you really think you can enforce that only two tickets per guest policy, you're not going to stop anyone getting "trashed". And just for the record, I agree that it is incredibly horrendous behavior to get shit faced at a wedding, but they are also adults and you cannot dictate their actions. If someone gets that bad at my wedding, I will side eye and never let them live it down, but it also won't ruin our day.