Open or Cash bar? Drink tickets?

In my opinion guests shouldn't have to pay for drinks at a wedding. If you invited them to dinner in your home would you charge them for a glass of wine with dinner? If you don't think your guests will drink a lot then I would pay for drinks on consumption. Love the hashtag!

Host a consumption bar. Your guests won’t have to pay for drinks and you’ll only have to pay for what drinks are ordered.

Please don't do tickets. I’ve been to professional events with tickets (which is fine for a work event), but it’s not appropriate for a wedding.

Be prepared, you’re going to get a lot of people on here blowing up this thread about the fact that you HAVE to do an open bar and that nothing else is even an acceptable option.

In my opinion, it depends on your crowd. For us, we are having an afternoon reception with many guests that don’t drink much, and a few that would probably drink A LOT. An open bar was not an option for us (literally would’ve been $10,000). I also feel like drink “tickets” would give your wedding a carnival-y feel, and our venue coordinator agreed that was tacky. We’re doing a consumption bar/“limited open bar.” Each drink is about $10 and we have 100 guests, so the first $2,000 worth of drinks are on us, then once $2,000 is reached, it becomes a cash bar. That comes out to 2 drinks per guest that will be on us, and like I said knowing our guests and the time of day, most people will not want more than 2 drinks anyway. We are listing on our website and will have a sign out by the bar explaining the situation: “due to budget constraints, we will be having a limited open bar. Please have any 2 drinks on us! After that, additional beverages will be available for purchase.”

Thats just what worked best given our situation. But other ways to cut costs I’ve heard of doing an open bar just for cocktail hour and then cash bar for reception. Or you could do just wine and beer which can help cut costs. The only thing I’d really say NOT to do is drink tickets because it feels tacky. Our venue coordinator said that our idea (to have a sign asking people to please not have more than x amount of drinks on us) is classier. The only issue is if people are dishonest about how many drinks they get, but knowing my guests I think they will respect that!

I would do a host bar of at least beer and wine. Guests shouldnt have to pay for drinks.

Regardless of looking tacky or not, its a wedding, not a fair. I'd skip the tickets.

Have a consumption bar, you only pay for what people drink.

Offer beer and wine only, its cheaper to have an open bar this way and if you provide the alcohol many stores will take back what isn't opened so you can return un-opened alcohol. This is what we are doing. Its affordable.

IMO, guests shouldn't have to pay for anything at a wedding. They might have already booked travel, bought a new outfit, bought you a shower gift and a wedding gift, potentially took time off of work to travel/attend, and now they have to buy their own drinks? A reception is a thank you to the guests for coming, they shouldn't have to pay another dime to enjoy themselves.

View Quoted Comment It’s fine to do a consumption bar, but the sign you plan to have sitting out is tacky IMO. You shouldn’t tell guests you don’t have enough money to properly host them. If you can’t afford to host your guests properly than cut the guest list. I’d be offended seeing this sign after bringing probably $100-150 as a gift to you. If I had to end up paying for some drinks, I’d take that money out of the cash i was going to gift you.

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I also agree, you don't need a sign at all. How will the bartender keep track if the person already bought 2 drinks or not? Are they keeping a tally behind the bar? Sometimes FH gets both of us drinks at the bar, how would they know one was for me?

Regardless, you definitely don't need a sign explaining that you can't afford an open bar. I'd just put the $2,000 on the bar and once that money is gone they'll flip it to a cash bar. Telling guests they're allotted 2 free drinks and then having to try to keep track sounds like a mess.

We are doing an open beer & wine bar, with liquor for purchase (as of now), if we end up with an additional $2,000 we will open the full bar for the night.

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Consumption? Meaning just having a tab running and then we pay at the end?

Thanks, the hubby came up with it?

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Thank you!

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I would have never thought of having a sign. I do think people would be respectful. I would just be concerned about the few who are honest. I like the idea of having an open bar for cocktail hour and then a cash bar for the reception. That seems reasonable. Thank you!

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Beer and wine are a definite. At least they will have something to drink. Thank you!

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Thank you. I wasn't aware that some stores may take back unopened wine. I'll have to check with the stores here to see what their policy is because that can be an option. Thank you!

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We've cut our list down. I don't want to be offensive, but I like your comment. I chuckled; when you put it like that, I can see where a person would be coming from. Thank you!

I think a consumption bar would be your best bet. You will pay the tab at the end of the night, so it can either save you money, or can run higher than a limited bar.

We are able to bring our own alcohol in, so we're doing beer and wine, but if it runs out then it's out. At least we provided! Granted we're probably getting waaaaay more than we need, but I know if you purchase from Total Wine, you're able to return any unopened alcohol. Might be another good option if your venue allows you to bring your own in!

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That seems like a happy medium. I think my best friend did that at her wedding. Thank you!

Please no drink tickets. My former father in law (rest his soul) wanted to do that at my first wedding and my mom's eyes about bugged out from her head, lol. It is not a carnival, so please no. When I read "tickets" in the header my stomach did a flip flop, it brought me back.........

Host beer and wine and a signature drink or two but please no signs, no cash bar.

No signs. No telling people they have to stop at two, most people WILL stop at two, maybe three. I would never tell a guest in my home to stop at two servings of potatoes so no telling them to stop after two beers. Your bartender will cut anyone off if needed.

You have a whole year to save for your wedding! Good luck!

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Another lady mentioned stores taking back wine. I would be purchasing my wine from Total Wine, so I'm glad to know that they will return what wasn't used. Thank you!

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Thank you! I hope I wouldn't have a limited of potatoes at your house lol. I love me a good potato!

View Quoted Comment You wouldn’t tell guests to make sure there were enough potatoes for the other guests? I feel like that’d be a pretty normal thing to say or to imply. There’s limited amounts of potatoes at a dinner party and there’s sometimes there’s limited amounts of funds for alcohol for a wedding. I don’t see what’s wrong about asking people to help themselves but to make sure there’s enough left for other guests