Open or Cash bar? Drink tickets?

View Quoted Comment The bartender wouldn’t keep track of it, and there would be no way to ensure that it is enforced. The point of the sign would be to let people know the situation. Hopefully most people will be honest and actually not consume more than 2 drinks without paying themselves. It wouldn’t affect US at all if someone had more than 2, because we’re stopping at 2k regardless. All it would do would be take a free drink away from another guest... which I would hope most guests would be respectful enough to not want to do.

We may do an announcement instead of a sign, idk. But I think it’s important to let people know the situation or else they may assume it’s just an open bar, and then say someone has 10 free drinks in the first couple hours, then my great uncle can’t even get 1 drink for free later on? Like I said there’s no way to enforce it other than explaining the situation and hoping the guests will respect it

View Quoted Comment Nobody “has” to pay for anything, we are providing 2 drinks. No one HAS to have more than 2 drinks in the middle of the day. If they really want it, the option to purchase it is available, but I think offering to pay for everyone to have 2 drinks at a lunchtime reception is reasonable... nobody has to drink more than that

Open bar! Your guests will really appreciate it! And honestly when was the last time you went to someone’s party and had to pay for your own drinks?

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Why would you invite someone who doesn't have the decency to make sure that everyone is served before going back for more?

View Quoted Comment Exactly, you wouldn’t lol. That’s my point. Hopefully everyone we'd invite to the wedding would have the decency to not take a ton of free drinks knowing there is a limited amount of free drinks for the other guests

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I still think this sets up for confusion, only because there is no monitor, telling guests they can have 2 free drinks but then later in the day finding out they actually can't if others over did it. Have the DJ make an announcement at cocktail hour stating that the bar will be open for a limited amount of time before its flipped to cash so guests know they will eventually have to pay. I still think a sign is too much, and I wouldn't make it a bigger deal than it needs to be. Signs just bring more attention and its awkward. Have the DJ make an announcement early on in cocktail hour and then make another announcement once the bar is flipped.

Why not do an open bar during cocktail hour or until X time and then cash bar? Drink tickets feel really cheap at wedding. And who is going to be handing them out?

My future sister in law just got married and she had just beer and wine. The venue was a country club, so if someone really wanted liquor they could go to the other bar area and buy it. This might be a good consideration. We are doing a brunch wedding so we will have a bloody mary bar and a mimosa bar. I cant see too many people wanting more than that at 10 in the morning haha. But maybe you could consider beer, wine, and a signature cocktail? Little something for everyone

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But see then if we announce that it's only open for a limited time, then I have a feeling people will start drinking a lot very quickly to try to get all the free drinks in before it flips.

We may do an announcement instead of a sign. But I think putting a # is better than putting a time to avoid people feeling like there's a time limit and trying to get all their free drinks in right away. There shouldn't be an issue as long as people actually respect it. And I do know a few guests don't drink at all, so theoretically if a couple people don't listen and have an extra drink, there's a slight buffer so it won't affect the other guests unless A LOT of people don't respect it.

I think a consumption bar might be your best option here given what you've told us. It's what we're doing! We have a bar minimum that we have to meet one way or the other by the end of the night and the costs of paying outright for open bar or for beer and wine were just too much, so we decided to have a consumption bar. By our estimates, we should definitely reach our minimum, but we won't get nearly as high as the per head cost of the open bar. We're looking at around 85 people right now.

View Quoted Comment Honestly taking money for a gift because alcohol isn’t provided is pretty tacky IMO. I think that this expectation to provide everyone as much alcohol as they want is unrealistic.

View Quoted Comment That’s great. But I plan to host my guests properly and not require them to open their wallets for anything at my reception.

If a lot of guests won't drink the alcohol do the option where you do a consumption bar so you are not paying for anything not being consumed.

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Unless you have a few people who go wild in the beginning who get word that they will be cut off from free drinks and then the people who didn't get their drinks fast enough will be paying. I don't see how you could make it fair.

You say nobody has to drink more than that...I've never been to a wedding where I've had 2 or less drinks. People are going to drink more than 2 and if they know there is a cut off they absolutely will stock up early before shelling out their own money

I agree with some of the PP here, to me the ticket thing is tacky and I wouldn't personally do it. We are on a budget as well so one of the things we made sure to do was get a venue where we could provide our own alcohol. We are providing a variety of beer and wine and are also having a bourbon station. Another thing is that we know our crowd as well, so I know this will work for us.

View Quoted Comment I’m relying on the fact that I’m trusting my guests and that we hopefully aren’t inviting anyone who would be dishonest.

I get that some people may want more alcohol than that which is why we’re leaving the option for them to get more if they want. But we can’t possibly pay for everyone to consume an unlimited amount of alcohol. An open bar for us is literally $10,000, so we have to draw the line somewhere. If my guests don’t respect our wishes and our other guests then I feel like I have bigger issues than the bar

I think it totally depends on your guests so its hard to us (other people to say) For ME, my FH family does NOT drink. So we decided open bar. We decided because we knew about 30 people we invited don't drink... so we were already saving a good amount due to that. Basically its only my family and our friends that drink. So just take a glance over your guests, write down who drinks, what do they drink, are they heavy drinkers etc. We invited 86 people, I am expecting about 70 to RSVP (I know family from out of state that cant make it but still wanted an invite) so out of that 70 I know his family dont drink. We decided to buy 3 large bottles of whiskey, 2 large bottles of vodka, 2 large bottles of rum. Some beer and maybe 10 bottles of wine. (we don't have very many wine drinkers) So I really think you just need to look at your guests to decide. Even with all that, the alcohol bill only came to like $260 (I live in Texas) so for us "open bar" was affordable based on our guests. Plus our venue lets us bring our own alcohol and mixers, so I don't know if your venue allows that or not.

I personally, would not enjoy having to pay for drinks at a wedding I was attending. I don't think the ticket idea is bad though. It could work.

View Quoted Comment The venue isn’t going to do it that way though. They’re going to pull from your tab until it’s gone. They aren’t going to let people pay when there’s still money on a tab because that gets super confusing for them.

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You haven't seen my pantry, lol!! What I wanted to imply is I would never have a sign saying "Two scoop minimum on the green beans" so I would never put out a sign nor would I charge a guest for a drink in my home so I would not charge a guest at my wedding for a drink. I did not at my first wedding nor my second wedding, and I don't even drink! But my guests did (at least most do/most did) so I wanted that option to them, at no cost to them.

OP - I love potatoes, too. I mean.....it potatoes!!!!

View Quoted Comment I am doing the same thing! The venue actually recommended this for us! They also said that I can make decisions ahead of time if I want to add more later. Like If we still have 3 hours of reception left and my consumption is met then I wouldn't add more, but if my consumption is met with like half an hour left I might add $100 or so... Kind of depends on the people who drink... There are a lot of people who don't drink, but most of the ones who do really drink! So i figure if they drink me out of a couple thousand $ worth of booze they can pay for the rest their not or not drink.