Supplying own alcohol?

We plan on doing this! We aren't having liquor at all and we don't plan on providing near enough to allow our guests to get drunk (also a Sunday wedding so most people will have work the next morning anyways). So just bottled beer and wine (5-6 drinks per bottle I believe).

The articles I've read say you should accommodates 2 drinks per guest during cocktail hour and 1 drink per guest every hour after until the end of the reception. For us that would be roughly 500 drinks, but my dad talked us into only doing about 300 considering a lot of people probably won't drink given it's a Sunday evening and then that leaves too much alcohol left for the heavy drinkers to take advantage of. But that's just the method we're using, hope this helps!

We are doing this as well, but we will have beer, wine and liquor. It's actually A LOT cheaper to buy in bulk at a Sams or Costco than to not supplyour own. We plan on "buying more" than we think we will need. You can return unopened bottles to Sams or Costco afterward.

View Quoted Comment Yeah mine is on a friday but still. I'm gonna do rough guesses on certain drinks. Alot of my friends aren't big wine people so I might do one or two of each(white and red). I kinda wanna do one or two premade punches but kinda gotta figure out how to do that. Maybe call it a signature drink? Or i mite just stick to wine coolers(smirnoffs, reds, twisted teas) and beer

We're doing this and friends of ours also pulled this off. I bought the wine at Wine Depot and we'll be getting most of the beer and cider from Costco.

View Quoted Comment Yes ive heard certain places allow you to return anything unopened!

Yes, I've been to a wedding where this happened. In fact, it was a BYOB wedding and me and a group of friends went in together and "bought the bar" for our friend (we offered to do this as our wedding gift and they graciously accepted_. I called a local liquor store with the info the bride and groom gave us and the liquor store told us what to buy and how much. We prepaid and the groom picked it up and dropped it off to the venue during rehearsal dinner. They had bartenders serving. It really wasn't too expensive (I want to say $1,000 for 200+ people?). There was the option to return anything unopened but I think the couple opted to keep anything extra.

We did supply liquor, beer and wine, with the idea that you can get just as drunk off chugging beer and wine as you can liquor, plus some people don't drink beer or wine. That was a personal call made by us and the B&G.

Good luck!

Yes!! Do this!! You can hire a bartender for cheap (some are even in school and need “outside” credits. So then you could get one really cheap)
if you’re afraid of people getting drunk you can do some sort of chip to represent how many drinks everyone is allotted. Also tell the bartender to use discretion, if someone looks/acts too drunk they probably are, cut them off.
Sometimes especially around the holidays & beginning of the summer there are lots of sales on alcohol
hope this helps! Good luck😊

I did!
I got 12 (big) bottles of wine from Sams. 2 different whites, a red, and white zin (3 bottles of each).
We got 8 24 packs of beer (I think)
then I did signature cocktails for during cocktail hr. I did 2 drinks and I think I got 1 bottle of each liquor for Long Islands, regular size. And 2 big bottles of rum for rum punch.
We also got 70 cans of coke and 35 cans of diet. Plus lemonade provided by our caterer.
I believe I spent $400 and then $300 for a bartender. We had 65 guests and had A LOT left over! I looked at the guest list and determined if they were a beer drinker or a wine drinker. And bought based on those estimations. (2 drinks in the first hr/cocktail hr and 1 drink an hr after that) we saved a lot of money buying our own alcohol. One Venue we looked at was charging $25 per bottle of wine(small bottles), that’s more than double what I spent! Another venue was charging almost $50 a person for their bar package. I had to pay it whether they drank or not. The only downside was all alcohol had to dropped off the morning of the event, we couldn’t leave it there over night.
find a reputable bartender and do research on prices. You’ll have to buy mixers, garnished, glasses etc if you go this route. It was easier for me, but it might not be easier for you.

We are going to do this