What is a consumption bar?

You pay for what is consumed at the end of the night rather than an up front per person cost.

Consumption bar - only paying for drinks given out.

Vs

Price per person which you pay regardless whether that person drinks or not.

There are 2 types of bar pricing at wedding venues: 1. consumption bar and 2. per person package. Consumption bar is where you pay the bar tab at the end of the night based on how many drinks were purchased (consumed). A per person package is where you pay a flat rate per person no matter how many drinks are ordered. They both have pros and cons. I personally like the per person package option because I don't have to think about it, or worry about the final tab, and I know exactly what that price is.

A consumption bar is perfect for weddings like a thread earlier today where only 30-40 of the 300 guests are expected to drink alcohol. It would be crazy to pay a per person charge for alcohol for 260 guests who don't drink.

I thought every bar was a consumption bar

@CristinaV - some choose to pay a flat fee per head for unlimited drinks.

You pay per drink vs per person

I would just suggest being careful, a lot of people who do not drink much do drink at weddings. My sister is on medication, can only drink 1-2 glasses of wine per week, so most time s when we go out she does not drink, but she can drink once in a while.

@Cristina-yes, when you go out with your mates, that’s a consumption bar, but for parties, you usually pay for alcohol per person.

Your guests drink 100 drinks, you are charged for 100 drinks. It is paying for only what you consume on a drink by drink basis.

Usually with wedding venues there is a minimum amount required to spend.

Where my wedding is, we are doing a consumption bar, but the minimum is $300. So if my guests drink $800 worth of alcohol, I am paying $800. If they only drink $200 worth, I am still paying $300 as that is the minimum.

Depending on your crowd...you can limit the bar to this or that. Check with the wedding venue.

We are doing domestic beer, well wine and liquor. That will keep all drinks under $8 each. Otherwise we could have rude guests going up and ordering $50 shots of tequila all night.

Everyone else covered the basics, but I want to share my "cautionary tale".

H and I were going back and forth on paying the open bar per person fee or doing consumption. My family and friends DRINK and they do it well. We decided to avoid the unexpected charges and pay for the open bar. THANK GOD WE DID. We payed $2800 for the open bar for 100 guests and based on the sheer amount of drinks and top shelf orders, it would have cost us $5300 (saw the receipts after). This is a "know your crowd" situation, but I appreciated not being surprised with a fee (and saving money).

We debated a consumption bar. My FH doesn't drink and neither do the majority of his friends. So we asked for more info from our venue/caterer... once we played with some of the numbers, it wasn't worth it.

We would also have to pay per soda (or any non-alcoholic beverages)... that just made it not worth it for us.

It will depend on your venue. If you are debating consumption bar, they should have a price list to share with you so you can compare the costs.