Is a cash bar tacky?

The venues only do 3 hours and then charge. Better foe your budgetif you're paying extra for the hours. I have inquired, except the cost vary place to place. Your safer to have a cash bar.

View quoted message Good point about the wine. ☺ I've been searching forever for a comment thread about this topic lol. So glad nobody thinks it's tacky. 😛

Definitely not tacky! It saves you loads of money and people understand for sure. The advice I got was look at your guestlist and for me there wasn't enough on my list who would actually take advantage of the open bar so it wasn't worth it. We did also have two wine bottles on each table for dinner so I think that was a good starter for everyone and if they wanted more they went for it.

FH & I agreed to a cash bar with wine on the tables during dinner. We are paying for this ourselves. We are also considering 1-2 tickets per person (of legal drinking age) then they can pay for their own after. We are also having non alcoholic choices available - punch,etc. Of course now I'll be contacting our venue's catering department to double check...bride brain...ugh!

Not tacky! Stick to your budget and do what's right for you. You can always do an open bar for a few hours and cash after that if this is something your hall offers - this is what my aunt did. If you go with cash bar just make sure your guests know so they bring cash

Not tacky at all! I bartend weddings and when it's an open bar people are careless with their drinks, and just end up losing their drink and going back for a new one. If you feel bad about too high of a cost, you could do a toonie bar or a donation bar. Just make sure people are aware before the wedding so they don't show up without any money!

We are having 1 white and 1 red bottle of wine at the tables. We are also doing 1 hour of open bar during the cocktails then it will be cash bar. Don't let other peoples opinions make you go broke. If you want cash bar then do it , if people aren't happy about it then why are they there? The day is to celebrate you and your FH not to celebrate an open bar.

We will be having wine on all the tables during the dinner which is part of our reception package. We will be having a cash bar however we will be giving our guests 1 FREE ticket for the bar so we don't offend anyone by having a cash bar.

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Agreed. I'm terrified of people getting out of control, which seems to be the case at open bar, but my FH insisted and its part of the package at our venue. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that people don't get out of control again.

Its hard to say, but I think regardless of people's opinions about whats tacky about how YOU spend YOUR money on YOUR wedding day, there are always options. If you think people will be thrown off by it, a couple midway points I would suggest are: 1. having a toonie bar, where people pay $2 a drink. they can't really complain about that. and 2. have a ticketed system where you give out a certain number of tickets per guest. a friend did this and it worked amazingly well at also keeping the crowd from getting excessive. if you want to do a cash bar, just make it 100% clear to guests in advance so they're not surprised by the cost and have enough cash to keep the party going!

Depends on your guest list and what you can afford. We're doing a cash bar, but doing it ourselves ( toonie bar). super simple and that way the liquor pays for itself in the end. Also prevents people from over indulging into the adult drinks if get what I mean. If you had an open bar people are more likely to get drunk and make idiots of themselves. Also be weary of putting wine on tables, you could end up with half empty bottles, or people just drinking the bottles and not having anything else.

A cash bar is fine. If you have wine on the table with the meal, that's generous enough. We are having an open bar just because we only have 30 people and about half don't drink. It won't be too costly for us, but if you have 100 guests you might have to take a loan! P.S. It's not tacky in the least.

Tacky? Easy to say when they're not paying for it. Your wedding, your budget! If an open bar is something you can afford and want that's awesome but the real world is that not everyone can afford it or necessarily wants to put that money in there when there's things like housing, and a potential honeymoon to consider. The day is about you, not the alcohol.

I agree with Katherine, just put on your invitations that it is cash bar.. some people take that for granted and you will end out dishing out far too much at the end of the night.. in my opinion people are there to celebrate your night, not get drunk because it's "free".

We are only charging $1 per drink..... we did this so no one would leave full drinks laying around. It just helps remind people that they can't be wasteful. That's all.

Hello! We are giving each person 3-4 drink tickets attached to a welcome pamphlet/order of events. We could do open bar and pay the tab at the end of the night- at $5.50 per drink - No thanks!!! Our friends are thirsty. I've gotten some backlash on this as well but oh well, we are paying for everything ourselves and unlike our friends, we are not doing a J&J to raise money. So there's that. 😂

At the end of the day, you know your guests best. Are they light vs. heavy drinkers?

We had a consumption card where we gave the venue a given a $ amount that we would cover and then the bar would turn into a cash bar once that amount was reached. We had a brunch wedding and also included mimosas and several bottles of wine, along with many juices, coffee and tea.

In the end, not all that much wine was consumed, so the amount was refunded and we never reached our maximum amount for the consumption card. Again, we had a brunch wedding and the weather was very warm so guests tend to drink less during the day. It was a huge money saver!

I'm not a big drinker so an open bar is kinda wasted on me But I wouldn't be offended if I had to pay a drink or 2. Each couple makes choices according to their priorities and budget. Anyone who tries to make them feel bad for their decisions does not deserve to be part of their wedding, IMO.

Hi Stephanie! Happy you made a decision. How is the rest of the planning going? I made this discussion: 10 stages every bride goes. Let me know if you like it. Xx

Awesome, I'm so glad Stephanie.
Cheers!

Thanks girls! We are definitely going to stick with doing a cash bar and will spread the word before hand. It is our day and our budget! 😁

We're doing cash bar. I don't care if it's tacky or not I can't afford it hahah

There is nothing wrong with having a cash bar for a wedding. I'm having a cash bar and marked it on the reception invitations, so nothing is hidden from the guests. I would recommend that, in the event, you are having a cash bar to make sure the guests are aware of this, stick to your guns. At the end of the day, it's your wedding and your budget that matters the most.

I personally think there are pros and cons to both options, and it really comes down to what works best for you. Guest shouldn't be deciding to come based off an open or cash bar, they should be there for you.

In Ontario where I am from most weddings I went to were open bar, but that is how a lot of the venues put the packages together. Here in Alberta where I live now every wedding I have been to has been a cash ($2) bar. It's all preference there is not right or wrong answer and your guest shouldn't care either way.

If our venue didn't offer open bar in our package we would be doing a cash bar, best way to bring costs down and keep guests from over drinking.

We are doing a cash bar because it is more budget friendly. I don't think it is tacky at all, and as long as you let your guests know ahead of time it is cash bar then it really shouldn't be an issue. Also like Kate had mentioned as well, it limits people drinking a ridiculous amount. Sure it would be fun to have an open bar but I am not willing to pay for it. What we decided on was a cash bar, and then at each table, we will have a bottle of red and a bottle of white wine for the guests to enjoy! This way they are provided with some free alcohol and then if they want more, they have a bar!

I think it depends on your particular circumstances and neither one is "tacky". I am having an open bar BUT only because my wedding is almost entirely family and if we did a cash bar or a toonie bar my parents would just buy strings of drink tickets to leave on the tables for our family and I don't think that is fair to FH's family. I also feel like this is a huge waste as there are always strips of tickets left on tables at the end of the night. Our venue offers a set per person bar cost of $30 that will count towards our minimum so I can work it in since we are under our count anyway. If not for the last factor we would be having a cash bar because I had to talk both my parents and FH into an open bar. And any conversations I have had with both my family and FH family they have encouraged me to have a cash bar. The whole tacky idea is easy when they aren't the ones footing the bill and just want to have unlimited drinks for the night. I would hope people aren't coming to my wedding get trashed.

I haven't been to many weddings with an open bar tbh.We are doing drink tickets and then if people want to drink more than we allotted them they can pay for their own. Most weddings I've been to have done this

I think it depends on where you're from. It's pretty common here to have an open bar but you're also able to bring your own liquour to most venues and just pay corkage. An open bar freaks me out from abudget perspective so this is my compromise. Another option is to have a cash bar but hand out tickets so everyone has 1-2 drinks included.
I think if it's a full on dinner and dancing that it makes sense to include wine with the meal. Anything else is above and beyond.

A cash bar is one way to control how much people are drinking. You don't want someone drinking too much and have it come back on you later. 50,000$ fine for you if they drink and drive, since it's your party.

We are having a cash bar... We included a reception card with the invitations letting guests know that if they want to drink they will have to bring cash... Open bars are not at all common where we are from.