Open bar?

We are doing a toonie bar. We are paying the venue a corkage fee, we are suppling all the alcohol as well as hiring bartendars to man the bar. We are selling drink tickets. We are not doing wine on the tables as the bottles have to be opened(In Alberta they do anyways). Instead I am doing a gift cetificate per table that the guests can take to the bar to get a bottle of thier choice for the table. I find there is always so much waste wine as people drink different kinds.

We have been back and forth on this - we want everyone to have a good time and we don't want to come off as cheap either. Half the guests are drinkers, half are not, but the half that are will *really* go for it

While we want an open bar, at the end of the day we just can't justify the cost. We kinda split the difference and are going with 3 drink tickets p/p with a couple of bottles of wine on each table. cash bar after that.

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Ughhh, that sounds like a really nice option actually... I think venues should do more client friendly open bars like that, a little mark up on full bottles, not "kind of cheaper" prices per drink! I used to bar tend a lot of East Indian weddings here in Vancouver, and it would be the utmost embarrassment not to have open bar, but they also rent private halls where they can bring in their own liquor, so they buy in bulk, and get discounts, and then the BC liquor stores allow you to return unopened bottles and unopened cases of beer. Which is the only time I would consider an open bar... not when they are charging you over $5 per drink still as HOST cost... not much cheaper than the $7 for cash bar!

View quoted message Yuuup! Mine for the same number of guests was $1200 for one drink each! Vancouver is nuts expensive!

I’m doing a toonie bar to cut down on costs.I keep hearing about full drinks being found left behind in bathrooms because people didn’t have to pay for it.

We’re having a large wedding so it’s more affordable for us to do a toonie bar. I would be worried about wasting alcohol/money too with an open bar. I’ve actually only been to one wedding with an open bar and most people were respectful but it’s still a concern. Depends on your budget for sure.

We are doing an open bar (as its private property so saves us needing a permit), my dad also requested we do one :/

The suggested recommendations for 150 people from the LCBO worked out to about $6000 in alcohol (remember not a venue so we are paying actual costs, at a venue this would be double or triple the amount), which does not include the bartenders, tip, mix, etc. If I were to do this again, I dont think I would do open bar.

View quoted message I concur with this! Haha. I'm from Vancouver, and you can tell how big a wedding budget was by if there is an open bar or not. They are extremely expensive to have if you have any big drinkers or a big guest list. Doing one drink ticket each for 120 guests with taxes and gratuity is almost $1000 at my venue, and my venue is on the budget friendly side!

I think a big part of it depends where you are from to be honest. Growing up in a small town weddings were always a cash bar - I didn't go to a wedding with an open bar until I moved to the city, now 80% of the weddings I go to are open bar. Because of this I always go to a wedding expecting a cash bar but will be pleasantly surprised if it's open

We honestly weren't planning on a full open bar and thought maybe we would just do wine/beer or cocktail hour but found out our preferred venue requires an open bar. Luckily they charge by the bottle at their vendor prices and not by the drink so we will (hopefully) only be looking at a bill between $****. We have just made a few little tweeks to fit this in the budget

I would say check with the venues and see what they offer when it comes to bar options - whether it be included in a per person fee, per bottle or per drink. We would never be able to manage the cost per drink (we have a lot of drinkers) but per bottle was affordable for us.

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I had no idea that BC was like that! Good to know for the future if I ever end up out there for a wedding lol.

We are doing a "toonie" bar, guests will be able to purchase drink tickets. This helps with cost (his family is Irish), also ensure no one goes over board, and less waste in alcohol. My drinks start @ $7 each, adds up quick and we are doing free white & red wine during dinner.

Not everyone drinks so pop/juice will be free.

We're doing an open bar, but it sounds like there's different versions of an open bar.

For us, it was part of our package. so for $165 per person, we got cock tail hour food, 4 course meal and a late night spread. It also came with open bar, some house wines and beer.

It was just part of our package so we didn't consider not doing open as we don't have to pay for each drink/consumed.

I think this is very dependant on your family and type of guest list you have.

We decided to do an open bar since my fiancé's parents own a brewery, and his aunt offered to buy us two wine kits for the wedding. That's already plenty, and we bought a dozen bottles of a wine earlier in the year. Now we just need to get a few more things, so it didn't feel stressful or difficult to afford the open bar. If it does end up being very expensive for sure consider a host bar!

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I figured it wasn't intentional, don't sweat it! In BC it's very rare that you get included packages for open bars. At my venue the drinks range from $5-7 a piece so it adds up really fast. Most couples try for an open bar, but its fairly evenly divided from what I've seen.

I have a pretty decent budget of around $20K (for about 120 people), and we are NOT doing an open bar. As people have stated, many venues will actually deter you from choosing that option, because even though they know they'll "make more money" because you have to pay for EVERY SINGLE DRINK that someone leaves half full... they are usually respectful enough to warn you that it can be a waste of money.

My sister's venue said whenever they do an open bar, they find at least a few dozen beer bottles, and dozens of glasses, that are half full or even only have one sip out of them! So they strongly recommend having some way to moderate the free drink allowance.

We are doing one welcome drink ticket, and a bottle of white and red at each table. Thereafter will be a cash bar. Just 24 bottles of wine, one drink ticket for each guest (approx 120), and open bar for the immediate family is going to be at least a $3,000 bar bill.

Perhaps you could budget for giving out say, 3 drink tickets, plus wine on the tables? So it seems like they get more out of it, but you know exactly what it's going to cost you ahead of time. You can even prep people for "a welcome drink & cash bar", and then they can be pleasantly surprised to receiving a few tickets. OR, have an open bar cocktail hour, and cash bar reception? That's what my cousin did and it worked out quite well, because people usually leave/lose their drinks when they get up to dance or something, whereas that's not going on during cocktail hour.

I’ve gone with a free bottle of red and white on each table, and a cash bar. We are trying to keep things reasonable (under 10g all in), and most of our guests are close and know our financial situation - new baby and saving for a home while living with my mom. So, I think they’ll understand. I really don’t think ppl should get to expect to drink for free all night. A little gift of some is nice (wine on tables), but we don’t need to pay for ppl to get trashed at our wedding!

Open bar has always been a 100% must for us! I do understand it is an expensive feature and not for everyone but it is very important for us! What's nice is most venues take off a % of the seat charge for kids and teens who can't use the bar so you're not paying for them! And for the people who don't drink too much... I know we'll have people who will drink their share and then some haha!

I hate to say but I almost feel like it's an expectation at weddings now? I have been to several weddings and they were almost all open bars! The one I went to with a paid bar the complaints we heard from the crowd was so sad to be honest... Really boosted me to make sure I did it open for my guests!

Also a main reason I don't want to get married at a Golf and Country club because they only do a few hours of the night as an open bar and no shots!!!

View quoted message My apologies! I really didn’t mean to offend. Where I live, it’s extremely standard at 99.9% of wedding venues to have an open bar (it’s in every basic wedding package). I forgot that things might be different outside where I live.

We are paying corkage through the hotel, then doing a toonie bar. We will put wine bottles at the tables for no charge as well. The wedding party and parents will get free drinks all night as well. We are hoping to cut down on the alcohol waste a bit that way and hopefully deter people from getting completely wasted. I think people are understanding no matter which way you go. I would never be offended going to a wedding and paying for my own drinks. Do what’s best for the both of you. We were always set on doing an open bar. It was the hotels catering consultant who gave us the idea for the toonie bar.

View quoted message Am I not ‘hosting my guests properly’ if I don’t do an open bar? I think that’s really unfair language to use for those of us that can’t afford one.

I’ve been to several weddings in several provinces hosted by very different types of people. Every single one of them had an open bar. Most were full open bar but some were VERY DIY and they all worked out fine.

If you can afford it, host your guests properly with an open bar.

The open bar was a non-negotiable for us. I once made a joke about having a cash bar around my in-laws, and by God if looks could kill....my parents on the other hand told us to do a cash bar. My FH is Italian and they give a cash gift assuming that they will be getting an open bar.

If however you don't have heavy drinkers or that cultural pressure, I don't see the issue with a cash bar. It will hopefully keep people from getting too hammered and sloppy too!

I thought they were the same thing! Lol I told my venue we wanted to do an open bar and they described to us a payment plan of what google defines as a host bar lol.
I guess a host bar would be the better option because then you are only paying for what is actually consumed which would be ideal for a wedding with a budget versus potentially being overcharged because it's an hourly rate?

We are doing a toonie bar. We can’t afford to pay for a bar for everyone fully and his side is big drinkers

We did an open bar, which was rare for my family but quite common in my FH's family. I found myself grabbing a drink and then forgetting it, and then going to get another, so I could imagine there may be a few more, however, we were able to afford an open bar and budgeted for it. I say if you can afford it, do it, otherwise, consider doing a wine with dinner and maybe cocktail hour drinks, and cash bar after. All depends on your vibe too.

We were also considering it and our venue's coordinator brought up some good points: Though your guests will enjoy the open bar, they'll most likely waste their drinks (forget about them, not finish them). You or some of your family/friends will have to deal with the early and extremely drunks. There's also the surprise of the bill at the end of the night.

Since we're on a pretty tight budget, we've opted to offer wine at dinner and 1 drink ticket after the ceremony. The rest of the night will be a cash bar.