Open bar vs per consumption

OP, I like you would rather know upfront what I am expecting cost wise. Our venue includes bar in the per person price. No surprises. Good luck with what you decide!

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Hi there, Yes we had licensed smart serve bartenders and yes we returned the empties and unopened liquor. I was chiming in as I have done this before as the OP asked for opinions. Obviously it is everyone's personal choice. Best of luck with yours. Cheers!

View quoted message Well the people i know said it was worth it... and wouldn't 2$ drinks be better then 5-7$ people dont actually have to pay with a toonie their will be a cash float... did you have a bartender server proper mixes and take the payment, then had someone you trust from the wedding collect the cash at the end of the night? I will be shopping sale and on one big purchase most liquor stores will give you 10-15% off. Also did you take in the empty's, either way you it's your personal choice if open bar works for you awesome. My own siblings plus other family members and friends have done a toonie bar and it worked. i never found it annoying i thought it was better then paying 5-7$ a drink especially if you have your spouse with you and also when you are already giving a wedding gift. and regardless your making money back to help pay the cost and it helps when you have a tight budget, it's better then nothing and having an open bar.

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We did this and the money didn't even cover the cost of the liquor, I wouldn't count on it covering anything else. People were kind of annoyed as well..........This time around I am doing open bar and done with it

You have to know your crowd and do what you think is best. I think there's been some good ideas about having an open bar so you know what your cost will be at the end of the night.

Personally for me, I know our crowd is full of heavy drinkers, therefore an open bar is the only option for us.

We are doing open bar. Easier to track ahead for price and leaves nothing unknown. Plus we have some drinkers on both sides so why not.

We are doing an open bar as it is included in our package. One side of the family is big into drinking, and the other side is not. So it will even itself out.

My Dad did per consumption for his wedding. They had open bar and we could drink anything, and then they paid the next day based on what we drank. Apparently it wasn't a bad cost for the amount that we drank lol

It will really depend on your venue and pricing

We are doing an open bar, mostly because I couldn't deal with not knowing how much a per consumption bar was until the end of the night. Plus guests can surprise you, they may drink more than you originally thought!

You could also do a combination of the two like Jennifer said, you could have the open bar during cocktail hour/dinner and the per consumption for afterward where guests can get whatever drinks they want.

View quoted message We are also having a toonie bar. How are you wording it on the invites?

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I honestly hate making those decisions hahaha. I always feel like I made the wrong one.

For the messaging, just keep it short like:

"Open Bar During Cocktail Hour"

"Cash Bar Available - ATM on site" or "No ATM on site"

"Limited Open Bar"

"Toonie Bar Available"

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Thanks, Tori! that's exactly what my FH said. The drinks are only max $9 so it's not an outrageous price like you said in your $10-$15 range. Lucky that you get to bring your own alcohol! For us too, I think I saw on another post from you, free alcohol is a MUST and non-negotiable. We are just trying to play with the numbers if there is a way to save. TBH I like that my venue has the food and the alcohol separate because that way I have the chance to play with options like right now, but double edged sword, somethings too many options is more complicated hahaha

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Thank you! I like the limited option might be a good compromise

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Thank you!! Yeah, our venue for 7 hours it would be 60/person for open bar, which isn't so bad. My FH just thinks that we would actually be paying less at the end of the night if we just paid per consumption and pay the tab at the end of the night, since he insists that the average of ppl will not make the open bar worth it. Just my concern is that I don't want that unknown until the end of the night, i'd rather know I am paying 59 x 140 prior to, rather than 140 guests had **** drinks so it's now $$$$$ and ends up being more expensive than the open bar, which then defeats the whole purpose.

I'll be honest for us (thankfully) it isn't a budget concern, either way we can afford the open par or pay the full tab at the end, but of course, if there is a way to save money and per consumption will do that, then I would take it, but the whole not knowing it's just a bit stressful for me... Even if we are paying for the alcohol, should there be something in the invitation that says alcohol included or something like that?

But I like your idea of having a modified open-bar, I think Jennifer mentioned having some sort of limited bar so take out the most expensive drinks and that way it's a bit of a compromise to keep me at ease.

We’re going for an open bar through our reception vendor. It was all included in our per-plate price and that price wasn’t too bad. We looked at some venues that included it in the plate price but we’re insanely expensive.

We also had a lengthy discussion, with the venue's coordinator, about what type of bar we would like to have.

Since we are on a pretty tight budget, she discouraged us from doing an open bar. The reason being that you can guesstimate the cost as much as you'd like beforehand, but you won't really know the final cost until the end of the night....and most of the time, people are quite surprised by the total.

Ask your venue if you could do a modified open-bar, where you have a limited budget assigned towards the bar. Once it has been reached, it either switches to per consumption OR toonie bar. You could also offer an open bar only during the cocktail hour and the rest of the night per consumption. The possibilities are endless!

As long as you inform your guests, either on the details card or your wedding website, then guests will know whether to bring cash with them or not!

Ultimately, we decided to give 1 drink ticket for the cocktail hour and offer wine at dinner. The rest will be per consumption!

At a lot of venues, you can do a consumption bar. and still limit what alcohol is served. that way you can somewhat budget accordingly.

most venues/coordinators will say that the consumed booze is 1 drink per hour, per person, per hours (so like you said...8-10 drinks per person). and you count every person invited. (even if underage...because while they don't drink, it makes up for the heavier drinkers).

I would say to go with by consumption as long as the price isn't outrageous ($10 - $15 a drink is what I would consider outrageous).

If drinks by consumption do cost something like that - then go with the open bar and just make sure you encourage all of your guests to have at it!!

I'm in a similar situation with my FH's family being heavy drinkers and them my family which is smaller having most people not even touch a glass of wine... Overall when we looked at the numbers for every person we know won't drink - there was one or more that will be drinking a dozen or more drinks. His family is also mostly dudes so there is the fact that men are naturally going to be able to drink more so...

I'm doing open bar but we are doing the booze ourselves and can return the unopened items. (250 people wedding)

I'm having a toonie bar, so drinks are 2$ all night. we will be buying our alchol and making a drink menu of what's available for beer, wine and signature drinks.

Our guest will get 1 free ticket for a drink, we will also have 1 bottle of wine on each table that will seat 8 people. Then for our bridal party the drinks are on us for the night. Anything that is not used (opened) we will return to the liqour store. The money made from the bar will help pay for the cost of the alchol and wedding, we are having 200 guest, I've estimated that 130 people will drink, as we are inviting kids to the wedding and some people dont drink.

Other family members have went with a toonie bar in the past and its paid for it self and some. I will also include a toonie bar notice on the wedding invites.

So for $20 your guests can have 10 drinks wich is plenty and cheap for them, alot of liqour stores will give you a 10 - 15% discount for large orders.