To open bar or not to open bar

I am just serving beer and wine at my wedding to save costs. No shots or cocktails.

I'll admit, I was really worried about that too. How we combatted it was 1) choosing a wedding on a Sunday, and 2) having an evening wedding. Both options also made our venue much cheaper for us but it also allowed us to have the open bar to avoid the taboo but also deter people from drinking like crazy.

We are doing a toonie bar as open bar is WAY OVER BUDGET for me, his family is Irish. Plus I find ppl drink more responsibly if it is a cash bar and less waste on drinks if they are paid for.

Do open bar for the cocktails and before dinner and then toonie bar for those guests wanting to drink.

We are doing a cash bar as its out of our budget. We will have a bottle of wine in both types such as red and white wine for each table.

Good stuff Melissa! Jealous that you've got a rational parent in the mix. I'm still hoping someone will regain some sense of reason in this process.

My FH and I did not want an open bar. We don't really drink much. But my dad wanted it because it's expected with his family, so we said if he wanted it, he could foot the bill, he agreed!!

Aaahhhh yes, I know exactly what you mean! Stay strong xo I'm here for whenever you need!

We decided no booze @ our wedding, I'll make a punch. I don't want the stress of someone drinking too much or the possible fine if they drink and drive.

We really wanted an openbar at first - but it's not in our budget & I can think of so many ways to spend that money around the house! We are considering a consumption bar: We pay what is actually consumed +tax+gratuity. We can give them a $ amount and then they let us know when we are close to that amount and we can either add to it or switch to cash bar. We will have an open bar during cocktail hour & wine on the tables at dinner. Luckily our venue is very flexible- and we can decide the day of if we want, about how we want to do the bar.

Is a permit bar an option where you live? In Manitoba, you can take out a permit and you drop off the alcohol at the venue. When you run out, you're out. So it's like an open bar but you won't run up a tab.
I'm not sure if I'm going open or permit. But other ways to cut down on the bar is to only have it open after dinner. So during cocktails, just have your signature drink and during dinner just wine.

We have 83 adults total with an open bar with a total of 21 bottles of wine and a 50 litre keg of beer. We have at least 20 other bottles of wine coming with our guests. I like the idea of putting a couple bottles on each table. I also love the idea of open bar until a certain time and then they pay

We are doing a toonie bar as it is the preferred method for our venue. We also thought that we might leave a toonie at everyone's table setting stating that the first one was on us.

I have been to events/ weddings where it's open bar and my personal thought on it is that every one gets way to wasted. I think because people think it's open bar and forget that your paying for their drinks it's an insentive to go over board. I personally think it happens more often then not that people get shit faced wasted and make fools of them self. I think that doing drink tickets for your wedding party or 2 or 3 drink tickets for the guest is a better option.

For my wedding, we got a basic open bar included in the price per person. (We negotiated a good deal.) My fiance's parents know another couple that didn't have an open bar at their wedding. On the day of, said couple felt badly about making people pay for their drinks, so they ended up paying for all the drinks served at the bar. This ended up being a large additional cost, since they hadn't originally added an open bar in their contract and were paying per drink.

Some people also put a couple of bottles of wine on each table, and I've seen some where they'll add one bottle of whiskey/spirits. If your venue allows you to buy your own alcohol, this may be a good option.

A lot of venues will have options or time limits. We have open bar for three hours, when the time is up it becomes a cash bar with very reasonable prices. That way everyone can have fun, but there is a limit on your spending

Good points all around, thanks ladies. i guess we will have to see how our venue and budget firm up around the issue. and thanks kacy, i probably need to work on not getting as frustrated with my partners hesitation around firming up the budget and the cost of items. i think part of the frustration stems from the fact that he really has no idea how much this stuff costs, and isn't nearly as interested in putting in the time to cost stuff out, but isn't quite checked out enough to just let me take care of it. so we get stuck in this limbo where he isn't happy but he can't quite put his finger on a solution. argh, planning, so much drama.

We weren't willing to pay for an open bar as it cost a lot of money. We decided to put 2 bottles of wine on each table for our guests to enjoy. We also don't want people going crazy with the alcohol and I know certain people at mine would so this way they wont be totally uncontrollable! We also might provide drink tickets.

For us it was not in the budget, we have 190 guests invited... Also our venue manager was against an open bar since some people abuse it... We are having wine on the tables which will cost aprox $500... If we can save enough in other places we might have a few drink tickets per guest.

I had the same discussion with my FH for a while too. What swayed him was when we went over the budget together and he understood that it wasn't in our budget. Also we met with a vendoof with whom we came up with the following formula: unlimited alcoholic punch during cocktail hr, plus 2 bottles of wine at the table during supper. That would bring us to about 10ish, and with that he also agreed that open bar wasn't necessary because at least we would provide the guests with drinks. Not sure if that would be helpful for your situation, but for us it really came down to budget and understanding that we aren't obliged to pay for people to get drunk (also, do we want people to get obliterated? Not so much, especially if they have to get home afterwards). That being said, my mom is adamant we HAVE to have open bar, and I have not succeeded in getting her to understand the above, nor to be fine with a reduced price per drink for our guests or coupons....!

Hi Rekramer,

Happy that you made a discussion!! I think it is a good idea to use the drink tickets.

Maybe you can check other discussions we made to get an idea of what the other brides-to-be will do.

Limited bar or open bar?

What drinks will your open bar include?

Open bar. Yay or Nay?

What have you booked so far? Did you already choose your wedding dress!