Toonie bar? yes or no?

We are doing $3 a drink and we will break even. My FHs friends are a party crowd and I can’t afford to give them free booze.

View quoted message We’re putting it on our wedding website and telling people verbally (who we think will want to know). Everyone else will find out at the venue.

I realize this is from 2016, but if anyone is still active would you mind sharing how you told your guests it was a toonie bar? Did you include it on the invitation?

Personally, we are doing wine on the table with dinner ( 1 white and 1 red ) and then a cash bar. We are having 140 ish guests, I could understand an open bar with a small crowd and no kids around but that won't be our wedding. I don't think its wrong to ask guests to pay for their drinks, as people tend to forget who is paying for them when they don't have to.

I think a toonie bar is a nice way to meet in the middle though (: its just not something we can afford to do ourselves.

I was considering doing a Toonie Bar but after I realized that the SOP cost (for Ontario) is $150 if you plan on making a profit off the alcohol versus $35 if you don't I wasn't convinced I would actually make any money off the drinks and decided on just an open bar instead. We are budgeting maybe around $300 for alcohol, planning on getting a keg of beer, some boxes of wine and then some coolers, and if we run out then we run out. Lucky for us our venue allows us to supply our own alcohol with the SOP and a certified bartender. Looking at about 100 guests. We might put some kind of Honeymoon donation jar out on the bar instead.

We are having a toonie bar at our wedding - I have been to many weddings and some have had open bars, some have had cash bars, and some have had toonie bars.

It seems like the smaller the wedding, the more likely to have an open bar - but we're expecting 275 people, and there's no way we can afford drinks all night for everyone! So we are doing 2 bottles of wine per table (they get vouchers and can choose if they want red or white). We will cover drink tickets for our wedding party and immediate family members. Our other guests will not even blink twice at 2$ a drink. Of course, we aren't charging for non-alcoholic drinks.

We're lucky that we are in a community hall for our reception, so we are able to supply our own alcohol. This ends up meaning that at 2$ a drink, we basically will break even with the total cost of alcohol, mix, cups, bar supplies, etc.

Yes! I feel the same way. I Can only assume veryone would be shocked if we charged them full price for drinks. It's just not done in Vancouver from what I've seen. We plan on having 90 guests and We're looking at 4,970 after tax and gratuity just for liquor. That seems insane to me and I feel bad for all my friends who had even bigger weddings. We will probably only save 1,000 adding a Toonie bar but I think I might just have to go ahead with it? Thank you LisaHow many guests are you inviting and how much do you expect to spend on alcohol and food?

I totally understand it if you don't drink. I'd do the exact same thinng.

Thats our plan and the norm around here, it's reasonable really.

I think what ever works for you is always the best choice. We are doing open bar, in our family that's a big deal. And I would rather pay for it to not hear drama and save my sanity! Lol! Keep in mind some places will charge a venue fee in lieu of the open bar. We ran into that situation when we were venue hunting!

Where I'm from cash bars are the norm... The way our venue works, rental is cheap, only $450 but they get the bar... We will be putting sparkling wine on the tables for the toasts (bought through the venue licence) Neither of us drink and really don't want sloppy guests.
We did discuss drink tickets but our budget is small, and our guest list is huge... I think a toonie bar, if you can afford it is a great option

We have had quite the debate on this one as my FH is in favour of the cash bar and I am more in favour of the open bar since what usually happens in our family is the host parent (in this case mine) buy tickets for all the family anyway and there are strips of wasted tickets. Our venue actually has a per person drink package which would end up being not too ridiculously expensive and it goes towards our minimum so this actually works better for us. Personally I don't have a problem paying for my own drinks or asking my family to pay for their own drinks, whether it is the full price or a twonie bar, especially now that I know exactly how expensive a wedding is. For our wedding I just felt that if my parents are going to end up buying all the drink tickets anyway we might as well just pay for the alcohol off the top and get the reduced rate on everything especially with the per person package our venue offers. I am sure there will be a boot going around at the end of the night anyway since I have yet to attend a family wedding where there wasn't one!

Any time !!!

You are welcome!

Thank you for all the help you two.

Great point! I was worried i'd have to cut the guest list to save some money. It makes more sense to ask guests to pay a small amount for their drinks. I did the math and we could save $1000. I definitely won't ask guests to pay full price. For me personally that's too much to ask. Thank you Melissa!

Well, we're still trying to confirm our venue(not a lot of dates left for the summer) but if we do get the venue we want it's on a mountian. Grouse mountian is close to home and the tram up for all guests will be included in the rental fee. Other venues were looking at will also be close to home. I doubt people will drive. Our friends and family definitely enjoy having a few drinks and can easily get a cab home. That's why i'm debating a toonie bar. I feel like we'll end up spending more on liquor than food. That eeeks me.

Hi valerie,

I had definitely heard of toonie bars before and last year we went to 2 weddings that had one. That's what got me thinking about doing one as well. Our friends are big drinkers so i think we might just have to go ahead with it. I agree that paying full price is too much to ask. Thanks Valerie

I agree with on on the rowdiness as we would not like to have our guests being thrown out as a result. $4.00 a drink is reasonable.

exactly our guests get wine as well with dinner, plus our 2 free drinks on us we thought that we plently, we dont need too roudy of a bunch ... lol and I dont want a heafty bar bill for wasted drinks .. so cash bar was our option ... and we went with it and we lowered the price to $4 a drink i have been to weddings where drinks were alot more then that!

Well said Natasha! That's exactly what my FH and I discussed as well. We are giving our guests complimentary white and red wine at the table. I have heard of horror stories about open bar. I don't oppose open bar, but I don't anyone taking advantage or wasting alcohol in which we would be responsible for paying for it.

I do not think a toonie bar is inappropriate, my FH and I are doing a cash bar... now we have brought the price down a little bit more then the normal price by paying the difference but we also are buying 2 drinks for every guest as part of their wedding favour ( our cute drink tickets) Now our friends and family can be and are known to be big drinkers and I didnt want that at my wedding so in order to cut that down a little we opted for the cash bar to control it a little with a cheaper side to the drinks is all... So we still manage to have control since people have to pay for their drinks and not have a free for all at the bar... plus I find at open bar weddings especially ones in the summer ( ones that I have been too) booze tends to get wasted when it is free because people set their drinks down or it gets warm and "oh well they can just got get another free one" but at the bride and grooms expense ...

We wanted to spend the money else where and not on the bar! like the food mmmmmm

I think a toonie bar is a great middle- ground. I'm not crazy about cash bars- but I feel very strongly that a couple should not put themselves in deep debt for a wedding, and that while offering drinks to your guests is great, they should not be coming to get drunk and take advantage.

I think a toonie bar is a reasonable way to control costs, and not require you to cut your guest list down to smaller than you would like.

Hi Stephanie!! Thanks so much for bringing up this subject! I think it really varies from person to person but I personnally don't see any wrong in the toonie bar. I think it's a great idea to have something in between the open bar and cash bar. It's also great to encourage people into drinking moderately, especially if they have to take their car afterwards Is your venue close to home? Will your guests have to come by car or will they be staying in a hotel?

I'm not a fan of cash bars at weddings (as a guest you already have to pay for so much and I want my guests to really enjoy themselves), but I guess if it was between a cash bar or a toonie bar, I would prefer to just pay $2 for a drink.

Are they done commonly in your area?

I've gone to weddings where you had to pay for drinks and never minded. I've never heard of a to one bar but it's a neat idea. We are planning on a cash bar for our wedding.

Hi Stephanielarson, I think a toonie bar is not inappropriate as people also go for the cash bars at some weddings. I do like this idea as people usually don't mind. I did go to a wedding and had to pay for my drinks which did not bother me.