Consumption bar costs

Be careful with a consumption bar. Do they have any flat rate packages?

One we looked at had a consumption bar option, but that $8 wasn't for the cocktail, it was per pour. So if the drink had 3 types of liquor, that was $8 x 3. It was crazy.

Yeah, I of course didn't have all of this. My bar was DIY, but I have heard of brides spending more on consumption than they did a flat rate open bar.

Flat rate isn't an option at our venue, but I will definitely confirm that it is $8/cocktail, not pour!

The other thing about consumption vs open... It all depends on how much your guests will drink. Sometimes the rate for an open bar can come out cheaper if your guests like to drink, or consumption cheaper if they don't.

Oh, well that sucks that it isn't offered. GAH I hate the mark up of liquor.

You definitely have to think about your guest list in cases like this. We know our friends and family like to drink, and I know consumption would have gotten out of hand. We passed up on a few venues we really liked because consumption was the only option. I've read somewhere that it's safe to assume one drink per person, per hour. I would try to budget AT LEAST that much. Some will drink more, others will drink less. But I think it's a good starting point for budgeting.

I think it really depends on your guest list and how much they drink. It really stinks they don't offer open bar option with a flat rate. I would have no idea how much to budget for consumption! And def verify it's per drink not pour.. maybe they can work out an hourly rate for you.

We were given a formula to calculate our consumption bar...2 drinks during cocktail hour and 1 drink each additional hour, multiply by most expensive drink, then by number of guests. You'll end up with a high estimate given that not everyone will get the most expensive drink every time.

We can't do a flat rate at our venue either. We're serving bud light ($3 draft), Oberon (local craft beer/ $4.25 draft,) white and red wine ($5.50), and liquor (vodka, rum, gin, whiskey $4.50-$5.50). We are expecting roughly 160-170 drinkers with an average drink cost of $4.50. We're initially budgeting $5K for 5 hours. This averages to 6-7 drinks a person on average. I think it will stay open the whole time.

@Laura that's a helpful formula! I wonder if we could cut an hour from our estimate since there will be a champagne pour with dinner and that is a separate line item on our bill?

We saved money doing consumption bar compared to our venue's flat rate. We went through our guest list and tried to estimate if they would drink little, average, or a lot. We also ran some scenarios of how much we'd have to serve on the consumption bar for it to cost more than the flat rate, and felt pretty confident that we wouldn't exceed that amount.