Corkage fees

If you've already selected your venue, then it doesn't really matter if there are different prices in other places. Do you have other options for beverages besides bringing in your own wine and paying corkage fees? Maybe it would be cheaper to just pay for one of their bar packages.

View Quoted Comment I’m still going to try to negotiate it down. I just wanted to learn what industry averages are.

View Quoted Comment I agree with Maggie that if you have already selected a venue then that's what you are going to have to pay. I've never heard of a venue changing their prices just because you want them to.

View Quoted Comment This post is asking people to share what their corkage fees have been or what the averages are.

That does seem really high. The venues I looked at in Chicago were $10 to $20 a bottle for wine we bring in on our own. We ended up at a venue that supplied the alcohol and we had open bar. Good luck. It can’t hurt to talk to them about it.

We looked at several venues that had corkage fees, but they were all per bottle, not per person. So I’m not entirely sure how that would translate. I guess it would all depend on how many bottles were consumed. For reference though, it was in the Chicago area (so a higher cost of living area) and they ranged from $10-15/bottle. So that would mean each person would need to consume 2.5-4 bottles of wine to equal the corkage fee at your venue. Which is surprising, since Mexico tends to be known for cheaper costs. It seems like they may be trying to discourage you from bringing in your own alcohol; which is understandable since that is where they make a lot of their profit. Do you have the option of a bar package provided by them, instead of bringing your own?

Does this include services of a venue- provided bartender? Most US venues require a professional bartender of providing your own alcohol. So if you still have to hire someone on top of their fees, that is a lot. Can you use the venue 's package and add 1 or 2 liquors that are special to you? For example, I had a full open bar but requested cases to bring cases of my own selected champagne. They allowed this & charged $10?/ bottle as there are liability issues with outside product for consumption. Good luck.

Is it a bar fee per person or a corkage fee per person? We chose a venue that didn't offer us the ability to bring our own alcohol, but the ones we toured that did charged corkage per bottle.

Here is pricing for a venue in Cabo...

Our reception venue provides the alcohol, but charges per head for an open bar (I think it's like $25-$60 per person depending on the bar package). Our rehearsal dinner venue has a corkage fee of $20 per bottle.

Are you sure it's not per bottle?

View Quoted Comment Yes sadly..

View Quoted Comment

Uhh...that's insane. Dang girl, idk what to tell you. To have an accurate argument to negotiate, I think you'd be best off asking surrounding venues what their fees are but that may be a hassle/they may not want to disclose. Even then, I could easily see the venue waiving you off because they basically make their own rules. Honestly, your best bet may be to just sit down with them, be honest about the fees and see if there is a compromise to be made!