diy Bar

I'm just here for the comments. We're wondering the same thing.

Make sure you budget for liability insurance. If your guests kill someone on the way home bc someone allowed them to drink too much, you can be held liable

Where are you located?

Be sure to hire a licensed bartender or bartenders.

We supplied our own alcohol and did a modified open bar. We hosted a four hour reception for 65 people for a little under $1k (including bartenders and their tips). We did three signature shots, three signature cocktails, beer and wine

As long as the Bartender is licensed, then I would think that would work. MrsBdeG has good advice!

We used the bartender our caterer provided, but we bought all the alcohol. We just did wine and beer. We saved a ton of money buying it ourselves at Costco vs. buying it through
the caterer.

Ask the bartending company you hire hoe much they recommend buying based on the number of guests. Also there are formulas to follow on Pinterest of how much alcohol per person you can plan on.

I wish FH and I were able to provide our own alcohol since it can save you a lot of money while still having an open bar (our venue doesn’t allow it).

View Quoted Comment So do you @Jacks!

That’s what we’re doing. We have 50 people coming and bought our alcohol at Walmart. We got 18 1.5L bottles of wine and two cases of beer. And have a licensed bartender coming to our venue to serve

Our venue provided a bartender (def hire a pro), beer, and wine. We provided all the hard liquor, including bringing batches of our 2 signature cocktails. We saved a ton of money and had stuff you wouldn't find in most standard bars. There are calculators you can find online to estimate how much you should buy, but it helps to know your guests' preferences. If you're serving mixed drinks, I would recommend 2 bartenders. We only had 1 for 100 guests, and I think he got a little overwhelmed.

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Oh look, Emojis!

Thanks!

We're buying our alcohol and using 3 bartenders through the caterer. After we did some pricing, we learned that our caterer's price was the same as hiring our own. Also, the cateter's bartenders are covered under their liability insurance. It was win win for us.

Check with your caterer and see how much it would cost to use there bartenders. You could still possibly purchase the alcohol yourselves. Just use there resources and I'm sure they have insurance already.

We were able to provide all our own alcohol but had to use our venues bartender. My in-laws offered to buy all the alcohol and bought the brands they drink/our crowd drinks. We had some left over because we didn't want to run out but it def. didn't go to waste. I'm pretty sure most of the left over alcohol is gone now other than the wine. But if you can return it, even better.

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I agree with this. We had 1 for around 95 and she seemed a little overwhelmed at times as well but the line was never super long. However, the DOC assistant stepped in a few times to help her if there was a crowd at the bar.

When you say "finding someone to bartend instead of going through a catering company", what exactly do you mean by that? You still need someone who is licensed and insured for liability reasons.

Licensed bartender, for 100 guests Should hire 2 bartenders.

We used bartenders provided by the caterers, which was the same cost as any of the other staff they provided ($200/bartender, and we had two). Caterers supplied ice, limes, and any tools (shakers, etc).

This is what we went through (doesn't include what was left over) for ~105 guests for a 5-hour reception plus an afterparty. We got the wine at Trader Joe's and liquor in Delaware, so we spent ~$1,000 for the beverages:

- 3.5 cases white wine

- 3 cases red wine

- 1 case sparkling wine

- 2-1.75L each of: rum, bourbon, vodka

- 1-1.75L gin

- 1-750mL bottle tequila

- 8 cases of beer: 3 cases of common ale, 1 porter, 2 light beer, 2 Oktoberfest

We also purchased soda, sparkling apple juice, seltzer/tonic, orange juice, lime juice, and cranberry juice as mixers, and spiced apple cider that the caterers put into coffee urns.

Everyone needs a licensed and insured bartender at their wedding to make sure their guests aren't being over-served or getting behind the wheel wasted.

View Quoted Comment I've looked at pricing for them and it is more money than if we hire someone else. Im a bartender and I know a couple people that can do it and already volunteered to do so. I've talked to the owner of the venue and discussed insurance already.

View Quoted Comment We plan on doing 2 signature cocktails. We both bartend part time so we are going to get creative and make our own cocktails. We have a pretty good idea on how much alcohol we will need. I have a feeling we won't even have quite 100 people and not all of them even drink, but we are going to use 2 bartenders. Most people will probably do beer so it's not going to be anything to crazy to handle.