Liqour Only Open Bar

I would do wine only before I'd do liquor only. I assume your guest list is made up of more than just 23 year olds.

If budget allows, I think it's more mindful hosting to have a variety of options for your guests. I would add more beer over wine as many taper down from liquor with light or neutral- tasting beers (not IPA's) and beer complements food well. I also think wine can be volatile for those not used to it, or even not used to drinking with liquor in the same night. For the wine-only wedding drinkers, you can keep a few bottles of red wine at the bar rather than serving at dinner tables to keep costs down. Last, I would encourage mocktails and non-alcoholic beers as they are very popular and fun options to sugary soda.

Unpopular opinion but we knew going in that next to zero guests would drink beer (including seltzer) or wine.. Even then we had to ask what people preferred for brands/flavors since we personally don’t drink either of those. We actually had 2 people who drank wine and 2 people who drank beer so those were kept to a minimum and we still had leftovers. Wine on the table for dinner would have been wasted money, and where we are, returns of unopened alcohol are not legal. The majority preferred liquor/mixed drinks or non alcoholic beverages. As an aside, at other weddings and events we have seen people get drunk faster on beer/wine than liquor, even though people say it never happens. In order to calculate how much to buy, we asked the independent bartending company we hired for their expertise of how much of each item plus ice and mixers based on the demographic and guest count.