Open Bar or Cash Bar?

I'm putting a certain amount towards open bar and when that's reached it will turn into a cash bar.

You are right to feel awful to make your guests pay for part of a party you are hosting. Open bar all the way.

Open bar.

Never make your guests open their wallets at an event you are hosting.

We couldn't afford a "real" open bar and opted for a modified open bar.

I would be embarrassed if I asked my nearest and dearest to partially fund my wedding (which is what a cash bar is, no way around it).

So yeah, open bar (even just beer/wine) is necessary and was non negotiable for me at my wedding. I actually chose a less expensive dress than I wanted because I had my heart set on upgrading our open bar.

Guest comfort/experience comes first.

If you are finding that you can’t afford to fully and properly host all of your guests, you might consider reducing your guest list. That’s we did. We started with a list of 90 and cut it down to 54. Saved a ton of money and my 54 guests had a kick ass night.

Open bar. Please dont ask for your guests to pay for their own drinks. Your the host and its a thank you to them for coming .

We’re doing hosted wine with dinner and then a an amount down towards drinks, then the rest of the night is cash bar. Not great, but it’s what we can reasonably afford!

Get a price for wine, beer and one or two signature drinks. You'll find it's much cheaper. Don't make guests pay for drinks. Don't switch from open bar to cash bar mid way through the night.

Please don’t do a cash bar. Our venue doesn’t have a liquor license as it is a winery but we will be doing open wine and beer all night with 3 different types of beer and 6 different types of wine.

If you can't afford a full open bar, don't have a full open bar. Serve what you can afford. If that's beer and wine, it's fine. Your guests should not have to open their wallet at an event you are hosting.

You have plenty of time to either cut the guest list or make cuts in other areas that do not directly affect your guests: dress, flowers, linens etc.

Open bar all the way...yes, it’s expensive, but you can do only beer and wine or include only signature cocktails or select liquor.

If you can’t afford open bar, you can’t afford your wedding.

invite less people, get a less expensive dress, skip favors, go in an abridged honeymoon, skip STDs and programs, have a really small BP.

Those are ways to find the money to have an open bar,

Open bar. We’re allowed to bring in our own alcohol and use their bartenders so that brings down the price a lot. Either way, we would’ve done an open bar.

Open bar. Guests shouldn't have to open their wallets at the reception.

If you can't afford a full open bar, do just beer and wine.

Just do beer and wine. And if your group is light drinkers see if you can do it by consumption.

I would never ask my guests to subsidize my wedding, so we hosted a limited open bar (beer, wine, and 3 signature drinks).

I’ve been to one cash bar wedding and it was honestly the worst wedding I’ve been to (other reasons too), but $6 for a tiny glass of wine did not put me in a good mood. We were told it was a black tie wedding too....VERY far from black tie. After the wedding, myself, FH and some of the groomsmen (he went to college with most of them) went back to our hotel and drank there

Doing beer and wine only will save you a bundle. If you can splurge for a custom cocktail or two, that's cool. If not, it's still all good.

Avoid a open-to-cash bar though. People generally don't bring cash (except for your gift...which may be used to pay for a cash bar) or you have people binging while it's hosted. Also, it's generally super confusing for your guests to get free drinks for a certain time, then all of a sudden they have to pay for them.

You can't do a cash bar. It's rude.

Those of you doing an open bar, then switching to a cash bar are also doing it wrong. That's just as rude.

Host pays for drinks.

Open bar all the way. And as you start budgeting and you find you can't do a full open bar, opt for just beer and wine and cut back costs in other ways: reduce the guest list, less or no flowers, inexpensive dress/tux, no favors, etc.

Open bar for sure. Our venue allowed BYOB so we got plenty of alcohol for our wedding. We just had to pay for bartender and mixing juices/sodas and glasses. I know venues do different kind of open bars like just beer/wine or full bar or byob.