Splurge or Save: The Bar?

We're doing a full open bar but it won't be top shelf liquor, so I suppose we're in the middle. We thought about doing just beer and wine plus a couple signature drinks but after crunching the numbers, it turned out that it would be just $2/pp more to have a full bar, so we went with that option.

We are doing a full bar but it is not the top shelf one so I guess we fall in the middle.

Modified open. Beer, wine and signature drink.

Had a consumption bar of whatever the guests wanted.

My venue/caterer included full, top shelf open bar. Including full martini bar. That is pretty normal regionally.

Full open premium bar. I wouldn't call it splurging since the cost is pretty decent compared to what I saw at other venues. The upgraded bar menu wasn't that much more per person, and was significant in the type/variety of labels. It was more about wanting to make sure that we have a quality selection for our guests.

I found a really good bartending company in Greece that does all sorts of events, and for an open bar, top shelf, with signature drinks, it came to roughly $24/person. I didn't splurge or save, but I thought it was an overall good price.

Open bar. The venue is allowing us to bring our own alcohol so we will be making a list of what to get

Neither. Our venue is all inclusive and includes an open bar. We will be having a selection of beer, wine, liquor, a signature drink (which we will be picking this weekend, a champagne toast and wine on all of the tables. We definitely didn't go out of our way to upgrade to the premium liquor though we are happy to stick with what is included in our package.

We splurged and went with a top shelf open bar all night and champagne toasts.

This is tricky for me. We are renting out a hall and having a caterer come in so of course we have to provide our own alcohol. Since this is VERY new to me I am unsure of how much to purchase for my guests. I plan on splurging, and thankfully my wedding planner has a contract with a liquor store to buy back any unopened bottles. I will probably be back on the forums closer to my date to get tips on how much of each, to buy to make sure there is enough.

Save! We're doing beer and wine only. Saves a few bucks and we don't have to worry about the many family members who cannot hold their liquor. Is this considered modified open bar?

Thankfully full open bar comes with our package! We didn't look at any venue that didn't provide this but it seems to be standard in our area.

We noticed at our parties and get togethers that the beer doesn’t get consumed much. We have a lot of wine drinkers. We also agreed that we didn’t want to serve liquor. So we decided that we will have champagne toasts, wine, and two of our favorites as signature drinks. I’m getting an awesome band and dj with the money we are gonna save!

We are only doing beer and wine, so we decided to add a signature drink. Micheladas!

We had a 5-hour, full, premium open bar. Venues in my region (NYC suburbs) don't really do it any other way, most wedding packages include it. So for that reason, I don't consider it a splurge. My venue was one, flat price for all food, alcohol, and rentals; alcohol was not a separate line item that could be reworked, even if we wanted to (which we didn't).

We are serving wine and champagne only, but it's an afternoon tea and everyone is driving. I think that is sufficient.

Full open bar with 13 liquor, beer, and wine options and mixers. We also have mimosa and Bloody Mary custom options to go with our brunch for dinner menu.

I think that if you are unable to pay for a full bar that having beer, wine, and 2 signature drinks is a good compromise though.

The bar was included in our venue pricing so we're neither splurging or saving. If anything, we're saving because we're not upgrading from their house bar which obviously wouldn't have top shelf liquor but they do offer a nice variety of wines, beers, and liquor.

Splurge. This was an area we were willing to go all out on.