Supplying your own alcohol for open bar

I'd just say that you need to make sure your liability insurance is in place; it's not expensive, but it is totally necessary.

What Celia said. Our renters insurance includes up to $300,000 of liability insurance, but our venue requires $1mil so we're working on getting it bumped up.

But I'm also following this as we're doing beer and wine and I have no idea how much to buy. I know there's websites with formulas, but it's still good to hear other experiences.

@Celia - yes we definitely have the insurance (FH is a lawyer and is all over that shit haha). Our venue also required a $1M policy. I actually got that pretty cheap online.

The site is theliquorbarn.com. and FH called and negotiated free shipping and I think a 5% discount..again, lawyer business haha

Fabulouso! I'd recommend bumping it up to 2 mil; it won't cost that much more.

We supplied the alcohol for our bar and just went based on what the liquor store recommended. Based on my memory (which could be waaaay wrong) we had:

5 cases of Miller Lite/5 cases of Bud Lite

2 cases of Corona

3 cases of Oberon (Michigan beer)

7 fifths of Jack Daniels

7 fifths of Jamison

2 cases of vodka (which I think was 16 fifths?)

4 fifths of tequila

2 fifths of Jager

5 fifths of gin

3 fifths of scotch

8 cases of wine

We ended up with 3 cases of beer, maybe 4 bottles of vodka, 1 bottle of gin, 1 bottle of scotch, and a few bottles of wine. And a few unopened bottles that we kept. That was for 170 people.

@VMD ugh that sucks. do you have any friends in SC that you could order online and have it shipped to them, then go pick it up?? The price differences literally blew my mind.

I hate f**king GA. They don't ship here. It's easier to buy a gun here then it is liquor WTF. The prices are great.

Do you have bartenders that will be serving the alcohol? If so, they can typically give you a range on how much to have on stock - they are the pros! We are required to hire specific bartenders and 2 security officers for my venue just so we can have even the slightest drop of alcohol served (I'm in Texas). Our bartenders told us to basically estimate for about a drink and a half per hour per guest. Of course, a lot of people definitely drink more than that, but that also offsets the people who don't typically drink. Be careful about letting people drink TOO much though, because otherwise you may have to deal with sloppy drunks, and you definitely don't want that to ruin your night!

Yes, we have 4 bartenders (2 per bar location) through our caterer. We asked our coordinator at the catering meeting last week and she was completely useless in her answer. Basically she said they throw whatever they have back there in boxes and nobody really ever has a set amount that gets sent. lol. we also have to have a security guard because our venue is a government building.

I was told to get 21 fifths for 150 people. I bought all mine locally because Oregon doesn't allow me to order it from other states...ergh!

I got a quote from a liquor store that supplies for events and i plan on using that as a basis for buying alcohol for my wedding since i decided that they were overcharging.

But here is what they gave me for a full bar (95 people)

Liter Absolut 5

Liter Tanqueray 3

Liter Dewars 2

Liter Jack Daniels 2

Liter Canadian Club 1

750ml Don Q Anejo 2

375 ml Martini Dry Vermouth 1

375ml Martini Sweet Vermouth 1

Liter Triple Sec 1

750ml Ca'donini Pinot Grigio 30

750ml Esperto Pinot Noir 30

Case-24 Harpoon IPA 2

Case-24 Sam Adams Boston Lager 2

Case-24 Amstel Light 2

NC sucks about alcohol. They recently passed a law that says distilleries can only sell one bottle per year per person. They take your license number and everything. There goes touring twice a year.

In PA, unless you have a liquor license, you can't provide liquor. All of our clients provide their own. We give a decent idea of what people will need. If you have a drinking crowd, you want to go heavier. If you have a store that we accept unopened bottles back, I would go go heavier than you think.

Raelyn, Where did you get your insurance? Our insurance agent has been super worthless on getting back to us and we're really cutting it close.

@trisha - wedsafe. Super easy to apply and they responded right away when our venue requested something be added to the certificate.

Thanks! That was super easy to get a quote! If I don't hear back from Duane today I guess I'll go with WedSafe.

Did you shop around at all? Or what made you choose WedSafe?

We are going to supplying our own liquor as well so I love this post!

Our Best Man is in the Air Force so is letting us get all of our stuff on base. It is much cheaper/duty free and they randomly have super cheap specials, like Crown for $13. Hopefully that works out!

@Trisha - I shopped around. It was the best option I found. Realistically we (hopefully) won't have to use it. so it was just nice that it was quick and cheap!

@Kinsey - that is awesome! I am super jealous about that!

I just need to check - the liability insurance - that's just for if you're bringing in your own alcohol to a venue, right? Not if you were having a backyard wedding, right?

I'm so happy you posted this!! Our venue doesn't provide catering and in PA outside caterers are not legally allowed to supply the alcohol. Our caterer and venue have both suggested we use a guy from Delaware (no sales tax) that will take back any unopened alcohol- but i really don't see this being a problem... Like you I am worried that our family and friends will drink it all. I can't have the wedding that runs out of alcohol!! We are expecting between 200 and 230 people and have no idea how much to get.

We got our insurance for the venue- with the clause for alcohol being served from Wedsafe.com - it was really reasonable so we got extra insurance for natural disasters too.