The Open Bar Question: How much does it REALLY cost?

All I can say is I'm very jealous of (most of) these American drinks prices.

Our drinks package is $70/pp ($50USD) for five hours, and includes two reds, two whites, a rosé, a sparkling, and four beers (two craft, two non-craft) - plus soft drinks, coffee, tea, and orange juice. No spirits. That's the cheapest drinks package our venue offers, and our place isn't particularly fancy. We're expecting around 50 guests, so it'll be $3,500AUD / $2,500USD for a five-hour reception.

Our bar package is $47pp. It includes top shelf alcohol, four wines, and three beer options.

We were lucky enough that our venue has a bar area but we did not need to pay for the bar. It's an open bar but people can buy their own drinks and because we purchased a beverage package of sodas with them they wrote off the bar fee. You may want to try and find a venue that has a similar option. Good luck!

My venue does not allow alcohol to be brought in from outside. They have a variety of "beverage packages" to choose from. The cheapest is the Beer and Wine only, which is $23 per person (that's over and above the per person charge for the food). There is no adjustment in price based on the amount actually consumed. You buy the beverage package, and you're stuck with it. So, I could potentially be paying $2300 (100 guests) extra, and maybe only 20 of them actually drink any alcohol. It just feels like a total waste of money. Especially since my venue is attached to a very popular sports bar right on site. So, I'm leaning towards having a "dry" wedding (to save money), and anyone who wants an alcoholic beverage that badly can go next door and buy one from the sports bar. My catering package includes coffee, tea, soda, water, as well as one bottle each of red and white wine on each table, and one glass of champagne per person for the champagne toast. So, I don't think I'll pay extra for a "beverage package."

It’s very expensive! I would recommend you do a cash bar.

I had 163 at my wedding and our bar based on consumption was about $7,000. That also included mimosas while we were getting ready during the day (we got ready at my venue and couldn't bring outside alcohol).

Dont forget tax & tip

I was quoted $1,300 for an open bar for 75 people for 4 hours. This includes champagne toast, ice, glasses, service and non-alcoholic drinks. We were going to do beer + wine only plus a specialty drink, but it was the same price - the bar service charges more for a cocktail if it's beer and wine only, so we decided to do open bar. We want a party vibe, so it just makes sense.

Also, my venue doesn't allow cash bars, so we kinda have to pay for their drinks

Our open bar is included with our venue. Its all premium top shelf liquor and I think 10 different beers for 6 1/2 hours. My FFIL is paying for that portion of the wedding so we asked them to split it out for us. We were told it would be about $6000.00

Our Venue is charging us $19 a head, basically them thinking it's 1 drink per hour per person. It varies I think on price of alcohol where you live. We're expecting to spend $**** on an open bar.

See that is exactly why I am doing a cash bar. First of all I am not bringing everyone there to get wasted it is my day. The should be buying me a drink. (lol) my venue did give me the option to give each person one drink on the house, but other than that if they got enough cash go crazy, but I will not REPEAT I WILL NOT be paying for people to get totally trashed, cause there is always one crazy person to ruin it for everyone

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Preach. 3 Hours of open for call liquor, domestic beer and 5 wines with mixers was $16/per here in Niagara Falls, NY. Plus 15% service fee, 5% Event Coordinator, and sales tax. We had a small 45 person wedding so we just went with it. Just under $3K for a full luncheon for everyone with open bar including the two ballrooms is actually an awesome price.

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I understand! I think there is nothing wrong with a beer and wine reception. Hopefully everyone "pays for their plate" with their gift/card and you guys will get back a little nest egg.

I did do homemade fireball in tiny 4oz mason jars as favors, maybe you can get away with an infused spirit favor too!

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I would skip the bar too. Just word it nicely on your invites. Not everyone even really drinks, I don't think it will be a problem. Save your $!

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Get some cute drink tickets for your one ticket, like a welcome drink, maybe even little printed ones with your engagement pic on it.

We kept it to a 3 hr bar, and we had people feeling good, but not wasted. We also have lots of friends who are big drinkers, a bar had to happen, but it was within our budget thankfully.

Booze has always had huge costs, and I don't see the problem with a cash bar.

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When we toured our venue (a year ago this week), it was set up for a wedding that had flasks for the men, and macarons for the women - very sexist, I thought! We considered doing this with flasks for everyone, but nixed it once we started pricing it out.

I won't quite say everyone "paid for their plate", but that's not what the day is about. We received some lovely gifts and have a very nice starter fund for our honeymoon.

We rented an Airbnb property to have an outdoor ceremony on the river, so we decided to buy all the beer, wine, and non-alcoholic drinks for our guests (approx. 45 ppl). We bought 8 cases of beer, 7 large bottles of wine, sweet/unsweet tea, bottled water, and lemonade for less than $300! Traditional venues may not allow you to bring in your own alcohol, but it is definitely saving us a ton!

My liquor drinks were $10/person, beer $8/person, and wine $32/bottle. We didn’t have anything fancy either just absolut vodka, Canadian Club Whiskey and the lowest tiers of wine 🙄🤦🏼‍♀️
I as well severely underestimated the cost of alcohol would be. We ended up setting a cap at $4,000 and it didn’t last our entire reception but everyone got some drinks and paid if they wanted more. We had to pull a ton of money from our decoration budget which in our case ended up being better. I’ve found the more you offer the more people will be dancing which is what we wanted.

Wow! Now I'm really glad I found a place where I can bring my own alcohol.

Open bar for 5 hours, 80-100 guests is going to cost us $24/person. That's bar only. Food is a totally separate cost. I think that's not too bad, compared to what others are paying. But it's not cheap, so I hope everyone gets their fill!!