Toonie bars?

Liquor is Canada is easily double the price of liquor in the states. Sadly. Ha ha

That is true about the cost. I can buy a 24 of beer in buffalo for about the half the price that I do at home.

I'm just going to go ahead and say that if the bride and groom are SUPPLYING the alcohol then you SHOULD NOT charge your guests to buy the drinks..

I am from Winnipeg and have never heard of a toonie bar, interesting idea. If it's popular in your area and people know to bring to cash then go ahead. Although I like the idea of a bottle of red and white on the table so people can have at least a glass of wine without having to pay.

The argument that having a cash bar will keep people from drinking in excess is ludicrous.

Have you ever been to a bar? Tons of people getting hammered and paying for drinks.

Drink tickets, same thing: Dear aunt Edna doesn't drink so she gives her 2 drinks to cousin Bill (who loves to get drunk) so now he has 4 drinks. Someone left their tickets on the table, Bill quickly snatches them up, now he has 6 tickets...and so on and so forth. Now he's hammered too.

Call a spade a spade, you don't want to spend your money properly hosting your guests. If you don't want someone to get drunk have a dry wedding.

@Emily, woo hoo, another Winnipegger on here!

We did a toonie bar. Our venue actually recommended it, as it helps people be more aware of how much they're drinking.

We had an open bar the first night (we stayed at a bed and breakfast with half our guests all weekend) and toonie bar the night of the wedding.

We TRIPLED our alcohol estimate and owed the venue an extra $2500 the morning after the wedding. We got $350 from the toonie bar. We only had 33 adults at the wedding, 4 or 5 of whom didn't drink at all.

Our guests actually gave us money the first night (they knew it was open bar), and asked why we didn't sell tickets both nights. It's so common here that it's just expected!

Munkos--your guests drank at least $85 each?

Over 2 days, Yuuup. We were a little shell shocked in the morning, we expected to owe a few hundred because we knew our group was full of heavy drinkers (no puking, fighting or broken anything though!). We paid $3550 total in alcohol (I prepaid $1050 before the wedding), so over $100 per person. Drinks cost us between $4.50-$8.00 depending on what they were drinking. We also paid per bottles water, litre of juice and pop, etc.

The thing with our venue is that even when the bar shuts down (it was open 5 hours the first night, 9 hours the second night) is that there are fully stocked beer fridges on every floor. So everyone (guests of the inn) could drink before the bar opened and after it closed. We had people drinking in the hottub outside til 6:30am the second night.

We were told though, for the amount of alcohol our group consumed we were easily the most respectful group they've ever had! So there's that, haha. My group can drink like crazy, but they know how to handle their alcohol.

That is a loooooooooooooooooot of alcohol lol. My per person cost for a mid-shelf open bar is only $18.

Yup. It was so worth it but I am so glad it's only a once in a life time thing LOL.

Yesh, Munkos that is a lot of alcohol and sadly, well not really I know my guests are huge drinkers. Like huge. And I know they would have no problem crushing that much worth of booze, and honestly I have no issues if people get drunk at my wedding. Weddings in Alberta are kinnda like a big drunk, fest celebration. ha ha With lots of dancing and partying. And heck I don't even really drink, unless you count enjoying Gin once in while.

We have decided to have a toonie bar, where I am from it is totally socially accepted and expected for their to be a toonie bar, and I have to agree that having a toonie bar will not stop people from over drinking or wasting alcohol. We also will not be having drink tickets, there really is no point. We will be hiring outside bartenders that it will be up to their discretion to cut people off if they find some one is getting to drunk or out of control, also wine and bubbly will be supplied free of charge.

I'm from Alberta too, and you're right. Huge party drunk fests! Haha.

We did sell drink tickets, only because our bar won't take cash, they want us to be responsible for the cash, so our options were to sell tickets or put contribution cups on the bar and hope people felt like giving us money. They actually recommended selling 2 teirs if tickets, one price for domestic and lower shelf alcohol and another for top shelf and import but we decided that was too complicated for drunk people, haha. I also suspect my family member selling the tickets may have become a bit liberal with them as she started to drink more herself. But whatever, it helped take a bit of the sting out of the final bill!

Why didn't you just have them pay for their meals? Or say the meal is $19 a plate, charge them $5? that also would help take the sting out of a wedding bill.

*eyeroll* my guests were given unlimited alcohol even after the bar closed and before it opened, PLUS an open bar the night before the wedding, AND half their room costs paid for AND 5 meals free of charge (to them) over the weekend. I think we more than took care of them and everyone was happy to pay, just as we have at their weddings.

Ha ha its ok Munkos, I understand. Clearly they don't We Albertan's can stick together.

Sorry. I had to. I've never heard of a Toonie Bar and still have no idea why it's called a Toonie Bar. I've actually never been to a wedding where there wasn't an open bar, but it's probably a regional thing. (NJ/Philly). I will say though that as long as there's alcohol that I can at least purchase, I'll be happy.

We aren't doing a Toonie bar and I haven't heard of one before WW but if it is a thing in your area then thats fine.

We are doing wine, beer, champagne till gone...but if people want to buy something that we aren't providing they will have the option of a cash bar. Yes, I have been to a few weddings where all the booze was free but really only like 2-3...and it was a surprise. All other weddings (I have been to my fair share) have either been totally cash bar or have been 1-2 drinks (with drink tickets or a champange toast free drink) and the rest cash bar.

Our $2 coins are called toonies, like our $1 coins are called loonies. Hence, toonie bar!

Emmy, a lot of Canadians do it depending on the city/province which ever. It may be more popular in one area of Ontario than another, or in Manitoba, Alberta, BC, whichever, but no one has an issue with it where its common.

Stop being so closed minded. You seem snarky as hell