Wine and beer only?

View Quoted Comment Your caterer/bartender knows what a per person charge is. We live in a very high cost of living area but not willing to spend a ton of money to keep up with the local/wedding industry expectations. So one caterer we looked at charges $25 per person for all alcohol and mixers/nonalcoholic drinks. Obviously vendors and anyone under 18 will not have alcohol but the price is reasonable. You pay the caterer $25 (as example) for each guest to drink. They can have unlimited alcohol and nonalcoholic beverages for the duration of the reception at one set cost. Assuming 100 guests, $2500 for all beverages. Nonalcoholic beverages are free in that setting.


When they charge per drink, it is literally per drink. Nonalcoholic as well. You have 100 guests, each beer/wine/Coke is $7. If someone doesn’t want to pay, say they want water, very likely the bartender will have bottled only, and that will cost the guest $7 too. The average standard reception including cocktail hour is 5-6 hours. Assuming that guests drink 2 drinks per hour, that is 10-12 beverages per person. Bartenders will charge you for every bottle opened, even just for a single drink. $7/drink at 10 drinks is $700 per person minimum, even if they only drink Coke or water. But you have 100 guests. If you want your guests to only have 2 drinks, you will have to cut down to a 1 hour reception. Bartenders, especially at all inclusive venues, require that you meet a certain price range, typically well over a few thousand dollars.

That sounds like a great idea! You could even choose to offer just one signature cocktail per guest.

My fiancé and I have select alcohol it's a bring your own alcohol if you want something other than what we have, we are offering bush light and Miller light and wine coolers, then we have captain Morgan vodka whiskey and two drink pucker mixes. We are also having sodas but we got the sodas that would work with the drink mixes.

This is what we have otherwise they need to bring their own 😂

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I get that alcohol is expensive, but I would still try to do anything you possibly can in order to avoid having guests pay for some of their drinks. If that means only serving the cheapest possible and lowest quality wine and beer, then I'd do that.

However, if you're really set on drink tickets or switching to a cash bar part way through, then I would make sure to give guests a heads up about your plans. If you noted this on your wedding website, then your guests can come prepared and won't be caught off guard. It would never even occur to me to bring money to a wedding (other than my gift to the couple of course), so as a guest, I'd definitely appreciate being warned beforehand so that I can come prepared.

View Quoted Comment Thank you! Do you not bring a wallet/purse to weddings? I never thought that some people might not

View Quoted Comment Outside of ID stored in fiancé’s wallet, no. Fiancé brings a wallet everywhere but rarely carries cash.

View Quoted Comment That makes sense! No one would need cash to pay the bartender thankfully

View Quoted Comment I’d honestly be surprised if a bar didn’t have at least Square to accept cards. I personally always bring at least an ID and credit card everywhere because you never know when you’ll need it. And people would need to have their ID to get alcohol anyway, so that’s probably why I didn’t think of it

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I use a small clutch as opposed to a full on purse when I attend weddings, and I almost never bring my wallet (perhaps I should, but I have never needed to before because cash bars aren't a thing in my family/social circle). Getting a heads up would be much appreciated, because then I'd make sure to bring some cash along!

View Quoted Comment But if there is a cash bar, then people will not be drinking because there is no way to pay, and any ethical issues they have with it so guests may leave earlier than you hoped.

View Quoted Comment There’s a way to pay at bars - with debit/credit cards usually through Square if they don’t have a more robust card system. Plus, they’d need to have an ID anyway to have alcohol.


I guess if they had a problem with it ethically, then that’s okay. I’d hope that I’m not inviting people who would be offended that we can’t offer unlimited alcoholic drinks. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Sorry if that’s a negative way of looking at it, I guess I just have never gone to a wedding for the alcohol and I know my bridal party and immediate family doesn’t either.

View Quoted Comment Guests aren’t offended that you can’t afford unlimited alcohol all night. But as a host you should not offer something your guests are required to pay for.


Think of it like a dinner party in your home. You offer what you can afford and don’t offer what you can’t. Say you made a bowl of rum punch as example, but you have case of Coke and bottled water keeping cold. After the punch runs out, you don’t ask your guests to pay someone via phone or other methods at your home if they choose to keep drinking because most will see that as their cut off. You still have the Coke and water that hasn’t been touched. If they want to stay longer and chat, they will drink those or they will head home. A wedding is all that but at a larger venue with more people.

This continues to be a contentious issue on here xD I think it’s at least geographical. Most weddings I’ve been to have cash bars. I’ve been to three weddings that had an open bar. One was across the country & one was supposed to be a cash bar but a family member paid for an open bar as a gift day of…so only one truly open bar, and that was a venue where you could bring in purchased items & so there were limited options. My wedding will be similar—“open bar” but we will only have a few types of wine, beer, etc. (in my state, it’s illegal to charge for anything at that sort of venue). I think whatever you do is fine as long as you can communicate it in advance. If you just say it’s an open bar, for example, but then announce day of that X number of hours will be paid for, or say one drink on us & hand out tickets, that’s a better feeling than not realizing something will suddenly become a cash bar.

We decided to do drink tickets. 5 tickets per person that can get free wine or beer. After the 5 is up or if they want liquor it’s a cash bar. Plus if you account for 5 drinks per person, the people who don’t really drink will most likely give their tickets away. So it was a win win decision for us and guests.

Not that I’m an alcoholic or anything, but I’d be upset with 1 or 2 drinks, I’d say 3 drink minimum.

View Quoted Comment Its a package and plated dinner so its 69 per person.

Hi Emily!

My fiance and I have a strict budget. We opted for the beer and wine open bar. We were able to choose 4 specialty beers (including white claws for those guests who really aren't beer drinkers so this was a nice option to be able to choose) and 2 wines (one bolder red blend and a sweeter Moscato- again we chose a balance of sweet and bold to include all palates ) . We feel this is a good option for our guests bc we are still able to provide them alcohol choices. I feel guests appreciate some alcohol choices rather than none. I think for guests to automatically assume and expect liquor at a wedding is a bit unreasonable. I personally feel that a beer and wine open bar at a wedding is better than none and is 100% acceptable.

Goodluck!

Wine & beer only is a great choice. And I'm sure it's been said by many already, but of course this should be covered by you/an open bar. You can offer more to your guests and it'll cost you less. Plus you will probably not have sloppy drunk guests at the end of the night! Whenever I've gone to weddings I always drink beer or wine anyways.

My recommendation would be to pick 1 white, 1 red, and 2 beer options (maybe a lager and an IPA to cover all your bases). Everyone will have a drink they like and you'll be able to cover it all without stressing

I would consider serving something like a sangria ( or your cocktails of choice/fan favorite) , you can bulk buy bottles and pour them in a drink disperser. Dicing up fruit and tossing it in as well can make it look super attractive. Serving beer (another bulk buy) alongside as well. I think offering only two choices would be money better spent than a lot of choices for only 1 drink pp. I think labeling it signature drinks or his/her favorite makes it cute too. Buying bulk and making it self serve I think will increase your serving size. Also, select appropriate cup sizes so guests don’t overfill on servings.