All inclusive drinks or not?

If that is for either unlimited or a generous allowance of drinks then I'd go for it on the basis that even if someone has all soft drinks by the time they've had a reception drink, two or three with their meal and a toast drink, it's still not expensive.

If it's 'limited' to one glass of wine with the meal, or even two, then you might be better off providing your own!

Our venue offered a 'package' that included a glass of prosecco for reception and toast and two glasses of wine with the meal for £16pp- when we 'did the maths' taking into account non-drinkers, children and complete alcoholics (!) it worked out better for us financially to buy bottles of wine rather than the package.

The drinks are unlimited, but there is also no corkage charge if we supply our own. We have 75 day guest and our drinks bill is around £1200. Although it is great value, I know we could save a small amount if we supply our own. However there are pros and cons to both. X

I'd just supply your own if there's no corkage. If you get a selection of wines, plus other things like beers and maybe something cool like a cocktail table, guests will be more than happy and I bet you can do it for much less than £22 per head. Prosecco at the supermarket can be as little as £5/6 per bottle and guests aren't likely to get through a huge amount just from the end of the ceremony to the end of the meal.

I think you need a think about what type of people your friends and family are, by that I mean a lot of my family are not really drinkers so the option would work out extremely expensive however if you have the friends and family who drink quite a lot it might work out good value. If you do choose to do this, I would certainly class it as their 'wedding favour' and not be putting any favours on the tables. Also, as unsavoury as this is please think about the guests you are having and any potential conflict it might give having an all inclusive drinks menu i.e do some people struggle with alcohol/any 'issues' between guests etc.

the cons of providing your own - somebody has got to serve it.

If all things are equal (i.e. they'll serve the wine whether they supply it or you supply it), I'd just do the math and pick whatever option was cheapest. If there are differences then I'd take that into consideration. There is a value on service and also not having to worry about finding/selecting/transporting the drinks to the venue.

We had an open bar and provided a nice favour. I also wanted a certain beer (Samuel Adams) which the venue didn't normally carry so I ended up committing to buying a certain quantity which they sourced.

If it were me i'd supply my own if there was no corkage, especially as there is no time limit on that, you can save it for later!

This Venue sounds amazing btw! I hunted high and low for no corkage or cheap booze options! I could only find marquees or village halls, but they work out impractical & more expensive as you can't get married on site and I don't want a church. Well done! Do you mind me asking where it is?