Pay Bar VS Open Bar VS other options

I've never been to a wedding where it's been a free bar! Every wedding i've been to so far, as well as mine that's happening this year, will include a few free drinks but then guests have to pay! I honestly would just go with what you can afford!

I personally don't see anything wrong with a cash bar! Especially if you're supplying wine for the meal - which you don't mention, but still. If you do want to put some cash behind the bar there's absolutely nothing wrong in putting a certain amount in and when it's gone it's gone. I've been to (quite a posh) wedding where they did that, and when the free drinks ran out no one was annoyed, just happy to have had the free stuff before it ran out!

I’ve also only ever been to weddings where people buy their own drinks, and no one has had an issue with it. I do think that most people expect this and wouldn’t assume otherwise. My wedding is in November and we are providing wine for the meal, so guests will each get around 2 glasses each (although it will likely be more as no everyone drinks and we’ve hit some under 18s attending). I’m not having any other free drinks after this, other than tea and coffee.

Have you considered making guests aware of the fact that you won’t have an open bar beforehand? Maybe via an info leaflet or website, then they will know what to expect well before. Or, if you haven’t already sorted favours, why not give everyone 1 free drink token? After using that, they buy their own.

Free bars are very expensive, especially as when bars are free some people tend to drink more than they normally would as the limits imposed by budget are no longer there. It's a nice idea to do a bottle of wine per table or arrival drinks but most people would expect to pay for drinks at a wedding.

We're doing a bar credit. This was our happy medium between the pay bar my fiancé is familiar with here and the open bar tradition I come from in the US. Given how much money a lot of our family and friends are spending to come to London, we definitely wanted to make sure they had plenty of free booze. It's worth checking with your venue about whether they have a buy-back policy. Our venue will "buy-back" any unopened bottles of wine from the dinner (or they can be served at the bar) and refund any unused credit behind the bar.

Our venue also said that they'd check in if the credit started running low on the night to see if we wanted to top it up. Think that's great because that makes it easier to gauge whether it's necessary or not. Hope that's helpful!

I've attended a couple of weddings where the bride and groom were on a budget, so supplied some drinks (some supermarket bottles of wine, and beer barrels from a local brewery), but also asked guests to bring their own, so it worked out as a 'free bar'.

People were generally respectful of the fact that the couple were providing some drinks, and didn't go around stealing other peoples.

I'm hoping to do this for my own wedding, for the same reasons as you - it's annoying when you spend a small fortune to attend someone's wedding then get stung for pricey hotel drinks!

I think it's a great idea, and makes it feel a bit more relaxed, plus no bar queues, and people don't have to carry cash!

I agree with go with what you can afford. I've only been to a couple of weddings with cash bars. Most of our friends have done open bars and we are too as for us, the booze is a big part of the day (along with band and food) but we will put in restrictions like no doubles, no shots, house spirits etc. I would say that if you want to do a little more than the reception and table drinks then put some cash behind the bar. When that runs out then it's pay bar. That's a fairly common thing to do. But if you can't afford to then just do your reception and dinner drinks. People don't really expect a free bar so don't stress over it too much!

We have a bit of both. We have a bar where you pay for drinks but we are putting a bit of money behind it for the guests. Once that runs out they will have to pay for their own.

We also have some wine/cola on each table during the wedding breakfast.

Best of luck to you! x

An idea if you really wanted to offer your guests some free drinks would be too purchase some drinks tokens, you can buy them in rolls off the internet, maybe use these as your wedding favour.

Lets just say you give everyone two token which they can then redeem at the bar for two free drinks, more depending on what your budget is.

Im pretty sure your pub would let this and they can then give you a bill at the end of the night for what the drinks cost.