Bar Spend

I didn't say I couldn't cover the shortfall if need be. Obviously I don't want to cover all of it if possible and it seems that it is unlikely no one will buy any drinks. I was just trying to get a rough idea of what it is likely to be and wanted an idea of what other people's evening bar spend was to help me with that. As in if they had a free bar how much did it cost or if they are a guest, what would they spend. Of course it's a guess.

Sorry, i thought earlier you had said you didn't have the money to just put it behind the bar..

Good Luck!

Not sure if this has already been said but it is difficult to compare to a free bar if your guests are paying for drinks (which I understand is what you mean) as I would imagine people drink far more in terms of quantity and value if they are not having to put their hand in their pocket.

I could cover it if I need to but I don't just have a spare 5k to put behind the bar if that makes sense? People will drink and I think at least 2-3k is likely. So I will potentially get that back. If I put it all behind the bar I won't. Yeah I know what you mean about free bar, just gives an idea.

I would second Boro-Bride's comments, free bar people will get excited, leave their drink down and go to the loo and forget it and just go get another. You don't do that if you pay for your drink. I think the best way to get people to make up some of the £11k would be to have a free bar from start of the day and dinner, and then first drink for all of the evening guests when they arrive/ toast for first dance. You could then opt for a pay for bar after a certain point, which is what we are doing once a certain amount has gone - we are putting £1000 behind the bar and once this is gone people pay their own. The staff should be able to advise you on how the tab is holding up.

What you probably want to avoid is imposing a pay bar too early and then 'waste' the money on hire fee. It also depends on location and prices - if people buy a g and t it will cost more than a pint depending on the venue. If you think about £4 for a drink and you have 120 people in the evening each person will probably have at least four or five drinks, probably more - so £20 each would be £2400. So you can expect to have to top up the rest to 11k.

I hope this doesn't come across as mean, it is absolutely not meant to as you say you can afford it, but why book a venue that has this his minimum spend in place if you don't want to pay it all? Your guests will be none the wiser but if you can afford to pay for a free bar you may as well. Or at least have a set tab and when it's gone it's gone and hope people still want to buy.

The other thing is that you must not worry about this on the day. You can put set money behind the bar (as my friends did) and decide to up that on the day should you wish or not. Or you could have free bar for set period with day peeps, then pay bar and reintroduce free bar for evening period (say first hour) depending on what the ongoing tally is. That might also be more flexible and help you gauge how much of the 11k has been spend by you and by your guests.

Hope that helps and best of luck.

We had an open bar - beer, wine, premium spirits, prosecco (the champagne we ordered was sold out on the day and the next nicest bottle was $300/bottle). For 50 people, we spent AUD$2500. That's $50/person or £25/person.

We did not have anybody leave full or half-full glasses. However, we had full table service.

If you are able to spend the extra 5k if you have to, if it was me I would just put that money aside just for worst case scenario. I'd maybe check on the tab halfway through the night, and see how much has been spent. If there's still a shortfall (which I think you're expecting there to be), I would think about putting 1k or something behind the bar, or maybe just buying a load of bottles of wine to put on tablets. Like you've said, people will drink more if it's free, and if it's going down the route of you having to spend that money anyway because your guests, aren't, better to spend it on drinks than just venue hire.

I think that is what I'll do - keep an eye on the tab on the night and they said they would.

This might be helpful to help you calculate how many drinks people may buy (remember to only account for time when you haven't provided drinks)

http://apracticalwedding.com/2013/01/calculate-alcohol-for-wedding/

I think you are overthinking it though as it can be really hard to predict exactly how much booze people might buy. Just have the £5k put aside before the wedding and the pub will bill you for any shortfall in their takings. Fingers crossed it won't be the full £5k!

This may be really cheeky, but remember, if for example your total spend came to £10,000 on the day, and you are £1,000 short, why not just buy £1,000 worth of champagne ( or other bottle drinks) from them and that way you have reached their minimum spend, and you have also walked away with extra bottles to take home for an after wedding celebration?

Just a thought

Hello! I realise I'm v late to the party here but I have the same issue with our wedding venue for later this year - minimum bar spend and trying to work out how much our guests are likely to spend. If you don't mind me asking, how did it work out? Did your guests make up the minimum spend? If not, did you have to cover it yourselves? Do you think it's worth telling the guests that there's a minimum spend, to encourage them to buy a couple more drinks?

Sorry for all the questions and hope you had a fab wedding!! xx