CHarging for supply owned alcohol...... too rude?

It seems slightly more problematic as you are supplying the alcohol I guess... but if you are having 'staff' running the bar then no-one would know that the drink has been pre-bought by you, they will probably just be glad that everything is only £2!

We are paying for a drinks package that includes welcome drinks, wine with the meal and champagne to toast and that is, in our opinion, plenty of freebie drink.

In this day and age a free bar at a wedding is rare, I have been to eight weddings in the last two years and not one of them provided a free bar.

Crikey, I missed the part where you said you'd make money on it. That's a big no-no.

That's what I was thinking... definitely don't do an honesty box, and I'd be inclined to just not say anything. People will assume the caterers have provided the booze and it's them charging for it.

I think if you are going to charge people for alcohol, hire a mobile cash bar. If you are going to supply your own alcohol, supply it.

I wouldnt have a party at home, buy a load of booze then charge people for it. If i couldnt afford to buy it I would go to the pub.

It just doesnt sit right with me.

That sums it up well actually..... you wouldnt have a party/bbq etc, buy a load of booze and then expect people to pay.

WTS Im not sure i would be happy if I thought I was going to a wedding and the bride and groom were trying to make a profit off me!

I agree with everyone else's comments I'm afraid...

Either supply it free or have a cash bar. Have you already purchased the alcohol? Is there any way that you can hire a cash bar if your venue doesn't have one?

To be honest, as a guest I would *never* expect alcohol to be provided free (apart from table wine, toasting drink and greeting drink). If it was free then bonus, but I wouldn't think anything of it if I had to pay for my own drinks...

I did see a company in a wedding magazine where they provide the bar, and then you receive commission on the drinks they sell if this would interest you. Can't remember the name I;m afraid but some googling should find it.

I agree with the above. I went to a wedding on Saturday where they had a mobile bar. It was free for a little bit and then people paid. However if budget is tight you could just have it as a cash bar. I have been to wedding's where it was a cash bar and I was fine with it.However I would be a little offended to pay for drinks that have been supplied by the B&G. It doesn't sit right with me that I would be paying for someone to make a profit off me. Especially if I have already bought them a gift, vouchers etc.

May not be what you wanted to hear, but just the way I would feel

Is there a difference between "making a profit" and "recouping some of the costs of the day" though?

We all know that weddings are extremely expensive affairs.

In this situation, I think I'd probably lean towards a cash bar organised and supplied by an external agency so it's completely separate from you and there's no confusion all round.

I would probably endeavour to supply, if the people running the bar allowed it, to provide some soft drinks free of charge - multipacks of coke, jugs of squash/juice etc with plenty of ice all evening, so that people could have a free drink if they wanted to. Certainly the drivers will appreciate it, as will those of us that don't do alcohol.

As others have said, to have a 'free bar' all night these days is definitely the exception rather than the norm, and a bar tab for 100 people will run to several thousands of pounds easily.

In my opinion, a wedding is something you choose to do and if you can't afford to have an aspect of it then either save harder or don't have it. I'd be a bit annoyed if I thought I was paying for the wedding, regardless of how cheap the drinks were.

Instead of even providing drinks for the evening, why not tell people they can bring their own drinks - you might end up with some nice punch concoctions! As someone said above I'd rather bring my own alcohol and know it was something I liked.

There are loads of companies that hire bars, one of them is always at wedding fayres but I don't know what they're called - a lot of the time you pay a deposit of about £200 but as long as they make more than an agreed amount you get your deposit back.

No. Neither shoud be aimed for. Can't afford it, don't have it.

I think that making a profit or even trying to recoup costs is wrong.

It may sound a bit black and white, but if you cant afford an aspect then dont provide it.

I could only afford a set amount of guests for the day, so for some people who have partners we have never met, we didnt invite them but have said they are welcome to the evening, we could of invited them and said something like "bring your partner, but you need to pay for them".... or along those lines, but something like that in my opinion is wrong.

We have invited a number we can afford, and provided food/drink/favours that we can afford.

No ones wedding is ever "cheap" or "affordable", but you adjust things and make changes where needed.

WSS

I would have loved to have had an Elvis impersonator at my wedding. However i cant afford one, so i'm not having one. I'm not booking one then charging people to watch him sing.

Its the same thing.

WSS

No they are making a profit from the sale of alcohol in order to recoup the costs of the day, as the others have said if you can't afford it don't have it!!

Get a cash bar as others have suggsted and let people pay for their drinks

WSS

PrincessKatherine..........1st post......troll?

(runs back out the room again!)

I remember someone posting on here a while ago about a wedding they went to where the brides parents sold raffle tickets during the evening reception to try and recover some costs...

? ?

I don't have a problem paying for drinks even if you have provided it so long as you are not trying to make a profit. Guests need drinks so it is essential to have a bar. I think if it was an independent bar rather than yourselves running it you may not get raised eyebrows.

On the other side of the coin I would rather pay 2 pounds for a drink from your bar as opposed to 5 pounds to an overpriced venue.

If you can't afford it, don't provide it.

We were going to go for a drinks package, then realised that a lot of people don't actually drink the wine provided with the meal. We're deciding to get a reception drink of Kir Royale, or Bucks Fizz and a soft drink, then we are providing the sparkling wine and sparkling fruit juice for the toast. We don't think that this will upset anyone. With the money saved by not providing the drinks we can have a few more friends to the meal who will add to the atmosphere of the day.

We're doing our own bar and charging the guests for it but we wont be making a profit. We did toy with the idea of a free bar but we have several family members who will take it too far and get out of control. So we decided to charge to try and discourage drinking to excess and just make our money back. Our alcoholic drinks will be £2 each and soft drinks are free. We have paid staff to serve the drinks and hired glasses etc so its professional, but we just didnt want to risk a free bar.

I know a lot of you all feel that its tight charging but sometimes it is the best option. I didnt want to get a company in and them charge a small fortune for drinks when a lot of our guests have spent a fortune coming to our wedding (travel, hotel costs, outfit, gift (if they chose to get us one).

We feel its the right decision for us, and I think the original poster needs to think about what will work best for them and their wedding.

Exactly WSS.

WSS.

We provided what I'd consider quite a large amount of alcohol to our guests for free - a glass of bubbly on arrival, red/white wine and free-flowing top-ups during the meal, and champagne to toast. This was all provided within the space of about 4 hours. All in, worked out at over a bottle per person for those drinking all that was offered.

We then provided a cash bar in the evening which was run by the reception venue, which I think our guests were fine with, as we had already provided quite a substantial quantity of drink!

Think that it's a bit off to charge your guests for drink you've bought yourself. After all, buying in alcohol is much cheaper than buying it at a venue or restaurant, so people are less likely to appreciate paying £2 a glass of wine if the bottle of wine is only likely to have cost £4-£5.

I would suggest the following as options:

- Set up a mobile bar and make it a cash bar as others have suggested, thereby removing any issue
- Buying wine on sale-or-return and returning anything not drunk (and not charging your guests)
- If you do insist on charging guests by the glass etc, work out a rough estimate of cost per glass (based on how many glasses you can get out of a bottle, etc) and don't charge more than this

Hope that helps in some way ?

Raffle tickets? Why didn't I think of that? Genius! ?

Seriously though, I agree with the others sentiment, don't have it if you can't afford it. I know weddings are expensive but they don't actually have to be if you don't want it to be, if you see what I mean?

Someone OH works with had a engagement party, charged £2 per drink, and made a profit. Which I found a little odd, as she invited her friends and family to celebrate with her but ended up turning a profit? It doesn't sit well with me, I'm afraid.

I think an external party supplying drinks would be a better option, if you could do that. Hope you sort it out x

It seems to be 'general practice' - at least based on all the wedding brochures and package offers we've read - that providing for all guests a welcome drink, a glass or two of wine during the wedding breakfast, and something special for the toasts, is normal procedure.

Then, the evening becomes a 'pay bar' where guests buy whatever they want. This, too, appears to be normal procedure.

To save wastage (and thus reduce costs) during the wedding breakfast, rather than putting a few bottles on each table, get people (hotel staff or ushers) to go round on a regular basis filling up people's glasses. This saves a lot of part drunk bottles, which are then open and likely to go to waste, at the end of the day.

Seems to me a "best of both worlds" scenario - you can buy wine quite cheaply in supermarket deals or if you know someone with a cash & carry account - assuming the venue doesn't charge corkage because then it often becomes no longer cost-effective to do so.