Cost of an open bar?

It depends on how much your family and friends drink, however when my OH'S father held an open bar it cost him nearly £5000. This was because people just kept going back for more and getting quads, I'd you are going to do it I would suggest very specific groundrules such as one drink at a time and limit guests to doubles at the most or purchase a few drinks per person and give guests tokens to use for their drinks. That would stop the bill spiralling or of hand, I mean if you budget a medium glass wine you're talking between £3-4 at a pub, £4-5 at a hotel, worst case scenario one drink each at this cost would be £5x80 so £400, two each £800 and so on. Hope that helps x

Eeek £5000 thats crazy! My family don't drink a huge amount but Uni friends and work colleagues do and they make up quite a portion of the guests.

Might see if the venue can give me an idea of what costs they've seen in previous weddings.

Although, is it fairly standard now to not have an open bar? I think only one wedding I've been to was open bar for the whole day and night. I like the idea of tokens though that might be a useful solution Thankyou

Hello!

Well, we've been through so many permutations about what to do for drinks at our wedding, I feel as if I have a constant hangover!

What we have finally agreed on (and this may work for you) is to offer a "happy hour" where all drinks are provided by us for an hour in the afternoon or "until stocks last!" (whichever is first.)

We hope to provide the welcome drinks and the first glass of fizz after the ceremony. The cash bar will be open then from 2pm til 3pm. At 3pm, happy hour starts and we'll provide kilner jars with Pimms, some more fizz and a barrow of beers that'll be restocked until we run out. This way, we think we can manage our budget. The cash bar will still be there should people want to buy something that isn't "free".

Come 4pm, all free booze is cleared away and cash is once more king.

We're having wine for the meal (not on the table, but poured as and when - again, to help manage quantities and to minimise waste/open bottles).

Providing I get buy-in from the venue and caterers, we'll be purchasing all the fizz / wine from France as it does appear to be so much cheaper.

There are some good drinks calculators on line that I found useful.

Just for context, we're aiming for 150 guests all day (mid-day to mid-night) on a green-field site where we're providing our own caterers but does have a bar.

Hope that's of some help

Mr_P

Mr_P Youur wedding sounds lovey - love the sound of a beer barrow!
Thanks for the suggestion of a Happy Hour that does sound smart and who doesn't love happy hour!? Am miles off the wedding but budgeting seems to be this endless issue that won't just sort its self out!

Just as a thought we've got 150 drinks to start with, we're then putting on cut cost drinks as my OH has bought in some kegs that they're going to serve at a lot less as we have paid for the actual alcohol, they are just charging service cost.

We have been to weddings with open bar and although it is great, people do take the mickey!! It must cost a fortune.

An happy hour of drinks sounds good!

Great idea Mr P!