Free Bar

I think we are having free wine and beer, our venue do a drinks package for 25Euros pp for unlimited wine and beer from 3pm til midnight, didn't seem like too bad a deal, and I think the venue might regret it when they meet OHs rugby playing cousins!!

We are undecided whether to offer other drinks for after the ceremony too (pimms or champers or something like that) and push the free wine / beer back an hour, but will only do that if we manage to save any money elsewhere I think x

We are putting money behind the bar which will last for part of the night. After that it's a cash bar. The hotel have also said we can put restrictions on what is sold until the money runs out if we want to (so no doubles, etc). Not sure if we'll do that or not, feels a bit patronising to tell people what they can/can't drink.

We are currently thinking that if we have any spare money then we might discuss with our venue and see if we could give people vouchers for one or two free drinks each. You can get cute little vouchers on eBay like this...

We would only be able to afford a free bar for a limited amount of time and at least this way it is fair rather than some guests taking advantage and other's missing out!

Plus, the vouchers are cute and we would put them in with our favours ;-)

Honestly, no we haven't considered this - we haven't said it out loud but I think both of us would agree that we don't want a free bar. I think we will be giving our guests enough with the meal and the welcome drinks etc. I don't think a free bar is 'expected' these days so I don't think our guests will be shocked. I like your idea of putting your leftover budget towards the bar bill, but to be honest I doubt we'll do this (I can't imagine having any leftover money!)

Edit: to add, we will be providing plenty of wine on the tables during the meal too.

We had a free bar, but it was something really important to us so we went and chose a venue which let us bring in our own drinks and didn't charge any corkage. It actually worked out very cheaply, I can't remember exactly but I'm sure we spent less than £7 a head and had a bar with unlimited champagne (bought from Sainsbury's when they had a ridiculously good deal on semi-decent stuff), wine (ditto), beer, gin, whiskey, vodka, (actually, all ditto!) soft drinks and then our caterers also provided a non-alcoholic fruit cocktail too. For us it was well worth it and we had enough champagne left over that we've only just finished the last of it!! We got married in the Royal Wedding year and they had loads of offers on booze in the supermarkets ?

Were not as we're paying for welcome drinks. Wine for tables and toasting. Also have no money in budget!

I have also never been to a wedding with a free bar!

We're planning on having alcohol on the tables during dinner as well as welcome drinks etc then a cash bar for the rest of the evening. There are some REALLY heavy drinkers on OH's side so we don't want to be funding a select few drinking their body weight in alcohol.

We initially really wanted to put money behind the bar but have realised that people are happy to buy their own. We're having wine throughout the meal and I've prepped my friends to hide some if they really want. Most weddings seem to be paid bar nowadays - I always go 'oh poo it's not free' then just happily pay. I think if you mention to people it's a paid bar that's quite useful for people bringing a bit of cash with them.

I wish

Hey!

We're planning on having a free bar, thinking of putting around £300-500 behind it but not sure how it's gonna run just yet...whether it's going to be 1 free drink each or once it's gone it's gone! But it's only going to be running for the evening guests so from about 8pm onwards.

xxx

Love these.

We did (ish). We didn't have wine on the tables and allowed people to just order from the bar. Went down very well, Men had pints, Women G&T's etc. When we had the bill, only 4 people ordered wine so we were glad we went down this route.

We were in a venue where we didn't have option to bring in alcohol.

Spoiling our guests was really important to us, especially as so many foreign, and it was manageable in our budget, which was key. We pre-paid for about 35 bottles of prosecco and then put (from memory) about £1k behind the bar but this was for red or white wine, beer, cider or soft drinks. Figured it would last longer if not on spirits so that was our compromise. Ended up with some left over as the French don't go in for the heavy drinking like the English so worked quite well

We gave them unlimited booze at the drinks reception and with dinner, but a cash bar in the evening. It was a university bar though, so probably much cheaper than a lot of hotel ones! If you want to make a contribution towards evening drinks, I think putting some money behind the bar (perhaps with restrictions like wine/beer only, or no doubles/premium spirits) is probably the best way to go about it. Let people know that it's there, and that once it's gone, it's gone!

We would love to be able to provide a free bar but we are on quite a tight budget as it is. If we do happen to have any money left over, or manage to save more beforehand then we will probably use the drink tokens like miss pickle. That way we can estimate how much it will cost us. If you can afford to do it I think it'd be a nice touch.

We would have loved to do a free bar, or set aside some money behind the bar but just couldn't justify it in the end.

we are having a welcome drink of their choice, a drink of their choice for the meal and then a drink for toasting.

Inside their favour bags there will be little tokens that entitle them to a free shot of their choice..e.g tequila, aftershock, sambuca.

" let's have a shot, Lou & G have tied the knot"

We have wine included in the meal package and something for the toasts but everything else will be cash. I really want to buy everyone their first drink with a ticket system similar to what someone else said (sorry, forgot to quote!) as the drinks are quite pricey at our venue but H2B isn't keen on the idea as we have already paid out quite a lot on the venue and food.

No way, I love my friends and family but our budget can only so far. They are getting welcome drinks, wine with the meal and fizzy stuff for the toasts.

Our venue actually allows you to add people to the wedding account so they can add their drinks to the bar tab for the wedding, we would pay the bill the next day, we decided only me and the groom will have this privilege, the key people are all staying at the venue so can run their own tabs! I don't want to have to ask my parents which one of them thought buying everyone a drink at 10pm and putting it on our tab was a good idea, if they want to show off they can do it with their own money ?

We have a drinks package included which includes local beer, wine, juice and soda but we've excluded hard spirits as this costs extra and we'd have to pay an upgrade for everyone even though not everyone will drink spirits.

Most weddings I've been to have included wine with the meal but then a paid bar for the evening reception. I think this is perfectly acceptable as hopefully friends and family understand the cost of weddings.

We are giving people wine on the tables, champagne for our speeches but no free bar, couldn't afford it x

No free bar for me as it would work out too expensive for us (and the corkage charge is too high to bring in our own alcohol). I'm not sure I'd want a free bar, as weddings I have been to which have had them, there has been people more tipsy than desired (including me). My brothers wedding they charged just £1 a drink, and this seemed to stop the drinking too excess so much.

OH's brother and sister got married last year (not to each other I hasten to add!) and they both had a certain amount of money behind the bar, so we are expected to do similar... Luckily, this was something we were planning on anyway. For FSIL's wedding OH's dad had specified that the money could be for beer, wine or soft drinks, and that people had to buy their own spirits (except the Bride and Groom, OH and his brother who were all allowed what they liked). This seemed to work quite well, but we haven't decided whether we will do this or just put a certain amount behind the bar for whatever drinks people want and when it's gone change to a cash bar. We've got just under a year to decide!

We're not having a free bar, providing champagne and wine during the meals. If the budget allows nearer the time we might put £200 or so behind the bar to start off the night or hopefully if the venue allows we'll provide some drink of our own but for the rest of the night it'll be a pay bar. I've also never been to a wedding with a free bar (sadly )

Hi,

Yes we had free bar but only on beer, wine, soft drinks. Not for spirits though as that can get really expensive.

It eventually cost us just over £1200.

We're planning a village hall reception and our vague intention is that we provide lots of wine and locally brewed beer, and maybe the ingredients for a few summery cocktails which people can make up themselves. I'd also like to do a massive bowl of some kind of sophisticated punch (if such a thing exists). The idea is to avoid having to get people we don't know in to run a paid bar, and also most of our friends are already going to be paying for a long journey and a hotel stay so it would be nice to make sure they can have a few drinks without having to worry about the cost.

I did go to a wedding once where they put money behind the bar for wine and beer only, and I thought that was pretty generous of them given the bar prices at their venue. I certainly didn't object to having to pay when I switched to rum later in the evening, as I'd been expecting to have to pay for my drinks anyway.

We would love to have a free bar but it would be too expensive especially bearing in mind the amount of friends and family drink! We are going to put some money behind the bar, when it is gone then it is gone. I have only been to a few weddings with a free bar and people don't necessarily expect it l don't think.

We're 'hoping' to have a free bar all day, however it will depend closer to the time whether we still feel the same and have the lump of cash available to pay for this.

We are including free flowing drinks during the drinks reception, wedding breakfast, speeches and pre evening reception lull anyway as part of our 'package' so we figure that the real hard money won't begin to be spent until the evening reception (apart from any gents that decide to have beer during the day as opposed to cocktails/wine/fizz).

the thing is, I think that many people don't do this as it is simply too hard to 'guess' how much offering a free bar will cost you. I'm figuring a minimum of £2500 (3/4 of 120 guests spending £20 each) and anywhere up to £7000 (130 guests spending £50 each maximum)..... But again, I've totally 'guessed' on these costs and spends :/

having said that, our venue has suggested the best option is to put a set amount behind the bar and then when this runs low they will ask you if you wish to increase it, and so on and so forth.... This seems a more practical option but would guests seem aggrieved if come 10pm they are expected to start paying for drinks as they've drank the family's wallets dry?

No. but I'm mean.

Our reception is in a village hall and we are doing our own free bar. We are having a local bar manager come for the night with a couple of his staff to run it, but we are supplying our own booze for it, a combination of supermarket offers and cash and carry sale or return on spirits. We are only having Prosecco, wine, beer, vodka, gin and whisky. If someone isn't happy drinking something from that selection then they can bugger off to the pub and buy what they like!

Haha, this!

This

We had the usual assortment of reception drinks and and wine with dinner. We also put £1k behind the bar, which was used to let anyone have what they wanted during the day (if they didn't want wine etc) and then to buy drinks at the start of the evening (No doubles, bubbles or shots). Once that ran out, we accrued our own bar tab (for us, immediate family, bridal party etc) that was an extra £600 (IIRC).

We don't have a choice - we're getting married in Spain and apparently an open bar is the done thing there - there wasn't even an option for a cash bar. The price they quoted us for the meal includes unlimited beer wine and soft drinks and then there is a 4 hour open bar which I think we are paying about €17 a head for. Can you imagine going to a wedding and drinking all you want and only paying €17 for it (about £14)