Ideas needed for drinks 'vouchers'

Firstly you need to make sure the venue are happy with dealing with that - not all are.

You should be able to design a simple thing like that yourself using Word or any similar package, then just cut them up and hand them out at the end of the welcoming line (if you're having one - a nice job for a junior bridesmaid or groomsman).

You do need to be careful though as some people's idea of a 'free drink' might be a triple shot of spirits or something else expensive - it may seem stupid but specifying "glass of wine, pint, single spirit plus mixer or soft drink" means that everyone knows what they can do.

It is unusual these days to have a 'free bar' all night anyway, so you don't really need to worry about not having one - and personally if you are going to do the vouchers thing I'd only give them to evening guests rather than those you've already been feeding and watering all day.

Is there any reason you still want to give out free drinks even though you've already gone over budget? I really don't think anyone will be offended these days if you don't offer one - and, let's face it, if they were only coming to get free booze then what kind of friends were they in the first place?

I'm giving each guest a free drink voucher as part of our favours. We're doing our own bar though so we didnt have to ask permission from the venue or anything.

I just designed mine on visaprint - I waited until a free business card offer came through on my email and designed it in keeping with my stationary! So all I had to pay for was postage of just over £2 I think!

Fair enough - and the Vistaprint idea is a great one.

By choice, we aren't providing any alcohol at our wedding - shloer for toasting/welcome drinks, fruit juice and water on the tables, although there is a pay bar in a side room from our room so if people want alcohol they are welcome to get their own. Therefore evening guests aren't "missing out" and we don't feel we need to consider drinks vouchers.

Like you, we're going to be - or very close to - over budget and it's just not something we feel, based on those we've invited, is really worth the expense, although I accept that our circumstances, circle of friends and guest list are probably not "typical" to most, let alone most round these parts.

We did similar to you and just printed something off on Word onto parchment paper (left over from our favour tags).

We told the venue about them and specified on the voucher what drinks were included. We also stopped guests with children using their vouchers for alcohol and buying soft drinks by specifying adult and children vouchers! The people we thought would do this didn't show though, I probably wouldn't have bothered if I'd have known that! ?

May2be, can't add much about how you go about making/distributing the vouchers but I have one idea that might help if you want to limit the choice of drink available to your guests.

When we used to run functions at my old law firm, we were always told the mantra of 'No doubles, bubbles or shots' when it came to drinks at the bar. Might help you to keep costs down.

I think a token would be much more classy than just handing out a ticket. Maybe you could find something weddingy? I've seen bags of small horseshoes and wedding bells and things like that.

I got vintage carnival style tickets from ebay, heres a pic not very good though its the pink tokens (ignore the other bits dont have a pic on its own)

Thanks for the tips. Definately some things there to consider. @AJ I think for us it is just because we are having a weekday wedding and we would like to do a little something to thank our (particularly) evening guests for coming seen as they have likely done a day at work before coming along.

I like these tickets vintageangel and was definately the kind of idea I was looking at. I will also have a look and see what vistaprint has to offer!

Have you spoken to the venue? Ours offered casino chips but as drink tokens.

You can tell the venue that its only for wine and beer for example. They are used to that kinda thing.

We were going to have a cocktail hour and now thinking may not be able to afford it so may just give the evening guests some tokens.

Hi, we are doing this for our welcome drinks as our venue is only offering welcome drinks for £500 no matter what the drink is!!! so we asked if we were able to have money behind the bar so everyone can choose their own drinks and they said that was fine.

The style of the tickets will be like theatre tickets as we are getting married in a theatre, they will be handed out with the order of the day, and when handed in for a drink the ticket will be punched and handed back as a little momento.

it is a little more work but not too expensive as am doing it myself. good idea about childrens designs then i can make sure everyone has had a drink on us x

You could design custom drink tickets or tokens (you could even use the best print on demand services to create these) with a fun design that matches your wedding theme. Hand these out with the evening invitations or at the entrance. This way, you can easily control how many free drinks are given out, and guests will feel appreciated without overspending. You can also ensure that after their first drink, they can pay for additional beverages themselves.