money behind the bar?

That's nice of them!

We're gonna put some money behind bar for the evening too. We'll just announce it at the start of the evening reception and the bar staff will be instructed that its valid on wine, beer or single spirits only - to avoid someone using half of it on some expensive triple brandy or something!

You could give out a "voucher" in your invites but i'd bet lots of people forget them on the day so prob not worth it!

Are you having extra guests in the evening? We are greeting our evening guests with a glass of champagne, as M felt that this would make them feel more part of the event (we are also giving them a favout with a personal note), so maybe you could use the £250 to treat your evening guests specifically to an arrival drink?

We are having 120 guests for the day and like you they will have bucks fizz on arrival 1/2 bottle of wine with the wedding breakfast and a glass of bubbly with the toast. We then have approximately 180 guests in total for the evening reception and we will be putting £1000 behind the bar. The venue have suggested that to make this last longer we should limit it to beer, wine and soft drinks, although we are not sure yet as most people we know drinks spirits not beer.

I've heard about the token thing before where everyone gets a token to redeem against a drink. I can see how this works but I personally don't like it. You could say everyone gets their first drink free (seen this happen before too) but again logically it doesn't always work as someone will go up for a 2nd drink in the time that some people are getting there first and may not offer to pay.

I think your best bet is to have a welcoming drink of some kind maybe a glass of wine (red or white). I'm not sure how else it would work unless the money was just behind the bar to use until it went (which is what we're doing)

At some venues, that won't buy everyone a glass of wine each. At my b2b's sisters wedding last year their wine was over £6 for a glass - and it wasn't a fancy one either. You may find that some people sneakily grab a second drink before everyone has had their first, which is why a 'token system' works better if you really want to give people free drinks.

You may find it works out more cost effective to buy wine by the full bottle and provide that on the tables instead.

Aw wow having money behind the bar sounds lovely, mind you I don't suppose £250 will go as far in a hotel or suchlike as it would in my (very cheap) local (which is not where im getting married) lol

The hotels up here don't really operate like that, you just pay for the meal per head and pay for a buffet if you want one, I don't actually know if theres a charge for the function room as my mum is taking care of that, but I don't think so. They just make their money in the meal obv, and the bar takings.

My guests will be getting champagne, vodka and whisky paid for by OH mum provided in the castle after the ceremony, then in the hotel they will get wine provided by my parents (paying corkage obv) for the meal (we have 18 bottles of each of white,red and rose when its done its done) and my parents will also pay for a round of drinks for the toast and that is that, they will then have to buy their own at the bar. Thats the way its been at all weddings I've been at (in Scotland)

I think the token thing might be easiest

We went to a wedding recently where they gave out tokens and it worked brilliantly. People could have the drink when they wanted which meant that we could all take our time and it also meant that one person could go to the bar for a group.

We had the usual package for the day guests (reception drink, wine on the tables and a toasting drink) and the bar was open from arrival for pay drinks if they wanted something different (a few of the men opted for beer), we then put some money behind the bar from after the speeches at about 5.30pm. Evening guests arrived from 7pm.

We spent £1,500 for around 100 guests and that lasted right through till about 10pm and wasn't an issue about who got more, we specified no doubles, no shots etc. just pints, glasses of wine and soft drinks and no-one abused this.

Wow that was very generous of you!!! I should add to mine that I was also told (by my mum) that my Hubby would need to have a few hundered quid in his pocket to buy folk drink when doing the rounds socialising so I suppose they'll get more that way!

It was one of the things that when setting the budget, Mr C was adamant on.

It's meant to work the other way round - guests buy you drinks!

We are going to put about £1500 behind our bar and just see how far it goes. We will only allow beer, wine (glasses of) and single measure spirits (and soft drinks of course) to be free...hopefully it will last!

For the wedding ,money plays a huge role.Only the less time left for the wedding.we know that we've got enough money left in the budget. Basically, if we'd needed our contingency fund for anything, then the free drinks would have fallen by the wayside!

I would agree with what others have said - the first thing to consider is how far it will go - will it be enough to treat everyone to a glass of something / treat the evening guests etc.

Re: Buying drinks socially - we put £200 behind the bar for this, and spent about £17 all night - everyone wanted to buy us drinks, so much so that we had to refuse them.

The only reason we spent £17 is because last orders were called and few guests still wanted a drink - they weren't going to refuse to serve the groom were they... ?

We started with £1k, the bar staff let Mr C know when it reached £900 and we then decided to stick a bit extra behind the bar to last another few hours.

We worked out that the average price of an alcoholic drink was about £3.50, £1,500 divided by £3.50 is 428 drinks (ish), with 100 guests that was about 4/5 drinks each. From 6pm to 10pm that was about a drink an hour which I thought was pretty tame!

SNAP! I'm glad you have said this, its helped! Were gona start with £1k too, then add if we need to. Our bar is open from 5.30 - midnight, so when it runs out it runs out, if we get to 10pm i will be very happy! We've got more guests, but lots of them are children and the soft drinks are obviously cheaper...

Wow your guests were well behaved MrsC.

It wasn't an option for us as our lot are big drinkers - lots of young army men plus my huuuge uncles. Both groups probably getting through 3 pints an hour at least (and that's when they are buying, not when it's free!)

Yes and no!!! That was with the limits of beer/wine/singles... there were plenty of shots going around too but they bought them themselves!!!!

Really? I've been charged £2.50 for half a pint of coke before which makes a fiver a pint - which I believe is more than beer?

I agree with AJ. I've been the designated driver quite a few times and have spent just as much money on a night out on soft drinks.

That sounds quite fun MrsC - I can imagine it really got the party mood going too!

I also agree reoft drinks. We went to an old man pub the other day and my and OHs rounds of Pint plus OJ were more than his friends of Pint plus small glass of wine! Pfft.

Margins are higher on soft drinks...

Our bar prices are not too bad -

Soft Drinks ½ pint

Pepsi 1.50

Diet Pepsi 1.50

Lemonade 1.50

Juice 2.00

Mixer (splash) 0.50

I'd like to do this but for my wedding party... The boys won't really want to drink the wine we're providing on the tables. I think I'm going to say that anyone in one of the suits or my BMs and parents can have drinks provided by us

I'd like to provide drinks in the evening, but usually evening guests have a staggered arrival

We're putting £1250 behind the bar (we were hoping it would be more but the contingency fund has been hit due to a new cambelt on the car!!)

It'll be open from 6.30 (when the meal should finish) and the evening guests will be arriving from 7 onwards.

We reckon that should buy around 350ish drinks and with the current guests we know/anticipate coming we have c.150 guests. That's only 2 per guest really so I can't see the bar lasting long......maybe 8.30-9ish when guests will have to start buying their own.

Must remember though to make sure OH has money on him so we can get our own drinks when the money's gone! Just in case!!

My Dad is paying for a free bar from the start of the WB 4pm till 1am, there are rules; no shots and only single measures, VERY generous of my Dad and i've told him its not neccessary but he insists.

I would go with tokens, that way people don't take advantage of the freeness and it ensures everyone gets a drink etc. You can make really cute tokens, maybe hand made little card hearts etc, different colours for the girls and boys or personalised to fit your scheme... (am I extra??) you can place them nicely at everyone's seat... rather than just being a boring "free drink" token.

Having read all of your comments I must say I am getting a great deal from my venues/caterers. For the breakfast meal we are having a drinks package which consists of Pimms & Lemonade reception (2x per person), sparkling elderflower & orange juice on tables, red/white/rose wine on table (1/2 bottle per person), 2 x still water, 1 x sparkling and champs for toasting at only £16.74 each.

We also have the option of having an open bar for 4 hours which we will run from around 4-11 or 4.30-11.30 after the breakfast meal.. this is £10 extra per person (breakfast guests) or £15 extra per evening guest... we're having 110 for the breakfast and max of 150 for evening. This includes draft lager, bitter (canned), white wine, vodka, gin, whisky, bacardi, jack daniels, brandy, mixers & soft drinks!!!