(nosey post!) Who is having a 'free bar' for their guests?

For my day we provided free drinks all day long then at evening reception i had a tab for myself and husband and we decided who to buy drinks for, my dad and husbands dad also had a nice sum of money on they who they sorted their own side of familys out so we dd our friends and close family and it seamed to work really well

I have never been to a wedding with a free bar and definitely won't be having one we could never afford it!

x

The only weddings with free bars that I've ever been to have been at the bride's parents house, marquee stylie. For our wedding we are having 1x welcome drink (bucks fizz or pimms), 4x bottles of wine per table, 1x sparkling wine for toast.

As much as i would have loved to copy my friends unlimited champers reception...

I am going to stick my neck out here. I think assuming all people will take the piss with a free bar is a bit off; you will always get one or two but that’s life!

I really don't think it makes that much of a difference to how much people drink. We've been to a mixture of pay, free for a while and totally free bar weddings. I have enjoyed all equally. However I would point out if you are charging in a venue that doesn’t accept cards and there is not a cash point on site it’s a real pain as a guest (esp. if you don’t warn them beforehand).

I can completely understand why people go for pay bars tho - the price is just too prohibitive if the venue is supplying the booze. That said we held ours in marquees at home. We had 35 all day (from 11:30) and a total of 60 - 70 ppl in the evening which ran till gone midnight. I think we spent about £800 on a mixture of champagne, wine, beer, cider, alchopops and sprits (so basically a fully stocked bar) and we paid a bar lady to look after it.

The morning after we were shocked to discover we had loads left. Our friends (who all drink like fish) were actually very respectful because (i think) they understood it was us putting it on.

Obv that’s just my opinion and experience!

We are planning on having a free bar but we have until much closer to completely decide!! It would only be for certain drinks - a short and mixer, small glass of wine, pint and soft drinks etc. if people want doubles or bottles of wine or whisky then they can buy them themselves.

Like I said we haven't fully decided and H2B is usually very careful with money lol! but it was his idea so we'll see!!

Our reasons are quite un pc as we all like to have a drink and we go to CAMRA festivals also as do many of our friends and family - and when considering what were the important things for us to spend money a good drinks package was one of them.

Hmm not sure how this makes us look really!!?

If our camping wedding plan works out, we're going to have a sort of free bar. Basically we'll get a load of wine and beers in, and ask people to bring a bottle to add to the stash. There's no bar at the campsite and we're not going to hire one with the marquee and catering. I'll have to double check in case we need any sort of temporary licence, but because we're not selling the alcohol, I think we'll be ok. I don't think any of our guests are risk factors for getting hideously drunk and taking liberties, so our plan should work out quite well. If we were having a hotel reception, I wouldn't be having a free bar. Waaaaay too expensive. The drinks packages we looked at seemed quite good. Usually you get a welcome drink, half a bottle of wine with the meal and a drink for toasting. Plenty!