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Corkage Fee?

nilaniluvnilaniluv
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in California-Northern
I am trying to find ways to save money and my dad suggested to BYO alcohol and just pay the $15/per bottle corkage fee the venue provides. I'm not planning an open bar just Beer, Wine, 3 signature drinks. Do you think that buying the liquor from a place like Costco and then paying the corkage is worth it? I don't even know how much liquor I should buy for around 80 people. Do you only have to pay for the open bottles or just factor that you will use all of the bottles? Has anyone done this? What are your suggestions...im so confused.
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Re: Corkage Fee?

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    sm23sm23 member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    You'd really have to do the math for both options to know if it's worth it. First, ask your venue what the specific policy is - corkage fee for each bottle opened or for any bottles you bring in, even if they're unopened and you end up taking them home? Is there a difference between wine, beer and liquor?Use an online calculator to figure out how much booze you'd need if you were going to buy it (evite.com has one; there are others too - just google it). Then add the $15 corkage fee to all that. It depends too on how expensive the booze you buy is too - high end or low end stuff?Ask the venue how much booze they expect to use for the number of people you're inviting, and what the bar bill is expected to be. I'd add a little cushion to that to be safe.Compare the two numbers and see where you stand. My guess, off the top of my head, is that it'd be cheaper to go with the bar package the venue offers you. If this is a big enough deal to you and you haven't signed with the venue yet, look for other options... There are plenty of venues that let you bring your own booze.
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    carefercarefer
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    sm23 had great advice, I just have something to add.Our venue is charging us $15 corkage...otherwise it would be $28 for their cheapest bottle of wine (which coincidently, I found online available to restaurants for $4.50). Anyhow, we went to the bevmo buy one, get one $.05 sale going on right now and stocked up. Then, I had a better idea that we should buy the magnums (the size of 2 bottles, on 1) and we would save half ($650) on corkage. Bevmo normally doesn't allow you to bring alcohol back, but I talked to the manager, and he said it was fine. Anyhow, something to think about.
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