Wisconsin

Open Bar vs Beer, Wine & Soda

Hi Ladies!!

My fiance and I are getting married next June in Menomonee Falls, WI. I've read through a lot of postings on this on other boards and just wanted to get some more local Wisconsin input :) Almost every article and posting I've read says that to do any type of cash bar is a big no no and tacky. Personally, i've been to several weddings (ranging all sorts of budges, venues, ect in WI) and only ever gone to one that was truely a full open bar. Every other wedding I have gone to is typically beer and soda or beer or a signature coctail , wine and soda are open/free and then there is a cash bar for anything else.

Is it tacky to just host beer and soda or beer, wine, and soda and then have a cash bar available for mixed drinks? Reason being, I don't want to completely double the cost of dinner (+ 20% gratuity) with the bar bill if I can avoid it.

Prices  for beer wine and soda only per person are $20
Prices for just beer and soda are $18
Prices for House Brand Open Bar are $22
Prices for Call& Premium are $24

Any suggestions are welcome! Thank you!

Re: Open Bar vs Beer, Wine & Soda

  • Being a Wisconsinite through and through, I can't say that I have ever been to a wedding that had a completely open bar.  I would assume that any wedding I am attending would have complementary beer and/or wine and soda, and would be pleasantly surprised if there was a full open bar available when I arrived.

    I have not been to any weddings out of Wisconsin, and certainly none out of the midwest, so I would have no idea what is customary/ettiquette in other areas of the country.  I think that just having beer and/or wine and soda is completely expected and will make for a great time :-)

    I'm not sure how your venue will be able to accomodate you, but with ours we can pretty much do it however we want.  Ex. we could have completely open bar up to a certain dollar amount, or complementary mixed drinks during cocktail hour only, etc.  I've also seen some people do drink tickets that they give to the parents/bridal party/whoever so they can have a cocktail or two on the bride and groom.

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  • edited June 2012

    It is certainally fine to do so!

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  • I know we don't have a lot of family that drink, so we're having an open soda bar. Guests can purchase alcohol if they desire to, but we have strict rules at our site that no alcohol is to go out the doors and if they find out it has, they will shut down our event immediately. We have to designate someone to "watch" when people go out to smoke that they don't take their drink with them.
  • Great, thank you ladies! Just wanted to confirm that no one (all guests will be from WI, MN, and IL area) will be surprised or offended if we only do beer, wine, and soda :)

    Our venue doesn't allow us to actually bring anything in, but the prices listed do include things like bartenders and cork fees, ect. They also have some options for us to just purchase those different levels of alcohol choices for X amount of hours instead of all night or to purchase by the barrel, ect that would probably save us some money as well. I think when I go in for my next consult I'll get some more details and see if there is any wiggle room and get a rough estimate for what the venue's average bar bill is, ect.

    Best of luck with your wedding plans! :)

  • If we had open bar in Wisconsin, that would be VERY expensive! Its very customary here to do beer/wine/soda! I was also shocked that it was tacky, as I have never seen an open bar at a wedding!
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  • Yeah general etiquette says  you need to HOST your guests and they shouldn't have to open their wallets.  I personally think it's ridiculous to call that standard etiquette when it really isn't standard in a lot of places.  My personal opinion is that you should host soda and beer AT A MINIMUM, and anything else you can do is a pleasant surprise.  Just make sure that whatever you host is something you're hosting all night.  I went to a wedding last fall where wine was hosted (according to the board thing), but it cut off at 8:00.  I was very annoyed.  Beer, wine and soda for $20 seems a LITTLE steep.  For us, it's less than $10/pp (it's $10 extra pp for the "package" that includes beer/wine/soda, pizza station at 10:00 and cake cutting fees)

    In the end, I think you should host what you can host, but make sure it's a minimum of soda, and even beer too.  At FSIL's wedding, she didn't even host soda.  9 months later, people are STILL judging her (unbeknownst to her).
  • I have been to one wedding that was open bar, all night, from after the ceremony at 3pm til about midnight. It was in WI and most attendees were from WI as well. This was very excessive and very unnecessary.
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