Host Bar: How much am I really looking at paying?

mcrotondo

Hi all, The venue I have chosen does not offer all you can drink packages which run the average wedding $40 per person. Thus we must resort to a host bar, i.e. we pay for the tab when the night is over. We can bring in our own wine for dinner which is at least good. My question is, for 150 people, how much money are we looking at paying at the end of the night. The way I see it is, the drink are reasonably priced $5-$8 each, not everyone is a heavy drinker, wine will be served at dinner and we will be closing the bar at 12:30am. My guess is $4,000 max and that is probably the high end. On average, people drink maybe a total of 6 alcoholic drinks before they are sloshed. Well, I don't imagine people will get sloshed, some guests are driving home and some are light drinkers, some heavier, some are non drinkers. What does everyone think? Could i be opening a huge can of worms? Should I be budgeting for more money? Thanks for your advice. Monique

ashley669

Having gone to a lot of weddings this summer, the conclusion that FI and I came to is that a host bar is actually the way to go. Although with wedding packages each person gets a set amount, what we observed (and our friends confirmed) was that  the number of people that actually drink enough to cover that amount is quite small so you end up paying for drinks that are never drunk.  You'll likely have people who drink far more than any package would cover, but overall the majority of people will likely drink far less than expected. Your wedding could of course be different, but of the 4 weddings that I've attended this year (of which many of the guests were young adults who can drink a lot!) all of the couples agreed that they got a much better deal with a host bar.Sounds like you're being realistic so I wouldn't worry too much about opening a can of worms!

C&Rin09

I think that $4000 is around the right amount.  Say of your 150 guests with an average price of $7, each drinks 3-4 drinks = $3,150 - $4,200. Do you have children? Old people? They wont drink, or will drink very little. So I think host is definetly the way to go.Can you limit the bar? We were able to get them to remove top-shelf liquor and premium beer and that will help come bill time as well (I hope!)

Elle71

I'd say $4000 is pretty close but don't forget to add on those taxes! 13% gst and pst and usually another 10% liquor tax!

mcrotondo

Thank you all so much for your replies. Ah yes....taxes....of course! I will keep that in mind. The crowd will be a good mix of individuals in their 30's and 40's, some with children they will be leaving at home and needing to pick up later, som older folks and a handful under 19. Based on your replies I think that I am making the right choice. There will always be a dozen or so really heavy drinkers who might pass out before 11 lol but the rest are sensible. I will let you all know next year how it goes for sure. You've all been very helpful! Thanks so much....more questions to come Monique

raynes

I suddenly feel very qualified to answer this question...We did a host bar at our wedding 2 weeks ago.  For a planned number of 139 the base charge for drinks was $2650, then tack on an 18% service charge and GST and PST and it was closer to $3600. (Beer was $3.85 per, mixed drinks were $4.05 and a bottle of wine was $28).We had a pretty good mix of people, some heavy drinkers, some not, some people that left early and a handful that stayed to the very end.We'd budgeted about $5000 originally just to be safe, and paid off about $2500 towards the bar before our wedding, so the hit the next day for the remainder of the bill wasn't too bad.Bear in mind also that we did cocktails and heavy hors d'oeuvres, so the bar was fully open from 7pm until 1am.