Booze wwyd??

kbielenberg

So my fiance and I are from a small town and practically everyone who is invited will be drinking beer at our reception. There COULD be 332 people who drink-this accounts for elderly people and what not. Of course, not everyone will.My question is, what would you do in this situation? I tried one of those calculators to estimate how much we should get and it was right around 9 kegs! That is a lot!!!!! Any input would be nice.

Thanks!

kbielenberg

Also, we have to provide our own... there is not a bar in our venue.

mlg78

I'm struggling with this as well.  My venue provides two types of beer, neither of which are good beers.  We would like to provide one better beer plus wine & liquor.  The beverage calculator websites vary sooooo much so I don't have a clue where to begin.

HobokensFury

332 people, that's a huge guest list.  1 keg = 124 beers, so you'll need 3 just to give every person 1 beer.  If you're going with that calculation 9 kegs seems low.

MsJazzy73

Great question. I am dealing with this currently and I look at it this way. Yes, I want people to have a great time at the reception. However, if you're so accustomed to the higher end drinks, or you're really looking to tie one on while you're there....buy it yourself! I do not want people drunk at my reception. So I will not use my money to get you intoxicated. So we are putting a limit on the amount at the bar, that should be equal to about 2-3 drinks per person. Just my thoughts.

HobokensFury

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_reception-ideas_booze-wwyd?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:5Discussion:3eddd39a-171d-4ea8-81a9-4379465f17e8Post:85664c48-67de-412e-ae1d-bedae46c343d">Re:Booze wwyd??</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re:Booze wwyd??: Ditto this. 9 Kegs will give you about 2 hours of beer, maybe 3. It sounds like slow amount not a high one to me.
Posted by StageManager14[/QUOTE]

Yeah this is the one piece of information I retained from living in a sorority house for 5 years.
In other words OP, you're going to need more than 9 kegs.

HobokensFury

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_reception-ideas_booze-wwyd?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:5Discussion:3eddd39a-171d-4ea8-81a9-4379465f17e8Post:25090520-9276-4eff-9d9f-11b3cbfe25b6">Re: Booze wwyd??</a>:
[QUOTE]Great question. I am dealing with this currently and I look at it this way. Yes, I want people to have a great time at the reception. However, if you're so accustomed to the higher end drinks, or you're really looking to tie one on while you're there....buy it yourself! I do not want people drunk at my reception. So I will not use my money to get you intoxicated. So we are putting a limit on the amount at the bar, that should be equal to about 2-3 drinks per person. Just my thoughts.
Posted by MsJazzy73[/QUOTE]

Realistically there is no way to do this.  I'm curious as to what your plan is.  One person can make it to the bar 10 times and get hammered in the first 15 minutes if he really wants to. Well before your money runs out.

kbielenberg

I guess I thought we were bigger alcoholics than I thought. I just asked my fiance how much he thought the heavy drinkers drink in an hour and he guessed 3.. There will probably be around 50 heavy drinkers. So far, the plan is a 5 hour reception but if people are still there then it can/will be longer.

We will provide a little bit of liquor, also, but for the most part we have beer drinkers. Also, should we/do you suggest a few girly drinks like Mikes Lemonade or that sorta thing?

libby2483

In Response to Re:Booze wwyd??:[QUOTE]In Response to Re:Booze wwyd??:332 people, that's a huge guest list.nbsp; 1 keg 124 beers, so you'll need 3 just to give every person 1 beer.nbsp; If you're going with that calculation 9 kegs seems low. Posted by HobokenBride2012

Yeah, 9 kegs seems a bit on the low end, depending in your crowd. We went through 4 kegs at our 150 person wedding, but we also had wine and liquor. If we only had beer, I think that number would have been closer to 6.

Ditto this. 9 Kegs will give you about 2 hours of beer, maybe 3. It sounds like slow amount not a high one to me. Posted by StageManager14[/QUOTE]

lyndausvi

If beer is your only option 9 keges seems low.    

We had to provide our own alcohol also.  I have no problem with people getting intoxicated on my dime.  Out of 145 guests, only a couple were actually intoxicated, why punish the masses because of a few?    

Anyway, I digress.   The place we got our alcohol from allowed us to return anything no opened.   I would see if you can find a place like that.   It really helped knowing that if we overbought we could return things.

chinofiesta93

Cash bars are not always rude.. depends on where you live. I've never been to a wedding with an open bar.

At my wedding we are hosting two kegs, that's it. People want wine with dinner? Buy it yourself.

kbielenberg

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_reception-ideas_booze-wwyd?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:5Discussion:3eddd39a-171d-4ea8-81a9-4379465f17e8Post:cd72cf73-8436-43b9-9c21-176a14afe84c">Re: Booze wwyd??</a>:
[QUOTE]If beer is your only option 9 keges seems low.     We had to provide our own alcohol also.  I have no problem with people getting intoxicated on my dime.  Out of 145 guests, only a couple were actually intoxicated, why punish the masses because of a few?     Anyway, I digress.   The place we got our alcohol from allowed us to return anything no opened.   I would see if you can find a place like that.   It really helped knowing that if we overbought we could return things.
Posted by lyndausvi[/QUOTE]

I never thought about the unopened thing. I will have to look into that. I don't mind people getting drunk at our reception either- it is basically our job on the weekends to get drunk.

Oh small town Iowa. Anyway, I don't think people are realizing not everyone will drink like I said. It would be a bit weird if 60 older (65+ years old) people were getting drunk.

Thanks to everybody for the input.

kbielenberg

Just an FYI, we are paying for everything so our guests won't have to. I, too, think it is odd to throw a party and ask the guests to pay for their drinks. However, they are more than welcome to bring their own if they feel the need to since we will probably have a limited amount of options to drink from.

chinofiesta93

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_reception-ideas_booze-wwyd?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:5Discussion:3eddd39a-171d-4ea8-81a9-4379465f17e8Post:8b724665-ea6c-4509-8341-f73523af15f2">Re: Booze wwyd??</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Booze wwyd?? : Cash bars are always rude. Don't want to buy wine for your guests? Don't offer wine during your wedding. Would you host a wedding where the chicken entree was free but guests could order steak or lobster if they paid for it? If you wouldn't offer buy your own dinner options why would you offer buy your own drink options? It doesn't make any sense. You wouldn't invite someone to your house and offer them beer and cocktails, but ask them to pay for the cocktails, so why would you invite someone to your wedding and do that?  Host would you are willing to pay for, don't offer things you aren't. Guests shouldn't be asked to open their wallets.
Posted by Liatris2010[/QUOTE]

Maybe rude in your neck of the woods but in my circle it's totally acceptable. I've never attended a wedding where it was completely hosted. Most recent wedding I went to gave us 2 drink tickets at the door and after those tickets, I paid for my drinks. No biggie around here.

MyNameIsNot

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_reception-ideas_booze-wwyd?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:5Discussion:3eddd39a-171d-4ea8-81a9-4379465f17e8Post:3c364567-07fb-435b-923f-12b23616d9ed">Re: Booze wwyd??</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Booze wwyd?? : Maybe rude in your neck of the woods but in my circle it's totally acceptable. I've never attended a wedding where it was completely hosted. Most recent wedding I went to gave us 2 drink tickets at the door and after those tickets, I paid for my drinks. No biggie around here.
Posted by chinofiesta93[/QUOTE]

<div>The fact that people do it doesn't mean it isn't rude.  It just means you have rude friends.</div><div>
</div><div>If all your friends started belching loudly at each other and refusing to excuse themselves, would you suddenly decide that this was no longer rude behavior?  Of course not!  You would just accept that your friends are rude.  </div><div>
</div><div>You can be rude back if you want, but pretending that it is not rude is lying to yourself.  </div>

danajason14

wow having the same dilemma here. F said he's never been to a cash bar wedding. I've only been to one completely hosted wedding. Where I come from people DRINK! I couldn't afford to pay for it all. We're not getting married for 2 years and have already started buying different wines  and hard liquor now, but still undecided about cash bar or hosted bar. I'm not looking to make money on my cash bar, but to just beak even. Rude or not rude, when my sister got married she had over 800 people there. Could you imagine paying for that hosted bar bill?

kbielenberg

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_reception-ideas_booze-wwyd?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:5Discussion:3eddd39a-171d-4ea8-81a9-4379465f17e8Post:ea431b48-d5c9-4230-880d-93e976dd594f">Re: Booze wwyd??</a>:
[QUOTE]wow having the same dilemma here. F said he's never been to a cash bar wedding. I've only been to one completely hosted wedding. Where I come from people DRINK! I couldn't afford to pay for it all. We're not getting married for 2 years and have already started buying different wines  and hard liquor now, but still undecided about cash bar or hosted bar. I'm not looking to make money on my cash bar, but to just beak even. Rude or not rude, when my sister got married <strong>she had over 800 people there</strong>. Could you imagine paying for that hosted bar bill?
Posted by danajason14[/QUOTE]

Yikes! That is a lot of people. I could see a cash bar with a couple free tickets in that sense. I know somebody on this board thought 332 people was a lot but not all of them will drink. I think that is where I get the most frustrated because I don't know exactly <em>who</em> won't drink.

MsYeck

In my area there is a beverage place that handles all the booze for a very small charge and they are good with figuring it out. Also at the end of the night any unopened beverages can be returned with a 10% restock change on the item. It may be cheaper to go that route if you havesometh ing similar in the area

kbielenberg

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_reception-ideas_booze-wwyd?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:5Discussion:3eddd39a-171d-4ea8-81a9-4379465f17e8Post:a7f0f35a-bea9-407d-a985-c5b39bab76ee">Re: Booze wwyd??</a>:
[QUOTE]In my area there is a beverage place that handles all the booze for a very small charge and they are good with figuring it out. Also at the end of the night any unopened beverages can be returned with a 10% restock change on the item. It may be cheaper to go that route if you havesometh ing similar in the area
Posted by MsYeck[/QUOTE]

I see you are in Omaha, we are only 2 hours away East of that. Any chance you remember the name? Maybe they have a sister store or know of anybody closer this way.

MsYeck

Cornhusker beverage

MsYeck

Also SAMs club accepts returns if unopened with a receipt, I'm guessing des Moines or Sewer City ( Sioux City) is the closest to you. That and a rental trough with ice works wonders, that way you can have more choices too.

kbielenberg

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_reception-ideas_booze-wwyd?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:5Discussion:3eddd39a-171d-4ea8-81a9-4379465f17e8Post:e48fff60-fad5-44c3-8222-717c124f5c51">Re: Booze wwyd??</a>:
[QUOTE]Also SAMs club accepts returns if unopened with a receipt, I'm guessing des Moines or Sewer City ( Sioux City) is the closest to you. That and a rental trough with ice works wonders, that way you can have more choices too.
Posted by MsYeck[/QUOTE]

Thanks so much!!