Q for the already marrieds

courtneykelly

if you ladies had an open bar, how many people did you have and how much did the total end up being?  i'm trying to decide between hosting a "by consumption" bar or an "open bar" for 85-100 ppl at $35/per person (includes 4.5 hours of service)....


thanks!!
c

jagore08

This really depends on your guests.  My side of the family are drinkers whereas DH doesn't drink much if at all.  If the majority of your guests are drinkers (and most tend to drink more at weddings because of an open bar) then I suggest doing an open bar.  $35 per person doesn't seem like much when you think that drinks go between $8-12.   

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

I actually don't know how much ours was... at our venue we had a drink package, and I don't know that they do consumption bar. We weren't interested in it, knowing how much our friends and family drink! We had beer, wine, passed signature drink and house liquor/well drinks included in our pp price, but our venue worked with our budget and what we wanted. FWIW, our pp price was $103, all inclusive (including tax and gratuity) and that was for a seated dinner, cocktail hour, etc. The only other things we hired for the reception were the DJ and the cake.

RoMy215

Our venue included 3 hours of beer/wine/champagne & soft drinks. For us the price for an open bar was just not doable and we didn't have the option of a consumption only bar.

dawnbeatty

We did an open bar.  The first hour was included in our package but after that we paid for the bar.  We had about 180 pp and DH's side are drinkers.  We put down 700.00 up front and if we ran low or went over they would come to us and ask if we wanted to increase it but the 700.00 lasted the entire night.  But we also had 2 bottles of wine per table and 2 kegs of beer - so there was plenty of alcohol. 

redpassport

We did a consumption bar and at the end of the night, for just under 70 people, not all of them drinking; the bill was almost $3000 for 3 hours. We found out that people were having their drinks taken away from them before they were empty, and that the bartenders were serving things that we had specifically said not to. (we saw the drinks in people's photos later). if you go with the consuption option, ask to see an itemized statement.