Alcohol expectations

janeash

Hello ladies:

Just wondering if I could get some opinions on what you'd expect going to a DW in Maui.  We don't want to look cheap, but we don't want to go broke either (we have some big drinkers coming to our wedding). Here's what we are thinking:  Open Bar Mai tais for the hour long cocktail hour (if people want anything else, they can purchase it themselves).  Then 2 bottles of wine per table (6 people at a table) for dinner.

Is that too cheap?  What would you do differently?

Tanq&Tonic

I think if you've asked people to fly all the way to Maui, you need to provide an adequate amount of beverages.  I love the idea of Mai Tais only during cocktail hour which helps to curb your cost versus a wide variety of drinks. However, I think you definitely need to plan for more than 2 bottles of wine per table -- that's only 1.25 glasses per person, and assuming you have a 3 hour reception (dinner / dancing / cake), that's not much at all.

You could always buy wine from Costco and return any overages.  Beer would be another alternative.  Regardless, I would suggest not to put yourself in a position where you might "run out" of drinks at the wedding. 

We ran out of vodka and scotch (but not all liquors / alcohol) and I'm still mortified to this day.  I can't believe we finished 2L of vodka, LOL.

Also, I don't know if Whole Foods on island sells this, but they do have a Three Wishes wine for $1.99 or $2.99 in some places on the mainland.  That could allow you buy a TON of bottles :-)  The Cabernet Sauvignon is my fave of their flavors.

janeash

I so wish we could bring in outside wine (we were actually considering changing our venue because we'd save so much money doing it that way!) but it's at a restaurant and they won't allow outside beverages.  We wanted to get personalized Jones Soda bottles to hand out during the ceremony (keep everyone refreshed while they are waiting for it to start), and they wouldn't even allow that!!  Everything has to be brought in by their specific distributors.

Think I might check with the venue coordinator and see if they can get in any cheaper wine options (the cheapest one they have right now is about $30/bottle!  Ugh)

Tanq&Tonic

Oh wow, $30/bottle is a ton!  What about beer?  That tends to be cheaper, and more volume so you stay full.

mauigirl2012

I agree with Tanq - a little more than one glass per person does not seem like enough. I get it though... We are having ours at a restaurant and their wine list is super expensive.

littlechilds

Yikes.  Half the reason we chose our location (other then ocean front grass) was we could buy our own liquor.
We have 76 guests, and its donation only...so basically open bar.
We are buying everything at Costco, and have 2 featured drink popular in Hawaii..Mai Tais and Blue Hawaiians.  We will buy a ton of everything, then what ever we have left over, can return it for a full refund!

We are debating though if we should offer red bulls lol....we have a lot of vodka drinkers.

AKWinterBride

I agree with Tanq regarding beer.  We had Mai Tai's, beer, and 2 choices of wine at our wedding and it was more than enough.  Most folks drank Mai Tai's, but the beer was well received too.  I think only a few of us had wine. 

FSForever

Personally I think more people would have Mai Tai's or beer than wine.  I agree with Tanq on the DW and expectations.  See if it is cheaper to have a bar open with just a few drink options than wine. $30 a bottle seems a lot and if drinks average out to $7 or $8 bucks you aren't too much higher in price and people probably won't drink as much. 

My daughters wedding in Jan. we purchased 18 bottles of wine, one bottle of Patrone and 2L of Bacardi Gold expecting that the 40 or so drinkers would be fine with that. We ran out and FI had to run, in the snow, and get a few more bottles. The hard alcohol went first and we thought because it was an italian catered dinner that the wine would have gone first. 

bbakerrd

II agree.  If they're going all the way to Maui, I wouldn't skimp  on alcohol.

Maybe you could offer beer, wine and 1 signature drink.

Good luck!

miltran

Our venue is offering a drink package per person (we're paying $45/pp/5 hours) which really helps with budget planning.  Maybe your venue would be willing to negotiate something like that?