How much booze?

erinnhahn

We are planning on having beer and wine at our reception but we aren't having an open bar all night long, at some point it will turn over to a cash bar but would like to serve some on our tab. Right now I have 2 kegs of beer reserved and about 30 bottles of wine for 200 people and that is obviously not enough. The last thing we want is to offer some free alcohol and then run out right away. But we also don't want to pay for everyone to get snookered on our tab. If we could stretch the alcohol for 2 hours, that would be perfect. And then go to cash bar. What did you guys do and how much did you go thru? Is there any certain rule of thumb out there to help us decide how much more we need? We will have a fair amount of young folks at our wedding who will drink but then we also have quite a few old folks too who won't drink or not much.

nataloo314

A couple of questions: - Are you buying the alcohol and bringing it in or is a caterer/vendor providing it? - Are there going to be mixed drinks available for purchase at all during the evening? A couple of things I learned while planning my wedding and my sister's wedding: - Wine was more expensive than mixed drinks at our venue - I would plan on an average of 2 drinks per person during a two hour cocktail time. Probably 1 for the slower/older drinkers and 3 for the younger crowd.

kellidanae

Agree w/ Nataloo here. But our venue provided an example (I think to attempt at justifying bar costs). I can email it to you if you like~email me at kellidanae at gmail dot com if you are interested (this will help remind me to dig out the menu). People will also attempt to drink as much as they can while it is free and then turn it off when you go to cash bar, that was my experience when working in catering.

ScarletGem

Our venue assumes that the average drinker will have 2 drinks for the cocktail hour, and then one drink per hour after that.  So maybe assume at least 3-4 drinks per person, to get you through the first two hours?  But then kelli has a good point, that everyone will try to get while the gettin's good, and then stop drinking once they have to pay for it. 

erinnhahn

Thanks ladies for the advice.  Kellidanae, I am going to email you to get the information you have, watch for my email and thanks for helping me out on this.Natloo314 -- to answer your questions, our vendor is providing the alcohol, we aren't allowed to bring in our own.  Wish we could bring our own in, one keg is $300, the inflated prices are ridiculous.  And yes mixed drinks will be available to purchase.  I didn't realize mixed drinks might be cheaper than wine, I assumed the other way around so I'll have to check with my vendor, interesting... 

Molly Jean

Our venue assumes that the average drinker will have 2 drinks for the cocktail hour, and then one drink per hour after that.Wow.  Your venue did not go to school and/or weddings with me and my friends :)I would ask if they could do a "per person" charge instead of per keg.  My venue charged $465 per keg.  Or I could pay an amount per hour for open bar per person.  I chose the latter.I had open bar (okay so only beer, wine and soda) for the first two hours (cocktail hour and dinner) and then it went to cash.  Sure you paid for people who didn't drink but you also made up for it with the other people who ordered two at a time.  Besides, keg beer sucks ;)Everyone totally got their party on during the cocktail hour and dinner which rolled into a bitchin' reception.  $1000 for 2 kegs or $1100 for 2 hours of whatever you want?   I chose 2 hours of whatever you want.:)

Lemons653

We were told that a keg holds about 120 8oz glasses.