Open Bar Question

palmettogirl924 · December 2010

Hi guys,

We have found our venue! YAY. Our wedding is 2/11/12 i Charleston, SC and it will be cold! However, everything will be indoors.

We are planning on having the ceremony at either 4:30 or 5:00, and we have the place until 10:30. The open bar is $15.00 a person for beer and wine and it is a total of 3 hours. It is an additional $3.00 per head, per hour.

Just wondering what you guys would do about this? Do you think 3 hours is too short of a time period? How could we make a 3 hour bar work?

I was thinking... Maybe have a signiture drink during the cocktail hour, and then open the bar after that... still seems like it might close too early.

My parents weren't too big on having a bar anyways, they wanted to just do a bottle of wine at each table... long story short we are going to do the beer and wine open bar, so I'm trying to think of how we could do this without adding additional time.

aerinpegadrak · December 2010

How long is your ceremony? Is everything in the same place? A lot of venues will close the bar during dinner, and it's common to close the bar about a half hour before the end of the party to give people time to sober up a bit, if that helps.

palmettogirl924 · December 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_reception-ideas_open-bar-question-2?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:5Discussion:332e4519-f0c1-40c9-8d33-cb8dc4c36d85Post:b2496ee2-232e-45ea-8f67-a5a038b6ee3e">Re: Open Bar Question</a>:
[QUOTE]How long is your ceremony? Is everything in the same place? A lot of venues will close the bar during dinner, and it's common to close the bar about a half hour before the end of the party to give people time to sober up a bit, if that helps.
Posted by aerinpegadrak[/QUOTE]

Yes, both the ceremony and reception will be held in the same spot. The ceremony will probably only be about 20mins, and will start at 5:00. Was planning on a cocktail hours from 5:30-6:30, and then the reception and dinner begining at 6:30.

Beachy730 · December 2010

I would do:
Ceremony at 5
Cocktail hour from 5:30-6:30 with open bar
Close bar from 6:30-8:00 for dinner
Open bar from 8:00-10:00

If you want to extend the bar until the end and go until 10:30, I would pay the extra $3 per person and only close the bar until 7:30 for dinner

palmettogirl924 · December 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_reception-ideas_open-bar-question-2?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:5Discussion:332e4519-f0c1-40c9-8d33-cb8dc4c36d85Post:34a45521-b2b2-476a-b397-3e413c839e76">Re: Open Bar Question</a>:
[QUOTE]I would do: Ceremony at 5 Cocktail hour from 5:30-6:30 with open bar Close bar from 6:30-8:00 for dinner Open bar from 8:00-10:00 If you want to extend the bar until the end and go until 10:30, I would pay the extra $3 per person and only close the bar until 7:30 for dinner
Posted by dnbeach12[/QUOTE]
Thanks! I think I may do this and just pay for an extra hour!

kimp67 · December 2010

Think that's what I would do too. $3 pp/per hour is a bargain!

palmettogirl924 · December 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_reception-ideas_open-bar-question-2?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:5Discussion:332e4519-f0c1-40c9-8d33-cb8dc4c36d85Post:39ea2176-678f-4a54-873a-7bdf979235b7">Re: Open Bar Question</a>:
[QUOTE]Think that's what I would do too. $3 pp/per hour is a bargain!
Posted by kimp67[/QUOTE]
Well, it's $15.00 per hour/per person... each additional hour is an addition $3.00 per person/per hour.

planetkari · December 2010

I think you're getting a great deal on your open bar, and adding $3 per person per hour is a steal. You could get away with closing the bar after 3 hours, but I think your guests may not be too happy about this. I'd suggest keeping it open for 1 hour during cocktail hour, closing during dinner, then opening the bar back up while everyone is dancing for 2-3 hours.

goaliegirl · December 2010

if you close the bar for 90 min during dinner...will there be wine or another drink on the table? Personally, I like to have a glass of wine or two with my dinner. Quite frankly, I don't like the idea of closing it in the middle of the event for 90 min. If it was me, I would pay the extra 4.50 per person to keep it open till 10pm. the last 30 min isn't really a problem because people stop drinking a little bit before leaving anyhow.

lyndausvi · December 2010

I do not like having the bar closed for 90 mintues for dinner. 30 minutes or even an 60 mintues, but 90 minutes is too long IMO.

Personally I would pay for the whole, night, but that's just me.

If you want to save some money then I would pay for 4 hours of open bar. Having it start after a 5:30 and ending at 10pm with 30 minute break during dinner. It's not unusual to stop the bar 15-30 minutes before the end of a function. Or if you can close it for 45 minutes during dinner and stop it 15 minutes before the end of the function.

Queen Jane · December 2010

If a signature drink is something you were interested in doing, I might consider doing that for the cocktail hour. If it is not, I would just skip it and pay the extra for the open bar the whole time.

I am also not a fan of closing he bar during dinner, unless there is wine or another option given to the table.

Summer2011Bride · December 2010

We are closing the bar during dinner but having servers come around and offer choices of wine. I think if you wanted to close it, you should definitely have something else available for them to drink during this time, such as wine on the table or offered by servers. I would probably just have the bar open until 10; they usually do last call a little before you actually want to end it anyhow, and this gives people time to stop drinking, figure out if they need to call a cab home, etc. I don't think the last 30 min. will be a huge deal. And if they do last call around 9:55 or whatever, people can still grab one more drink if they want.

Jeni1090 · December 2010

Not to be snarky OP, but $15 per person for beer and wine? We're doing a full open bar for 4 hours for less than that (in Charleston, BTW) with upgrades. Snyders was $8.75 per person for beer and wine (note that's before upgrades). Their packages include the bar furniture and linens as well:
http://snyderbar.com/

I know this is an older post, but hopefully you did some shopping around before signing the contract!

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