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Buying your own booze for the reception

sarahjane222sarahjane222 member
First Anniversary 5 Love Its Name Dropper First Comment
in Budget Weddings Forum
A lot of people we know have bought their own booze for their reception instead of having the venue provide it because it saves money (and you can choose which brands of liquor and beer you want). I'm not sure that the money saved would be worth the extra time and effort required on the day of the wedding though. Has anyone done this or looked into it?
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Re: Buying your own booze for the reception

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    lyndausvilyndausvi mod
    First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its Name Dropper
    We provided our own liquor.  It saved us a lot of money.  I didn't find it all that time comsumming.   

    We were OOT.  I contacted a local liquor store.  They emailed me an estimate based on the number of people and what level we wanted (we wanted top shelf).  I took the list and modified to suit our needs For example, we had a lot of vodka and red wine drinkers so I added more of that, less of something else.  We also switched up some brands.  

    We were able to return all UNOPENED bottles.  That helped a lot.  We could over order without worry.   They delivered the alcohol to venue for us.  We just had to return the unopened the next day.






    What differentiates an average host and a great host is anticipating unexpressed needs and wants of their guests.  Just because the want/need is not expressed, doesn't mean it wouldn't be appreciated. 
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    chibiyuichibiyui member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    We did this. We had to pick it up and take it to the venue, but then our caterer handled it. We took kegs back and kept the wine and beer that was left over.
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    Jessica2426Jessica2426 member
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    iI bought my own stuff also and it was not very time consuming. it only took a few minutes to seriously go in the store and buy what you need. iI dont know where you are but here 90% of the stores are the same price for beer, wine, or liquor. 
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    penguin44penguin44 member
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    Yep. As PPs said, it wasn't that time consuming. We had already decided what types of alcohol we wanted. We just went to the liquor store and asked their recommendations for amounts. We also had them recommend a good selection of wine in our price range. Probably saved us over $2,000. At least. 
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    emmyg65emmyg65 member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    We bought our own booze and it saved a tremendous amount of money and hardly took any time. You just have to buy it, put it in your car, and unload it at the venue.
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    atlastmrsgatlastmrsg member
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    Same here.  I had caterer bring the beer and wine (more bulk, more space to take up in cars) but paid for my own hard liquor and saved about $2,400.  Just make sure that your venue allows this and your bartending staff will serve liquor that isn't theirs.  And make sure you have bartenders.  Your event insurance policy may not permit you to put out your own liquor and let guests have a free for all.
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    eshaneyeshaney member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment
    We are totally buying our own especially since we can return anything that hasn't been opened.  It will save us a few thousand dollars.
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    busybride2014busybride2014 member
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    Shop around. We bought our liquor and wine WHOLESALE, at Costco. They allowed us to return any beer, wine, and alcohol that we did not use.
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    mrsk616mrsk616 member
    First Anniversary First Comment 5 Love Its Name Dropper
    I really wish we could do this. sounds a lot cheaper but all the places we talked to and the place we are stuck on said the only thing we could bring in was the cake. 
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    blabla89blabla89 member
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    We're doing this. Our venue doesn't provide anything and our caterer doesn't supply alcohol, so that's the option we were left with.

    How much effort it requires depends on who is setting it up. If your DOC, caterer, or bartender will set up and maintain the bar for you, then it isn't much of a hassle.
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    Knottie48812580Knottie48812580 member
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    Where is everyone finding these venues that let you bring your own alcohol?  Most of the venues I've found don't allow it.  Please let me know which venues are ok with BYOB!
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    Knottie42853364Knottie42853364 member
    First Comment
    edited November 2014

    We are having our wedding at our house, so I couldn't recommend venues. It just makes so much sense to buy a couple days ahead of time and keep it in the garage.

    If you have BEVMO nearby, it's a really good place for beer, wine and spirits. They do kegs. It's not overly expensive, too. Also, Trader Joe's has some good wines that are the Trader Joe's private brands so not as expensive. I am planning on just doing a couple kegs and a few bottles of wine; not buying hard alcohol really saves. Having it in my own home gives me the advantage of not hiring a 'licensed' bartender because people can serve themselves.

    I wish I had the rest of the wedding details figured out as much as I do the alcohol!

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    blabla89blabla89 member
    First Anniversary First Comment 5 Love Its Name Dropper
    Knottie48812580 said:
    Where is everyone finding these venues that let you bring your own alcohol?  Most of the venues I've found don't allow it.  Please let me know which venues are ok with BYOB!
    Try asking on your local board.
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