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Original poster

If you had a free bar at your wedding

176 replies

weddingweddingwoe · 05/10/2021 15:32

What was the rough cost pp?

I have no idea, please help!

We are thinking wine, beer, champagne and soft drinks.

OP posts:
Pipsquiggle · 05/10/2021 17:19

Thinking about this - timing is key.

Staggering the alcohol consumption means people don't 'peak' too early or take the mic by ordering shit loads at the free bar.

Champagne & canapes before the wedding breakfast - full glass plus top ups

Wedding breakfast at about 4pm-5pm - wine on the tables.

Milling around a bit - wine on the table.

Disco and free bar opened around 7pm to the end of the wedding.

unlikelytobe · 05/10/2021 17:22

I think to control the budget on that you either have to specify a range of drinks and measures included in the 'free' bar and make it clear anything else is at the guest's expense or you offer a set number of tokens per person and they can use them or pass them on as they see fit. Also, I'd make soft drinks free for kids and non-drinkers. Forget the champers except as a toast with the meal but any quality fizz will do.

ihavespoken · 05/10/2021 17:22

We only had a nighttime do so we wanted to do a free bar - we put £1500 behind the bar and told the hotel to let us know when it had run out - I think it lasted til about 10.30 then we extended it as there wasn’t much time left! We did specify no cocktails champagne/cava or shots though

ihavespoken · 05/10/2021 17:23

That was for about 100 people I think

Dazedandconfused28 · 05/10/2021 17:23

We did, 120 guests - but not at a venue - ordered through a wholesaler for a marquee wedding. Think we spent £1500 or thereabouts.

One useful piece of advice we got was to provide 1/2 bottle wine per person (there was sparkling, beers & cocktails too) and to allow 30% red wine 70% white. Seemed to be a good formula!

Purpoole · 05/10/2021 17:29

We did champagne and mimosa’s in the cocktail hour, wine on tables and unlimited soft drinks during the reception and a paying bar. Worked well.

SeasonFinale · 05/10/2021 17:32

We put a set amount behind the bar and asked them to let us know when it was down to £200 so we could take a view as to whether to add more but we never ran out and had some refunded. The amount is irrelevant as 20 years ago but I posted so that you could see there was a way to check where you are.

5BlackDoors · 05/10/2021 17:33

Okay- well we married 18 years ago and had about 120 people. We put 2 k behind the bar and then said people had to pay.

Ran dry around 9 pm.

TBF our guests were all pretty big drinkers.

Low moment for me was when a drunk friend of DHs came up to me with two bottles of champagne inside his suit and hissed 'it's free, take that back with you to the hotel' Hmm

I would say put a cap on it and make it clear after the limit is reached then they pay.

We also had randomers coming in saying they were with the wedding party.

Smallinthesmoke · 05/10/2021 17:36

People do behave very weirdly at a free bar. I went to a wedding recently and someone was lining up espresso martinis and got completely smashed. I am therefore very taken with the idea of limiting what can be ordered, so your £ goes further.

Redyellowblue34 · 05/10/2021 17:39

I have always been really pleased to have a bottle of wine on the table to share, a glass of fizzy for the toast and then buy my own thereafter. I’m being fed after all. Generous enough.

5BlackDoors · 05/10/2021 17:43

@Redyellowblue34

I have always been really pleased to have a bottle of wine on the table to share, a glass of fizzy for the toast and then buy my own thereafter. I’m being fed after all. Generous enough.
I'd agree with that for weddings I have been to.
Authenticcelestialmusic · 05/10/2021 17:45

After attending several free bar events where people ordered triple shots we had 4 or 5 drinks with meal/toasts (wine etc). Plus each guest was given 3 tokens after the meal to exchange for a wine/pint/soft drink at the bar. This enabled people to pace their free drinks (if they wished to do so).

RosieGuacamosie · 05/10/2021 17:47

I thought the standard was a drink or two after the ceremony, half a bottle of wine per person during the meal and then a glass of champagne for the toast. After that usually a paid bar.

Ozanj · 05/10/2021 17:48

100 people, £3k, some drinks were included unlimited, others people could only have 1 or 2 of.

TheBitchOfTheVicar · 05/10/2021 17:49

@HungryHippo11

If you don't want it to be too much you can always "put some money behind the bar" up to the value you're happy to spend
We did this. I think it was £1000
Ihaveattached · 05/10/2021 17:49

I've been to a wedding where a few drinks tokens were left in an envelope for each person with their name on. Then they exchange these for a drink at the bar. This means the money is more fairly distributed.

LeviOsaNotLeviosAR · 05/10/2021 17:49

I got married 3 years ago at a nice hotel (drinks were slightly expensive but not excessively so). I put 1k behind the bar at the start of the day. The free bar covered all of the drinks during the photo gap and eventually ran out about 7:30pm.
That was a wedding of around 100 people.

My advise is just to put an amount behind the bar and when it's done, it's done. That way you don't need to worry about a bill being higher than anticipated.

hashbrownsandwich · 05/10/2021 17:57

@weddingweddingwoe you could do drinks tokens as favours?

Drinks during the day/meal you've likely already got covered so maybe 3 tokens per guest to enjoy in the evening. I would think that was really nice.

ChaosMoon · 05/10/2021 18:02

£1,300 for 70 people but we had a decent amount left over. In fact, we still have a few bottles of Pimm's. We definitely ordered too much of that. I think a lot of people there are fairly big drinkers but no-one disgraced themselves or behaved like a dick. But then we were very selective with our guest list.

Evenstar · 05/10/2021 18:14

If you are doing it I would go with tokens as per PP, hopefully the bar prices after that are not going to be utterly ridiculous. We were at a wedding a few years ago where a pint of beer was £5, there was only one glass of Prosecco and one glass of wine per person with the meal and no drinks paid at all at the bar, tokens would have been most welcome there even for a few soft drinks as everyone was thirsty. There was no food in the evening either, it was a long day.

TatianaBis · 05/10/2021 18:17

There seems to be some confusion on this thread.

OP says 'free bar' but then stipulates the alcohol on offer will be: wine, champagne, beer and soft drinks.

If that is what she means by free bar then all the posts about spirit are beside the point.

On the basis of the drinks OP quotes - it should be around £2000-2500 depending on the quality of the champagne.

Motherofcats007 · 05/10/2021 18:18

Depends on how you do it. We had our wedding pre brexit so just stocked up in Calais and it was less than £800 for 60 people with plenty to spare (was still drinking wedding wine two years after…)

PjsOn · 05/10/2021 18:18

Just put a price cap on and then restrict the drinks that can be ordered (no bottles of expensive wines/champers, no cocktails and no expensive spirits) that way it'll go further and stop the piss takers (there's always one at every wedding).

Oriunda · 05/10/2021 18:23

Are you able to pay corkage and provide drinks yourself? We had a deal with our venue that they provided jugs of water/soft drinks and mixers etc and we provided prosecco, wines and beers, plus a token couple of bottles of spirits. Bought on a sale or return basis from Majestic. There was loads left over that we needed to collect the following week. That said, majority of our guests weren’t English and less alcohol was consumed

CourgetteGlutTony · 05/10/2021 18:24

We did the tokens, 2 per person for a free drink.
My uncles collected the tokens of those people having soft drinks, and bought those for them. They then used the tokens to get expensive drinks for themselves.