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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:
Patapouf · 05/10/2021 18:25

Ours came in at about 25£pp

DrManhattan · 05/10/2021 18:27

£2k for 100 people I reckon

Idontlike · 05/10/2021 18:36

I remember reading a thread on here where someone had provided a free bar.
People had ordered bottles of champagne & bottles of spirits and run up ££££££‘S
Awful.

PyongyangKipperbang · 05/10/2021 18:40

I have worked 20 odd years in hospitality and have worked all sorts of events with free bars. The trouble is that there is always those people (and you will know who they are in your family/friends) who will abuse a free bar. I have seen people who dont drink loads usually get so pissed they couldnt stand and were vomitting because it was free. I've seen people hospitalised through drink, fighting, being aggressive. Its just sheer greed and taking advantage. Sure these things do also happen with paid bars but ime they are far far less likely when people having to pay to get into that state.

For that reason I would assign drink tokens per person and once they are gone, they're gone. One venue I worked at ended up making this mandatory after the number of issues we had with free bars.

TatianaBis · 05/10/2021 18:40

Btw we drove to northern France and bought boxes of champagne direct from the vineyard which saved £££.

worriedatthemoment · 05/10/2021 18:41

Mine was 14 years ago and out £1200 behind the bar , it run out with 2 mins to go
But it depends on prices , types people etc
We had a no double or shots rule

Brainwave89 · 05/10/2021 18:43

@DressBitch

Really rude post. I did provide an opinion on a free bar which is I do not think it is necessary.

worriedatthemoment · 05/10/2021 18:43

We had 70 ish in day and another 30/40 evening and lots if kids but venue allowed us to buy soft drinks for them

Mama1980 · 05/10/2021 18:46

I paid for an open bar at one of my brothers weddings. It was a country house style place. Cost £4000 all in with a champagne toast and unlimited everything. This was for around 100 people give it take. 5 years ago. No one took advantage and there was no vomiting or punch ups but people did drink plenty.

Matilda1981 · 05/10/2021 18:47

We’ve just got married and had a free bar but we bought all of the alcohol ourselves, cost was probably around £2k in total for 150 guests including Prosecco, wine, lager, bitter, about 6/7 different types of spirits plus jägers and apple sourz shots. It was an epic do! Not only was it free it was self service - there’s only so much people can consume!

maddy68 · 05/10/2021 18:52

Why have a free bar? You give free drinks with the reception and then the evening everyone buys their own surely?

Ireolu · 05/10/2021 18:52

Just looked it up. £3200 for 120 ppl. We had champagne for toasts and that was the biggest part of the bill.

Ireolu · 05/10/2021 18:54

Most of the people who attended ours don't drink so we knew it would be ok. Still managed a sizeable bill though. This was in 2014
.

bubblepond · 05/10/2021 18:54

Personally it's something I'm glad we didn't have as people are quite happy to buy their own drinks at these events! We had wine on the table and just had a tab behind the bar for soft drinks for non-drinkers. Obviously your choice but I'd say save yourself the money!

bubblepond · 05/10/2021 18:57

Just to say we had over half a bottle of wine per person plus 1-2 beers/proseccos per person as reception drinks. So weren't stingy!

dontcallmelen · 05/10/2021 18:57

When dd got married five years ago champagne toast Red/white wine on the table was included in the wedding breakfast price, reception in the evening roughly about ninety people the bar bill came to £1700 no one abused it & everyone had a fabulous time.

Fixerupper500 · 05/10/2021 19:01

We bought everything in advance and hired bar staff for a marquee wedding. It cost around £1700 in total and had plenty of alcohol left. We stuck to beer, wine, gin, vodka, pimms and soft drinks. Reception started at 2pm, so it was a long day with heavy drinkers. My brother in law paid the end tab for his hotel wedding and it was over £6000.

GlowInThePark · 05/10/2021 19:13

We had a dry hire venue and got drinks delivered from a supermarket for about £8 per head. This was just Prosecco, wine, beer and soft drinks, but we encouraged people to bring their own spirits if they wanted them and many did - in fact we had a whole box of spirits left over at the end which we left for the local homeless population to enjoy!

Anonymous48 · 05/10/2021 19:21

@maddy68

Why have a free bar? You give free drinks with the reception and then the evening everyone buys their own surely?
Because you're hosting the party and want to treat your guests nicely?
TatianaBis · 05/10/2021 19:38

Again: by "free bar" OP refers only to wine, champagne, beer and soft drinks.

Ohshitiveturnedintomymother · 05/10/2021 19:41

What’s your venue like OP? Is it a hotel or similar where a free bar would be expensive and potentially mean people rack through alcohol and take advantage, or in a marquee or similar where you can literally bring your own alcohol in and pay corkage?
I did the latter for my wedding and took a van to France to buy duty free. Probably cost £500? A few years ago, but not everything got drunk and I lived off the leftovers for a while. I did beer, wine, Prosecco and gin and had a cask of ale too for those that like it.

Ohshitiveturnedintomymother · 05/10/2021 19:46

In recollection it may have been closer to £1000 but I’ve never knowingly under catered for a party so did go overboard I’d say. But way cheaper than doing it in a paid for bar.

In terms of why? Well I love my friends and family and wanted to treat then on my special day. It was my money to spend how I want and I did. And i hate going to weddings with pay bars to be perfectly honest

Delatron · 05/10/2021 19:47

Ours was about £2k for 120 people but we bought from Majestic. Weddings are expensive enough to attend so it was important for us to provide decent food and drink. We cut costs in other areas to do this.

Free bar at expensive hotel could really get out of control though so I think putting a certain amount behind the bar is more sensible in that situation.

I went to a wedding once where even the toasting drink wasn’t provided.

Moonshine5 · 05/10/2021 19:49

At main reception party 280 guests. £2500-3
There were cases left over.
Someone in the know told me the formula was look at your Guestlist say it's 100 then halve the guests so 50, allocate half a bottle wine per person and then for spirits divide by 3 people because you have to factor in wastage too. The system works well for larger numbers

HerbivorousRex · 05/10/2021 19:49

We got married over the summer in a self-catering venue. We had a free bar and provided all the drinks ourselves- we had 80 adults and 10 children and spent just over £2000 on alcohol and another £600 on mixers/non-alcoholic drinks/extras like fruit and ice.
We also paid a bar company about £1000 to serve drinks all day (I’d recommend it- people go a bit mad if you let them pour the drinks themselves!)
It’s definitely an option to consider if your venue allows it.
We had a few different cocktails, wine, Prosecco, beer/cider, and whiskey and gin bars (you could definitely do it a lot cheaper than we did if you have fewer cocktails, cheaper wine and beer, and don’t bother with premium gin and whiskey).