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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:
Moonshine5 · 05/10/2021 19:51

Also if you have time bulk buy offers in supermarkets. Spirits and soft drinks, they can beat cash and carry prices.

Moonshine5 · 05/10/2021 19:54

I don't know about guests serving themselves personally. It's usually catering staff at the bar

NautaOcts · 05/10/2021 20:12

We did but like others have said, it was in a marquee and we brought our own stuff so barrels of beer and wine from France (back in the hey day of the booze cruise) then the caterers operated it for us

Moonshine5 · 05/10/2021 20:16

Makes sense @NautaOcts, we weren't given the choice at the venue.

NautaOcts · 05/10/2021 20:24

We paid a low amount for the site (a school with an attractive old building and flat lawn out the back), then arranged the hire of marquee, tables, chairs, linen, posh portaloos etc ourselves and got in a catering company. There were pros such as it working out cheaper especially with the alcohol but I think the whole thing would’ve been less stressful at a hotel or established venue with in house caterers etc.

Peakypolly · 05/10/2021 20:32

We hosted 120 in a local restaurant. Limited the bar to serve wine (choice of 4), cava, g&t, ale, lager or cider. The bill came in at around £3000.

danidandan · 05/10/2021 20:35

We put 1k behind the bar, ones that was up guests self paid.

We also bought crates of beer, and 30 bottles of Prosecco / wine (to go with meals and a drink after the ceremony when people waited around)

Venue supplied water tea and coffee.

120(ish) guests in November 2019.

Peakypolly · 05/10/2021 20:37

A good money/waste saving tip from our venue was to always return with a glass to the bar after the initial drink (obvs could swop for a different style of glass relevant to next drink choice) because otherwise guests, having had a dance, go back to the bar rather than try and remember where they left an unfinished drink!

BrunoMars · 05/10/2021 20:44

My Dad always said if you can’t afford to host a party then you shouldn’t have one at all! We had a free bar but like others brought it from supermarket over a few months and paid a neighbours son to run the ‘bar’. Only thing we ran out of was soft drinks! Loads left that we handed out to anyone that came back the next day to help clear up!

Rummikubfan · 05/10/2021 20:48

Ours was about £1500 on top of the wine we served at dinner. I accounted for a bottle of wine per person and ensured that it was decent wine. As a result, some people didn’t drink and others stuck to the wine which kept costs down.

I specified no shots and there we also accounted for 3 glasses of champagne and approx 2 cocktails per person for the reception which was included in our catering costs.

I’m our community it would be unheard of to ask guests to pay for drinks and therefore people don’t tend to go mad at the prospect

SummerOfComedy · 05/10/2021 20:55

My brother went to a wedding some years ago.
He told me that the hosts bought wine, spirits,beer etc.,and then charged the guests for the actual price of the drink.

The hosts were happy as it didn't cost them anything and the guests were happy because it didn't cost anything near as much as bar prices!
Win win.

(They did provide a free buffet though) 🙂

tiddlysquat · 05/10/2021 21:03

My wedding cost 4k. Getting divorced cost over double that😁. I just could never have spent thousands on drinks, a dress or anything. We had a cocktail reception but it was a teensy wedding which was brilliant .

FloconDeNeige · 05/10/2021 21:05

120 guests, self-service, in rural France. We bought all wines, spirits, mixers and spent about £500. Ended at 7am and we still had a fair amount left over.

FloconDeNeige · 05/10/2021 21:07

Wine, champagne, apéros etc with the meal not included. Although we did purchase all wine direct from the vineyards which cut costs too.

emeraldcity2000 · 05/10/2021 21:16

We had 120 people, bar bill was just under £3k. Was a central London pub though so prices were high. Additionally, we'd had 40 bottles of champagne at the wedding venue - luckily we could just provide our own with no charge for that so sourced direct.

awholenewworlda · 05/10/2021 21:26

We did free wine and Prosecco and soft drinks for photos time and during meal, and then free wine, Prosecco, beer and soft drinks for the bar for the rest of the day and evening. We were advised not to offer free spirits, the venue said that guests often took the mick of you did that and ended up taking away full bottles of gin Confused. So people could choose to pay to have spirits , or to have beer, wine etc for free.

Laiste · 05/10/2021 21:26

BIL got married at an exclusive location abroad. Loads of us flew out to be there. Lots of family lots of friends.

He did a free bar. Hours of it. Till sunrise.

..... 20.K

Shock
twoandeights · 05/10/2021 21:28

£1,200 for 50 people. 7-11pm. We said cap at £1,000

twoandeights · 05/10/2021 21:28

I also bought wine for the table half a bottle per person and jugs of welcome cocktails and juice for the evening

FlyingWhistle · 05/10/2021 21:33

£1500 for 10 of us. It was a small wedding and we just set up a tab at the bar.

Blondeshavemorefun · 05/10/2021 21:53

We supplied the wine on table red and white

Then had cash behind the bar - think bill was about 600

For about 80 people which 12 were kids

DrinkFeckArseBrick · 05/10/2021 22:06

I think it depends on the people you know. My work are heavy drinkers and I'm sure we went through about 5k for 80 people in a few hours. People were ordering cocktails at a tenner a pop though si around 6 drinks each. They go mental for free drinks though.

I've been to a wedding where they did 2 free drinks per guest and other events where you get a two or three drinks vouchers each which can be exchanged at the bar for various things which I think is a good idea and stops people going crazy

BeaLola · 05/10/2021 23:22

It really depends on guest numbers - venue costs for drinks and what you want to spend your budget on - what is most important to you ?

I have been to weddings where you had 1 complimentary drink , others completely free/open bar and ones with tokens etc

We were married nearly 20 years ago . Our wedding breakfast venue (country pub) was for 40 (inc 4 children) - myself and DH wanted to pay for all drinks - venue said we could supply own champagne for £1 corkage & wine for 50 p corkage - we supplied 40 bottles of champagne, 30 red & 30 white plus on arrival jugs of pimms and Buck's Fizz for guests & cold lagers - also with meal guests could have whisky or port or something of their choice - I remember telling Manager that basically whatever anyone asked for they could have and we would pay for.
For the evening venue we were at our house with around 50 guests - we had bins of cold beer, cold wine, spirits inside and cold soft drinks

After our honeymoon we collected the unopened bottles of champagne and wine (the staff laughed at how much we had over catered - but for us we wanted everyone to have what they wanted and we fight want to run out)

BobMortimersPetOwl · 06/10/2021 06:36

We had about 90 people in the day, and about 200 total in the evening. In the day there was an arrival drink, a couple of cocktails for the casino and a lot of wine with the meal and champagne for the toast which were not included in the bar tab cost. The bar bill was around £4.5k and I remember being surprised by how low it was.

jessnoah · 06/10/2021 08:25

I drove to Calais and bought £800 worth of wine and prosecco. Paid £350 to serve our own alcohol. So £1150 and it was enough for 130 people and we had enough left over to last us a year.