Attention anyone who has done the bar themselves

[littlemissM92]

Anyone who has bought alcohol themselves for bar please can you tell me how much you spent ish?!

65 day guests plus 32 eve

Not a full bar but not just wine and beer

Thinking popular spirits
White red rose wine
Prosecco
2 types of lager one being corona
Tequila
Jaeger

Any figures would be great thanks

X

Hello! Congratulations on your wedding!

Not sure if this helps (as we didn't do the bar ourselves) but we had 64 day guests and no evening guests and spent £2378. This was for a full bar including spirit mixers and liquors from 4pm till midnight. However we bought from the venue so would have been cheaper if we were in a byob venue.

If you like I could dig out the final invoice we got from the venue with the numbers of bottles of prosecco etc?

Hi! thanks for you're reply do you mean that's what the bar took or it was a free bar and that's how much you had to pay?! X

I woud stick to wine and beer - are Tequila and Jeager not even sure what that is really necessary?

And are you stocking an actual 'bar' or arranging people to serve the drinks? Needs a bit more clarification - I think a rough guide is half a bottle per person plus a bit more - if that helps .

My first wedding was at home & we supplied all the wine/soft drinks & beer - but it was over 30 years ago so I can't really remember the details! Majestic Wine (or similar) will give you advice and sell on 'sale or return'.

We did our own bar.

Majestic wines (& lots of supermarkets) do returns for unused boxes so you can always overestimate and return what you don't need.

We got half a bottle of red wine and 2/3 of a bottle white wine per person - probably took about half of that back. We just did prosecco for drinks on arrival and toast.

we underestimated on the ale (think we went for hobgoblin and ran out early on) but had huge amounts of lager left - you can also buy this sale or return.

I've only ever catered for parties (so not a wedding), but what I would say is that people drink less than you expect. Someone is usually driving, for example, so will only have one. Some of the older guests may not drink as much as the youngsters.

Simpler is easier to calculate and cater for! As others have said, Majestic and places offer sale and return. Alternatively, stick to things that you would be happy to have back and drink over the course of a year or so yourself?

I like rose wine, but it complicates things and makes planning difficult. I'd stick to red and white. I think venues work on half a bottle per person (of one, not both!). Same with the beer - maybe one type of ale and one of lager. If I were doing spirits, I'd probably stick to gin, vodka and whisky, as these are generally popular and go with the usual mixers of tonic, soda, Coke, juice etc.

We did our own bar a year ago, day to to France for wine, prosecco, beer and some huge bottles of spirits (rum, vodka, gin) we massively over brought and had loads left. Can't have spent more then £1000 though (possibly less!) and ended up taking loads home as well.
Soft drinks we just added to our weekly food shop in the run up, so each week some Coke/lemonade/tonic etc, was hardly noticeable price wise but we stocked up quickly!

Rag yes they are definitely necessary for our wedding !
We are buying all the alcohol ourself there is a proper bar with optics etc at our venue and hiring in 3 staff to serve clear glasses dish wash

Will be offering rose wine too it's no hassle I want there to be plenty of choice without stocking a full bar we are buying from a supermarket on sale or return was just looking for a guide on price

I have to say that my experience is the opposite to the pps, people drink way more than expected, especially if it's a free bar and a long day.in fact you'd be surprised at how much folks can get through and you don't want to run out. Over estimate and do sale or return.

Blunt I'm with you , I know my guests will drink far more than the expected amount although it isn't a free bar but definitely cheaper than if a proper bar was doing it if u see what I mean

Hi! smile thanks for you're reply do you mean that's what the bar took or it was a free bar and that's how much you had to pay?! X

That was a free bar and that was the total cost. As you see we had very similar numbers. Yours would be less if you are buying the booze from supermarkets.

We had 70 people both in daytime and evening. Did a booze cruise to france although back when the exchange rate was reasonable and spent £750. This included copious amounts of prosecco for drinks with canapés, red/white/rose wine with dinner and evening bar of wine, prosecco, beer & cider. Had champagne for toasts gifted by French friends who own a vineyard.
In our experience our guests drunk loads with the free bar although we still had some drinks leftover which we took home.
When we did the booze cruise we got 10-15% off as we bought so much. We also got several members of our family to join the Sunday Times Wine Club as found the red wine we wanted at bargain price. And then immediately cancelled our memberships!