Home made open bar?

[doctorwhoknowswhat]

Hi,
H2b and I were thinking for our wedding having instead of a bar having a corner in the venue with crates of white wine and red wine bottles, crates of beer, crates of cider as well as some of those large jars with taps on of cocktails and of course plenty of soft drinks (maybe some virgin cocktails) all of which we will have provided ourselves. I like this idea because I want to have variety in the drinks that people choose, I want to provide a free bar that contains cocktails (as that's what I like to drink) which often drinks packages don't include except from for an extortionate amount of money, and I think it would promote a bit of mingling and discussion. There will be no people under 18 unless someone we are going to invite gets pregnant really soon in which case it won't be old enough to walk by the time of our wedding so no worries of children getting their hands on alcoholic drinks. It will be a relatively small wedding 60-80 people about a 50-50 split between friends and family.
Has anyone been to a wedding where they did something like this? Did it work? Does it sound ridiculous? How much of everything should we provide? Is there something I should be thinking about that I'm forgetting?

@doctorwhoknowswhat I've been to a wedding/ reception just like this- it was fantastic! Was set out really nicely over different levels (buckets/tables/stands etc.) mingled with decorations, and looked really cool! There were no queues for drinks, and everyone just took what they fancied when they fancied it. I think our friends stocked up from Costco or the like so had plenty on hand to replenish- but there was no waste! Great idea and no need for staff to man it! :)

Think this is great idea. Have been to few like this and the only thing that lets them down is shit glasses and drinks not cold enough. Splash for some nice glasses, can get loads on amazon cheap and plenty of ice. Nothing worse than warm drinks. Get some tequila sambuca or something else to shot making it feel like a real party. Enjoy

Also have you tried ALDI for wine : spirit deliveries. Very good value and can read reviews on there

We did this. Red wine, white wine, prosecco, beer bottles, spirits, juice and soft drinks.

One consideration is keeping things cool. We had our reception at home, so no catering scale facilities. We bought a second hand large fridge for wine/prosecco and loaded two tin baths with water/ice and beer bottles. We filled our normal freezer with bagged ice. We hired wine, champagne, pint and half pint glasses along with the crockery hire.

We asked family to keep an eye on drinks levels and bring out more chilled drinks/ice as necessary. Nothing too organised, just everyone top up the reserves when they think of it and it kept the bar available all night. We had a fair bit left over, but had no problem consuming it over the following year!

Worked well for us, and avoided paying for a mobile bar/expensive drinks prices.

This sounds lovely. One thought, do any of your friends have an 18 year old who would work for cheap for the night keeping drinks buckets and ice etc topped up?

Will the venue allow it? That is the most important factor. If they will, it's a fantastic idea if you can keep drinks cool.

We did similar at our wedding but I would suggest having a ‘barman’ to serve and keep an eye on things.
We had wine, Prosecco, kegs and bottles of beer as well as gin, vodka and mixers- all free.
Definitely need to keep it cool though so either hire a fridge if possible or fill huge buckets with supermarket bought ice and water.

One of the best weddings I've ever been to was actually a BYOB do - bride and groom provided the glasses and the buckets etc to keep them cool. Nobody was territorial, lots of mingling, lots of sharing drinks and a really lovely atmosphere.
I imagine this set up would be similar too -enjoy!

Also - Costco and Asda will take returns of any unopened alcohol in my experience, which can save on wastage

This was one of the options available at a venue DS looked at. They recommended that you hire serving staff, though.