Open bar at a wedding.
Discussion
Ted Mackerel said:
Personally, drop the food to £20, catering is always crummy so might as well do the sausage roll thing ..
hah, I agree with that. the wedding that i went to that had the free beer and wine also had chippy butties and other stuff to ate at the end of the night to mop up everything drunk. enjoyed it more then the main meal! (which i deliberately didnt each much off as booze and food just makes me sleepy).Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah said:
Are you for real? Have you ever paid for your own wedding?! I have, I'm getting married on Thursday. The current bill stands at £16,000. A good chunk of that has been taken up by; Near £70 a head for food. £200 of Cava on arrival. Over £300 of wine, 2 bottles per table of 6. Over £1000 of musical entertainment. Our guests should have a lovely time, eat some great food, enjoy good music, and have some free drinks. Be damned if I'm going to fund 45 people getting off their heads, and ordering the most expensive drinks because 'free bar'.
OP. Personally I would never consider it.
Yes - twice. We're all different but I wouldn't consider asking people to pay for drinks at any event I was hosting. I don't know anyone who would.OP. Personally I would never consider it.
ClaphamGT3 said:
Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah said:
Are you for real? Have you ever paid for your own wedding?! I have, I'm getting married on Thursday. The current bill stands at £16,000. A good chunk of that has been taken up by; Near £70 a head for food. £200 of Cava on arrival. Over £300 of wine, 2 bottles per table of 6. Over £1000 of musical entertainment. Our guests should have a lovely time, eat some great food, enjoy good music, and have some free drinks. Be damned if I'm going to fund 45 people getting off their heads, and ordering the most expensive drinks because 'free bar'.
OP. Personally I would never consider it.
Yes - twice. We're all different but I wouldn't consider asking people to pay for drinks at any event I was hosting. I don't know anyone who would.OP. Personally I would never consider it.
Ted Mackerel said:
Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah said:
. A good chunk of that has been taken up by; Near £70 a head for food.
OP. Personally I would never consider it.
Personally, drop the food to £20, catering is always crummy so might as well do the sausage roll thing and stick a nifty fifty on each persons bar bill OP. Personally I would never consider it.
Or, if you like, do £50 food +£20 booze for the females and £20+£50 booze for the geezers
What time are you starting?
Had a wedding on Friday, 1230 ceremony and we left quite early. It was quite a boozy crowd but I reckon most people were on about a pint an hour plus the pimms after the ceremony plus wine over lunch. It was a great day - no expectation for an open bar.
For a village hall type set up I think buying in the beer is the right move. My friends did this recently and it was a great day, really nice atmosphere - that was a significantly less boozy crowd.
Had a wedding on Friday, 1230 ceremony and we left quite early. It was quite a boozy crowd but I reckon most people were on about a pint an hour plus the pimms after the ceremony plus wine over lunch. It was a great day - no expectation for an open bar.
For a village hall type set up I think buying in the beer is the right move. My friends did this recently and it was a great day, really nice atmosphere - that was a significantly less boozy crowd.
desolate said:
Surely the point is why invite people to your wedding who would take the piss?
Because they are family, or married to family, in general.The sneering on here from some people at the idea that others do weddings differently to them is a bit strange.
Not you, but some of the comments above. I saw the odd bit of it amongst recent graduates when I first worked in banking, people who had never mixed with anyone not from their small social circle, but I didn't know that adults still did it.
We did a 'free bar' at our wedding - employed our own staff and bought the drink in France and at Bookers, it was a few years ago but off the top of my head the numbers were around the following:
150 guests (inc about 15 children)
150 bottles of wine (2/5 red, 2/5 white, 1/5 rose)
200 bottles of beer
24 bottles of champagne for toasts
12 bottles of Pimms (afternoon drinks)
36 bottle service of Prosecco (afternoon drinks)
I stashed two bottles of whisky behind the bar too.
There was a bit left but not loads, maybe 6 boxes of wine (36 btls) and a bit of Pimms.
Ours was a fairly typical middle class wedding, nobody disgraced themselves, nobody was strawpedoing bottles of merlot and there weren't that many abandoned half drunk drinks left around.
With beer go for small bottles, we had some 500ml bottles from a local brewery which was a mistake as they were the ones dumped half-drunk.
150 guests (inc about 15 children)
150 bottles of wine (2/5 red, 2/5 white, 1/5 rose)
200 bottles of beer
24 bottles of champagne for toasts
12 bottles of Pimms (afternoon drinks)
36 bottle service of Prosecco (afternoon drinks)
I stashed two bottles of whisky behind the bar too.
There was a bit left but not loads, maybe 6 boxes of wine (36 btls) and a bit of Pimms.
Ours was a fairly typical middle class wedding, nobody disgraced themselves, nobody was strawpedoing bottles of merlot and there weren't that many abandoned half drunk drinks left around.
With beer go for small bottles, we had some 500ml bottles from a local brewery which was a mistake as they were the ones dumped half-drunk.
James_B said:
Because they are family, or married to family, in general.
The sneering on here from some people at the idea that others do weddings differently to them is a bit strange.
Not you, but some of the comments above. I saw the odd bit of it amongst recent graduates when I first worked in banking, people who had never mixed with anyone not from their small social circle, but I didn't know that adults still did it.
Why would you invite family members who had so little respect for you that they'd take the piss out of a free bar?The sneering on here from some people at the idea that others do weddings differently to them is a bit strange.
Not you, but some of the comments above. I saw the odd bit of it amongst recent graduates when I first worked in banking, people who had never mixed with anyone not from their small social circle, but I didn't know that adults still did it.
ClaphamGT3 said:
Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah said:
Are you for real? Have you ever paid for your own wedding?! I have, I'm getting married on Thursday. The current bill stands at £16,000. A good chunk of that has been taken up by; Near £70 a head for food. £200 of Cava on arrival. Over £300 of wine, 2 bottles per table of 6. Over £1000 of musical entertainment. Our guests should have a lovely time, eat some great food, enjoy good music, and have some free drinks. Be damned if I'm going to fund 45 people getting off their heads, and ordering the most expensive drinks because 'free bar'.
OP. Personally I would never consider it.
Yes - twice. We're all different but I wouldn't consider asking people to pay for drinks at any event I was hosting. I don't know anyone who would.OP. Personally I would never consider it.
Mastodon2 said:
Have some of the posters in here considered that not every other poster can afford to provide free drinks? Perhaps they should wait and save up for a few more years, delaying their wedding of course, but avoid the social suicide of expecting people to pay for their own drinks?
no because they're all powerfully built company directors who get their butler to shop at morrisons etc..my friend who had who had no free bar etc. works in the RAF. it was more important for them to have a wedding then wait several years to save up. they would rather put it towards a home. The food was worse then a toby carvery or a local greasy spoon offering sunday roast. but I didn't care. nobody else did. nobody had an issue with having to buy your own drinks, none of them are broke.
I'm also of the opinion that a paid bar at a wedding looks a bit cheap. You buy the wine for the evening, not just the dinner.
Most of the weddings I've been to have had a 'DIY' bar - ie a manned table/bar with a short list of stuff (some soft drinks, a white, red, beer, maybe something harder) already pre-bought.
If you want to control costs the you simply go for slightly cheaper options for dinner and the bar. (Buy the £8 bottles instead of the £11, etc)
If you're averaging more than 2 bottles a head, you've got the wrong sort of guests.
Most of the weddings I've been to have had a 'DIY' bar - ie a manned table/bar with a short list of stuff (some soft drinks, a white, red, beer, maybe something harder) already pre-bought.
If you want to control costs the you simply go for slightly cheaper options for dinner and the bar. (Buy the £8 bottles instead of the £11, etc)
If you're averaging more than 2 bottles a head, you've got the wrong sort of guests.
brickwall said:
I'm also of the opinion that a paid bar at a wedding looks a bit cheap. You buy the wine for the evening, not just the dinner.
Most of the weddings I've been to have had a 'DIY' bar - ie a manned table/bar with a short list of stuff (some soft drinks, a white, red, beer, maybe something harder) already pre-bought.
If you want to control costs the you simply go for slightly cheaper options for dinner and the bar. (Buy the £8 bottles instead of the £11, etc)
If you're averaging more than 2 bottles a head, you've got the wrong sort of guests.
+1 Went to one recently, oh's ex-colleague, invited to just the evening thing. Most of the weddings I've been to have had a 'DIY' bar - ie a manned table/bar with a short list of stuff (some soft drinks, a white, red, beer, maybe something harder) already pre-bought.
If you want to control costs the you simply go for slightly cheaper options for dinner and the bar. (Buy the £8 bottles instead of the £11, etc)
If you're averaging more than 2 bottles a head, you've got the wrong sort of guests.
Had to organise babysitting too, long drive down the country roads to some place, raining whilst walking to the marquee. Fortune spent on the flowers, team of photographers, music singers, must have shiny sparkly lit dance floor and so on.
Will look great in her pics and video's, as they won't show the paid bar, nor the crap buffet (also important, decent food) Makes it worse as nice as she probably is, I hardly knew the woman and so would rather have been anywhere else.
Mastodon2 said:
Have some of the posters in here considered that not every other poster can afford to provide free drinks? Perhaps they should wait and save up for a few more years, delaying their wedding of course, but avoid the social suicide of expecting people to pay for their own drinks?
If it is a low budget wedding, then yes happy to pay. But if that is the area you cut down on so you can spend more on 'your' big day then hell no. Plus guests may have spent a lot of their own cash to attend - paid for hotels travel, babysitting, new clothes to wear, professional makeup session and so on.
As said, some kind of x amount of drinks free system is fine.
Edited by hyphen on Sunday 13th August 22:56
I can see the view of the guests and having to get there, plus the cost of hotels, babysitters, new clobber the lot however our wedding is coming up and it's 117 quid a head for the food and a good amount of wine and beer. No way would a free bar for 200ish guests would be affordable on top of that.
It's a vomit inducing amount of money being spent as it is. For example £1000 for fancy toilet hire anyone?!?! f
king premiums attached to everything just because it's a wedding.
It's a vomit inducing amount of money being spent as it is. For example £1000 for fancy toilet hire anyone?!?! f
king premiums attached to everything just because it's a wedding.I'm in the US so different culture but it's always an open bar. If the venue supplies the alcohol the the bride and groom get to select a package of included drinks. My friend supplied his own nice whisky and had it behind the bar for select guests.
For my wedding, the venue was just an empty industrial loft. We supplied everything which helped with costs. I can't recall the costs but it wasn't bad and my guests have a reputation for enjoying a drink.
what time do weddings finish in the U.K.? Over here it is normally 12 and then after party drinks the guests pay for drinks.
For my wedding, the venue was just an empty industrial loft. We supplied everything which helped with costs. I can't recall the costs but it wasn't bad and my guests have a reputation for enjoying a drink.
what time do weddings finish in the U.K.? Over here it is normally 12 and then after party drinks the guests pay for drinks.
dazwalsh said:
I can see the view of the guests and having to get there, plus the cost of hotels, babysitters, new clobber the lot however our wedding is coming up and it's 117 quid a head for the food and a good amount of wine and beer. No way would a free bar for 200ish guests would be affordable on top of that.
It's a vomit inducing amount of money being spent as it is. For example £1000 for fancy toilet hire anyone?!?! fking premiums attached to everything just because it's a wedding.
Is that food and drinks budget across the day? As what many seem to do is treat the smaller number of guests during the day, but then the additional guests in the evening are 2nd class citizens with a buffet containing frozen chips and paid bar.It's a vomit inducing amount of money being spent as it is. For example £1000 for fancy toilet hire anyone?!?! f
king premiums attached to everything just because it's a wedding.I don't want to be in the grounds of a country mansion eating frozen chips, rather be at home
I've never been to a wedding where there has been an open bar; sure wine on the table and something fizzy when arriving at the reception, but if anyone wanted anything from the bar then they pay for it themselves, I really don't see why there are some who have an issue with that setup.
ClaphamGT3 said:
ClaphamGT3 said:
Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah said:
Are you for real? Have you ever paid for your own wedding?! I have, I'm getting married on Thursday. The current bill stands at £16,000. A good chunk of that has been taken up by; Near £70 a head for food. £200 of Cava on arrival. Over £300 of wine, 2 bottles per table of 6. Over £1000 of musical entertainment. Our guests should have a lovely time, eat some great food, enjoy good music, and have some free drinks. Be damned if I'm going to fund 45 people getting off their heads, and ordering the most expensive drinks because 'free bar'.
OP. Personally I would never consider it.
Yes - twice. We're all different but I wouldn't consider asking people to pay for drinks at any event I was hosting. I don't know anyone who would.OP. Personally I would never consider it.
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