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Can you cut back on the food to compensate the bar costs?
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I will def look into that....thanks! Just not sure is FI will like it. Food isn't that elaborate to begin with.
I'd do the wine on the table anyway. But ouch! That is high for a wedding. :(
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9*15 = 135. So is that an ok budget for you? how much would it be if the caterer provides the bottles of wine to put on the table (so to avoid the corkage)?
Some options include, set up a website and send email to everybody about the website and your bar situation. Email everybody about your bar situation, Spread by word of mouth; send postcard update. Email is the cheapest and easiest.
$135? I am not sure how you got that. With ten people per table, we would need at least 2 bottles per table. As of right now, I think we have 15 tables...so $275 in just "corking fees" plus the cost of 30 bottles of wine. And basically everyone would only have one glass!
Email would be great...but I don't have email addresses for 90% of the guests!!
Ha ours is a $30 corking fee for anything we want to bring...good luck with yours!!
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You really don't need wine for the table. Sure, it's nice to have wine pairings for dinner, but it's by no means necessary. A lot of people don't even like wine. You could have the servers serve the wine and they can be instructed how full to pour the glasses. This way you'll stretch your $$.
You could also set a cieling for your open bar. We're doing this for our RD. We'll pay up to $100, then after that it's cash bar. Obviously that number would be a lot higher for a wedding reception, but it's something to look into.
Lastly, did they tell you what liquor this 2k+ included? Was it top shelf, medium range or rail? That could save you a lot of money there. You can also pick what kind of liquors you'll provide. You don't need to have a full bar. You could have four or five signature drinks (you could take popular drinks and rename them something fun), and that's it. The rest is beer/wine.
Good luck!
$30?? damn!!! What does a corking fee mean anyways? I can freakin open the bottle myself!
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Oh no, the $2000 was the cheapest beer and wine only, and it was based on 125 people. We have 162 invited.
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What are they basing their pricing on? That seems REALLY high. You can go to Costco and get a (I believe) 36 pack of Corona for at or less than $30, so are they thinking that every person is going to drink five drinks or something?
If you decide to go with wine, look for big bottles to stretch those corking fees out! My cousin did that for her RD. She got the wine from Costco I believe, and it came in much bigger bottles than usual. Only three were opened for a group of 35 people, and the wine was pretty darn good!
The corking fee exists because there is a huge markup on alcohol, and venues/caterers make a lot of profit providing alcohol. To prevent brides from buying their own alcohol, some venues prohibit any outside food or drinks, and others charge a corking fee to make up for the lost revenue.
Oh, and you also might want to inquire if the venue charges a cake cutting fee. Some places charge a $2-3 fee per slice if you purchase the cake from another source.
Were you under the impression liquor was included or is this just higher than expected? I did double wine bottles from SAMs and they were $10 each. People like wine with dinner. What if you have a keg? That's what we had. You can go to a trader joes and get $5 bottles of wine. We went through 12 bottles of white and 2 double teds but we also had beer and hard liquor available. A $9 cork fee sounds right to me though, and I have a friend whose open bar is $17 pp and I thought that was high! Wow 2k is a lot
No, I knew it wasn't included. My main issue now is how to not offend people! No one carries cash anymore. I picture someone ordering a drink, expecting a coctail hour open bar (which we probably cannot afford) and having no cash on them. I picture everyone leaving to go to the ATM. Or people leaving early because they are out of money and wanting to drink.
Can you do the large wine bottles and have the waiters pour (don't want guests to handle something that heavy) so at least there is something to drink at dinner? People probably won't mind as much if they have to pay for their drinks at the bar (I think most people know to bring cash to weddings). Just don't do a cocktail hour!!!
Large bottles of wine could work....Any suggestions on ones that don't taste cheap? I don't know much about wine.
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Australian shirazes are always an excellent bet for cheap and tasty wine. I am also a fan of some of the new box wines. A "Black Box" or "Bota" box wine is really quite good (and less than $20 per box= 4 bottles). Could you have the servers decant box wine into carafes for a fee?
Could you "host" the bar up to $500 or something and then turn it into a cash bar? (The no cc thing is a bit annoying!)
How many hours does the $2K cover? If it covers a typical 4 hour reception, its not a bad price at all actually--its about $4 per person per hour. If this is the case, ask them if they can do the open bar for only the first 2 hours, and then switch to cash. That would save you half, and if you pass the word to your friends know they can load up before the bar closes. :)
(If it covers only one hour, thats $16/person/hour, which IS very steep for just beer and wine.)
Also ask them if they will do a "consumption" bar--that way you pay for every individual drink, rather than a per-person fee (same rates as a cash bar except you get the bill instead of your friends). The prices may seem high, but if your crowd doesn't have many drinkers, you can save a lot of money this way.
Lastly, $9/bottle may seem like a high corking fee but you can get good cheap wine that will even out the cost. If you had 4 bottles per table at $10 each, plus the corking fee, that would run you $1140. 3 bottles at the same price would be $855.
All is not lost--I'm sure you'll figure something out! Good luck!
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Did you tell people there would be liquor available? If I was paying $100 per guest already, I think I would pass on the booze! We passed on the booze anyway, since we're not big drinkers and the "outlaws" get a little crazy when the liquor is flowing, but that's another story... :)
Whew! Thanks everyone! Apparently I overreacted. I emailed my venue's manager in an absolute panic. He said he would put a credit card machine in the bar for us! Problem solved! Wow...I so overreacted! I was in tears! Thank you all for helping!
Can you do an afternoon wedding instead of a morning wedding? If you do, you could save A LOT of money. We are doing ours on a Sunday morning so we get the whole venue to ourselves, plus we get premium open bar FREE! Yes, you heard it FREE!!! You need to do some more negotiating.
Oh I wish! But it is way too late...the wedding is Sept 12! I am happy now though. My concern was the lack of a credit card machine and informing the guests that they needed cash.
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Just got some info from our venue that I CLEARLY should have gotten earlier. An open bar for just beer and wine will be $2000+ (keep in mind we are already paying about $100 per seat for 150 people). So that is not an option.
I wanted to put bottles of wine on the table, but there is a $9 "corking fee" PER BOTTLE!!!!
And the cash bar is a "cash" bar..does not take credit cards.
Invitations have gone out! How do I tell everyone? We don't have a wedding website, and even if we did, how would we tell people???
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