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if you are putting the note on your website, you should just say what will happen... "we want everyone to have the option to enjoy any beverage they like all night, so we will be providing an open bar until 9pm and then switching to a cash bar to accomodate those who wish to partake later in the evening"
no need to be sly about it on the website
Cocktail Reception, Dinner and Cash Bar to follow.....
That's one option.
If you weren't doing the cocktail hour a lot of people just give two drink tickets to guests (more to the wedding party), and after that they pay their own.
@mcnetn3: We aren't sure what time it'll actually be though. That's the problem we're having with wording - we're not trying to be sly. If we can keep it open all night on our tab without hitting our limit we'd be stoked, but we aren't sure if it will last or not. We don't want it to be switched before a stated time because people drank more than we expected and hit out limit (or be stuck with a higher bar tab than expected to keep it open until a stated time).
@NYE Gal: We've considered tickets but we're trying to avoid it because some will drink more than others (and some don't drink at all) and we don't want those who do want to drink to not be able to have a couple more because we gave everyone tickets even though everyone won't drink. I don't want people to have to try and get extra tickets from those that won't drink but I don't want them to pay for extra drinks if we haven't hit our limit either.
@lpappas: I understand what you're saying. There isn't a cut and dry time line. I know at the wedding we were at that people who weren't drinking just gave others their tickets.
Can I ask you what your budget is and how many people you are expecting?
@NYE Gal: We're expecting about 125. We're guessing our budget is going to end up being about $3500 but it's not completely set yet. We do have to pay for sodas too so that's a consideration as well (and we think we pay for refills too - I know, stupid, but we knew when we signed...we're going to still talk to them about it and see if we can have the refills waived at least). We have about 15 that don't drink at all (or VERY little, maybe one drink) but we also have at least 25 really big drinkers and a number more who depending on the night could join that group. Oh, and our reception will be 5.5 hours long.
@lpappas: Okay, I'll give you my details....
I live in Canada, alcohol is WAY more expensive.
We decided on an open bar and it was New Year's Eve. Because we chose an open bar we could buy our alcohol from the liquor store (very controlled), and could serve it at our cost as opposed to $3.50/drink which what was what the venue would charge.
We purchased $2,700 worth of alcohol: Beer, Hard Liqor, Wine, and our Sparkling Wine for our midnight toast. I had to pay $2.50/person for various bar costs like pop. ice, straws, etc. I was able to return almost $1,000 worth of alcohol to the store.
So our open bar on New Year's Eve for a 6 hour reception (145 people) cost us just over $1,700. Way less than what we were expecting.
@NYE Gal: I wish we had that option! We looked for somewhere that would allow us to bring our own alcohol but for the number of people we were expecting and the winter date in Reno that made it necessary for us to have an indoor ceremony, we couldn't find one so we have to buy from our venue. Do you have any idea of an average of how many drinks per person you think you went through based on what was gone and what you returned?
What about just having a signature drink/cocktail as your complimentary option and everything else is cash? I think as long as you offer some kind of alcoholic beverage to your guests (if there's booze at your reception), then that should be good enough. You dont have to go overboard with the offerings, as long as there's something.
@KristenGotMarried: I would have no problem with that as I'm not a big drinker but I can't only imagine the killing puppy faces we would get from some friends and family members (read Miss Biscuit's post: http://www.weddingbee.com/2011/01/31/open-bar-weddings/#more-182819 to read about the puppy killing face) lol
We've decided we'll pay up to our limit, we really just don't know how to make it know besides word of mouth because we have family and friends all over the place and they don't all know each other so whole groups could miss the memo (and how do you casually drop "hey we may not have an open bar all night" into a converstation? lol). We are ok with putting it on our website (probably a huge no no, but we don't care) and had a friend do something similar for their wedding, but they were hosting beer and wine for the cocktail hour and it went to cash after that so they just put "Just a note that we will have some hosted beer and wine during the cocktail hour immediately following the wedding and hosted champagne for toasts. For those of you looking to enjoy a wider variety of alcoholic beverages and mixed drinks there will be a cash bar open at the reception." We aren't sure about how long our limit will last and don't want to put an hour limit on it because of that and are just looking for a similar statement that doesn't include any time frame. I am just not sure how to put it...
You could use the phrase "limited open bar" or even just gently put a little note that says, "open bar until maxium reached, then cash bar."
I think it's best to be direct. Since you don't know the time limit just letting folks know that there is a possibility they may need to get their own drinks (so they can bring mooney). Also, it's nothing to feel bad about if you can't host it all night. I think most people will understand.
The problem about telling people that drinks are free until a max is reached is that it makes people feel like they have to drink AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE before the free booze runs out. So people will be sloppy half way through the night, and the max will be reached much sooner than if people were drinking at a normal pace...
OP, I think 'cocktail hour followed by dinner and cash bar' is a good wording. I really think it's great for you to want to let your guests know to bring cash. I only ever bring enough for coat check and valet, so I'd be sooooo happy to know to bring more if I'd like some drinks. :)
I think in your situation it almost might work better to let the guests think it is a cash bar. If you let on that it's an open bar until a limit is reached, I think Moose1209 is right about what will happen.
If guests expect a cash bar, they will know to bring money if they want to drink. And when they order a drink and the bartender tells them "this one is compliments of the bride and groom" it will be a nice surprise for them.
I think I'm going to combine some form of the limited open bar and the cocktail hour followed by dinner and cash bar. I think they're the closest representation of what we are going to do and hopefully get the point across enough to have some cash just in case if you want to drink all night.
I hadn't thought about them drinking more before we hit the limit...I'll have to talk to my fiance and see if he thinks we'd have a problem with that (my first instinct is that we wouldn't...just like I don't see the switch to a cash bar at some point being an issue with most - most of our guests would rather have to pay for their drinks than not have alcohol available at all). I think we'll definitely let the bartender know we are ok with cutting people off if they are getting sloppy drunk...and warn him about the couple people we would be worried about.
Ohhh, would you mind sharing how much of each (how much beer, liquor, etc) that you purchased? We are buying our own as well....and of course alcohol in Canadian dollars is much different than American, ugh!
warning: i once went to a wedding where the bar was hosted until a certain dollar amount was reached- not everyone got a drink before the bar ran out in 15 minutes, i kid you not. while it is incredibly generous of you to host your bar, i personally would rather something like an hour hosted rather than a set dollar amount, for this very reason. if you can't host a full hour, i'd say just go cash bar.
I have to say, unless drinks at your venue are crazy expensive $3,500 seems like a decent chunk of change that should last a while!
@Ms. Meowerson: 15 minutes?! Wow. Like @plantains: said, we know what we'll have will last us at least a couple hours even if everyone decides to drink like a fish that night!
Ok, this is what I put: A limited hosted bar will be available for a portion of the night and will switch to a cash bar for those who wish to partake later into the night.
Hopefully we get lucky and it lasts all night in which case people will be happy but at least they'll know!
Thanks everyone! :)
Agreed that of people know that there's a maximum, they'll drink like banshees to make sure they take advantage. I'm not sure how you can let people know that at some point they'll be paying cash, but "limited open bar" sounds like the best option, although it might need a little more explanation. $3500 will definitely get you far, but what if you say something like "two hours of hosted bar with cash option following"? People will still drink like fish during the first two though. Hmm. Your gesture is awesome and generous, but I'm not sure how to convey the message.
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My fiance and I are planning on putting a certain amount of money towards the bar tab at the reception and then switching it to a cash bar. We are really unsure of how long what we have planned to put towards the bar will last because although we have some enthusiastic drinkers on our guest list we know that our immediate families will drink less because they will be preoccupied and we are just generally unsure about how much a number of our guests drink.
Because of how unsure we are, we don't want to spread the word that the bar will be hosted for X amount of hours because depending how how much people decided to drink our budgeted money could be gone in a couple hours or could last the entire night. Cutting the drink selection to wine and beer doesn't help us because well alcohol drinks are actually the same price as a beer.
We don't see it being an issue with our guests being upset by a switch to a cash bar should we hit our budgeted limit before the night ends, but we want to make sure that people know they should bring some cash and we were thinking of posting a note on our website. I'm having a lot of trouble coming up with what to put though. I was thinking something like "The bar will be hosted for a portion of the night" but that doesn't let them know that the bar will remain open as a cash bar. If we were hosting the cocktail hour but not the rest of the night or for a certain number of hours it'd be easier I think but since we don't know how long it will last, I'm at a loss. Any ideas??