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They won't budge on open bar prices. They are going to charge you per person. Grandma or older family members probably won't drink either but they'll still charge you for them too. You can try, it'd be worth a shot, but they probably won't go for it.
I was always under the impression it was definitely a per-head count, not "who drinks" count.
Your other option is to allow a tab of "X dollars" and let the bartender charge to that tab. So, say, you figure out what a bar would be for 100 people. Let's say $20 a head. That's $2,000. Let's say you give the bartenders a capped tab of $2,000. Then, when they reach that amount, they have to check with you to make sure it's ok to go over.
$2,000 might be plenty of drinks for your guests, considering the elderly don't drink and those that are driving will keep to a minimum. Hardly anybody ever drinks $20 worth of booze anyways
Most places wont budge on the open bar price. Keep in mind that open bar prices aren't just for alcohol. She'll still be drinking soda's or other drinks, and of course there's the cost of the bartender, garnishes, glassware, etc. When setting prices for an open bar, the venue usually takes the fact that some people will drink more than $80 worth...and others wont drink at all.
We are paying 57 per head for dinner and 33.95 per peson for four hours open bar - I will definitely try however! Thanks ladies!
So funny some of you say the old folks won't drink! My grandma loves her glass of wine, and the old men their liquor too.
I think that normally it's a per-person charge, but it certainly doesn't hurt to ask.
Let us know what happens!
Id ask but most likely you will still need to pay for it. There are people that would completely take advantage of that and claim someone is under 21, pregnant, doesnt drink etc and theres no way to know if they are telling the truth or not. Your pregnant guest and those who dont drink will still have sodas, waters or juices so you wont be paying for nothing.
@ejs4y8 - Depending on the venue you can do a per head count where its an open bar all you can drink, you can set a limit of how much you want to spend and you can do an open bar on consumption where you are only charged for what is actual consumed (so you arent paying $40 per person for an open bar where not everyone drinks) Keep in mind that depending on the location, drinks can go pretty high in price so $20 per person might only be 2-3 drinks per person. I know we had a lot of people at our wedding who drank WAY more than that.
I wish there was a way to pay per "drinking person" instead of per head, we'd all save a lot of money! But I guess, that could be a little too confusing!
Our open bar is based on consumption, so that takes care of the non-drinkers, but I know venues handle the bar differently. We can also set a cap like esj said, but we don't expect a lot of heavy drinking...I hope we are right!
Some of the venues I talked to had a price for under 21, but like at a limit of 20 guests. Other venues made the arguement that while Grandma and preggo BM won't drink, Uncle Donald might be a raging alcoholic and have 15 gin and tonics on your tab. The per head count is an average that they've established over years of serving wedding guests.
You can ask, but I wouldn't expect them to budge at all. Especially a place you are already paying $30+ per person for the bar alone. My premium bar is only an extra $7 on top of dinner. That's some venue. With prices like that in an off season month like October, I don't think they'll compromise at all.
naangel is right. Sure, it never hurts to ask, but there are so many people who would take advantage of this, saying "we only have 50 people who will drink" and then they slip drinks to other people. I have not heard of a place that will go for what you are saying. I also know quite a few pregnant ladies who enjoy a glass or 2 of wine over the course of a wedding dinner.
We were deciding between a consumption bar and a per person open bar for our rehearsal dinner. We counted the number of people who drank and did one of those drink calculators to figure out about how much people would drink. It came within dollars of what a per person open bar would cost so we just went with that so we wouldn't have to think about the cost.
Let us know what happens and I really hope they can do this for you!
@naangel, around here, a drink is usually like $3 to $5 for cash bars. They also serve in little plastic cups and stuff. The "elegant venues" are owned by the city and cash bars are built into EVERY package. We didn't price those out! Starts at like $70/head.
A majority of our guests were older and would never have put down 4 drinks in a night. I thought $20 was on the high end (and it is for St Louis) but i guess it's not! Depends what you're drinking...I hadn't really thought it out well before spewing out the number
We solved this by providing it ourselves, along with some bartenders (friends of some extended family). But I did have a friend get married at a winery, purchase a specific number of bottles, and they were required to get permission before opening more. It's ideal if you have a lot of guests who won't drink much!
@littlebear, I thought you weren't supposed to drink if you were pregnant? I also know you aren't supposed to smoke, but mom did that one with me, lol
I doubt they will budge - they have to draw the line somewhere! Because if they did this how would the bartender know who was the drinkers vs. the non-drinkers and what if the people you say are non-drinkers decide to have a glass of wine and then other people may want a smaller charge for light drinkers vs. heavy drinkers - I think they do it per head so that the non-drinkers balance with the heavy drinkers!
But as everyone else said it doesn't hurt to ask!
You can ask, but you'll probably end up paying for the pregnant and the non-drinking guest.
The reasoning behind it is that the guests that drink less (or not at all) are offset by the guests that drink more, and vice versa. So the pregnant guest who drinks 2 pops and the crazy cousin who drank 8 cosmos in 2 hours balance each other out to equal the "average" amount of alcohol consumed.
Also, it's possible that your pregnant guest might order a virgin version of a drink and you'd hate to have them told, "sorry, we can't provide you with this since the hosts opted not to pay."
Just some food for thought.
Ah bummer! I never thought about it this way! I wish you could at least pay the kids' price :) But I am willing to bet that they will charge you full adult price, no matter what.
Lol. I have never thought of that! I know I have at least one guest who I know will not drink ... they're allergic to alcohol ... but I don't think it will matter. I have open bar too.
My caterer charges less for anyone underage, so perhaps try to do it from that angle? She can be underage AND pregnant, for the sake of convincing them :)
Eh, in Europe where they're not as neurotic as in the United States pregnant women often can enjoy a single or half drink without incurring the wrath of misinformed strangers. Pregnant intoxication = proven to be bad. Pregnant glass of wine over an hour with dinner = nothing. Drinking a sugary soda while pregnant doesn't exactly confer the fetus health benefits. She may want a glass of wine, and will still obviously drink water or juice and whatnot.
I think your venue will say that their per head charge is averaged and won't budge. And it's not like you're offering to pay extra for That College Friend Everyone Has Who Knocks Back 12. If you want to ask, it can't hurt, though. If you have a large number of nondrinking guests perhaps you could ask for an extra something little to be thrown in for the same price.
Yeah, I think things over here (in the States) are coming around on the pregnant/alcohol thing. Or at least I've heard little whispers of it like chicagobride said. One glass here and there really isn't any worse than some of the other things that aren't condemned. Who knows. I think it will take quite a bit before it becomes socially acceptable (again).
Our open bar is a flat price per person for 5 hours. They do NOT charge us for anyone under 21 (the soda, etc is free) or for any pregnant ladies. I guess they assume we wont try to fenangle too much. It will only be 2 pregnant ladies after all, tis not like you are trying to shave the price you know?
Most places have adjusted their open bar prices to account for people who don't drink. If they only charged per drinker, the cost per person would be a lot higher.
I don't think it's right to assume that your pregnant friend won't drink. Most of the women I know drank while pregnant (everything from being wasted before they knew they were pregnant to having a glass or two of wine in their 2-3rd trimester.)
Every study on the effects of light drinking (1 drink per day or less) has found that this type of drinking while pregnant had has no detrimental effect on the baby. In fact, a recent study in the UK found that babies born to light drinking mothers actually have better behavior (at age 3) than babies born to non-drinkers. It was a three year long study involving over 12000 children:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/oct/31/women-pregnancy-alchohol-birth-defects
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This might be tacky = but I seriously thought about it the other day!
I recently heard that one of my guest & her hubby are attempting to get pregnant - well, what if? Is it proper for me to tell the venue that I shouldnt pay open bar fee for that guest since she is pregnant and not drinking?
We also have a guest that doesnt drink - do I have to pay for them?
It will be like $80 we save by not paying for these drinks that will go undrank!!!!! I know it doesnt sound like much - but it's definitely something! What do you guys think - should I tell the venue?
They arent charging me open bar for our two children guest and I am paying special price for them - however, I am paying full price for these guest ( I knew the random non-drinker is probably an issue - but obviously the pregnant one shouldnt be !!!! )
What should we do?