- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee boards
Since this is a highly debated topic today, several posters wanted to know the cost associated with hosting an open bar. If you had an open bar or are planning one, what did you pay or budget for?
I think the better question might be, what did you budget per person, as an open bar is almost always charged by head. Ours is $30/person
Our open bar was included in our per person - which included open bar, all food for cocktail hour and reception, and the cake - it was $175 per person plus tax and tip, so came out to $225 per person. - so with 115 people it came to $25,875 for food and drink.
I am in NYC hence the cost.
Edit - I actually just looked at my contract - It looks like my bar portion was $6503 which was $56.54 per person for open bar.
ours is $27 per person, but just for beer and wine. $27 x 150 (hopefully less) = $4050
*not including gratuity
We're having 100 people and I have budget $1000 (although I kind of have in the back of my head we might spend a little more if needed). The reason its so cheap is because we found a venue that would let us bring our own alcohol. We're doing beer/wine/champagne only. The venue is charging us $3.95/person for all the glassware and water/soda, so that leaves us $600 for the alcohol.
Im hoping I can get away with 3k at a venue where I can bring my own alcohol. (for 180-200 people)
@CorgiTales: That is clutch! i looked everywhere for a venue that will let us bring alcohol. no luck.
@lauren810c: Wowzers, your food and alcohol cost is almost twice my entire wedding budget! I guess that's the difference between NYC and Alaska :) How was it, was the cost worth it?
We can bring in our own liqour so that saved us a lot. We are planning to spend about $14/pp for alcohol. Luckly a local liquor store delivers it and then picks up whatever we don't use and credits it back to us so we will probably plan to order extra since we can just return what we don't use. Also we are only doing beer and wine. no hard liqour so that makes it cheaper too
@Belle2Be: Oh, just capitalized it so that people knew they were voting only on the open bar option. :)
$10k
SIKE!
We are getting married outdoors and providing our own alcohol. Buying in bulk is saving us and we don't have to pay for the mark up from banquet halls.
@Snowy414:Lucky you! Wish my venue allowed us to bring our own booze :(
@cj_one2000 - Ha ..yeah...definitely a little pricier here! And I'm not a DIY'er and would rather just pay than figure out ways to reduce cost sometimes..
I often ponder the question if its worth it - it was ALOT of money for the entire wedding - think that was just food and drink...but my husband and I didn't get in debt over it even paying for it ourselves and it was our dream wedding - so I would say it was worth it. I'm only doing this wedding thing once and wanted it done the way I wanted!
Open Bar alcohol is 9.25 per person, in conjuction with our catering through them, price is based on 100 people. Our entire catering food and beverage, service fee's, bartenders, cocktail hour, etc is 6k.
We had to bring in our own, but it was ordered through the caterer. We paid $1500. for 85 people.
We lucked out as well in terms of being able to bring our own booze, a good friend of ours is a bartender and he helped us decide on the volume that we needed for 100 people.
For the actual alcohol we paid $998.31
The corkage fee from our caterer was $624 (this included glassware, barware and mixers)
We got to take home any alcohol our guests didn't drink, so we now have A LOT of red wine.
@lauren810c: Well that's good to hear, as long as you were happy with the end result. And good for you with the no debt thing, that's the way to go... my fiance and I are doing the same thing!
@cj_one2000: My friend had an open bar for three hours for 100 guests and it cost her about 3000, i went to another wedding and it was about the same.
I was allowed to bring in my own booze, and for 100 people, two bottles of wine on each table and some behind the bar and various, beer, ciders and coolers, as well as pop, it came to 800.00
I believe my venue charges $37.95 a head x 100 people = 3795.00. Plus tax and gratuity.
We're bringing in our own alcohol. We've got some connections so it'll probably cost somewhere around $750 for 80 people.
We spent about $1000 on the open bar, but we were able to bring in our own alcohol and didn't have a full open bar (beer, wine, champagne, soda, and 4 signature cocktails).
It will be anywhere from 12-17 per person for the whole night and we estimate about 170 people. We hired a retail store to bartend and we will pay the actual retail price per bottle and an hourly rate to the bartenders. The store will take back all unopened alcohol.
My venue charges $26 per person (beer, wine, and soda), plus a 20% service fee, and $85 per bartender (one bartender for every 100 guests). So for 150 guests we'll be paying $4850, assuming they don't charge me extra to dye the beer green. I'm telling everyone to drink up. :)
We're paying about $100 per person, but that includes ceremony and reception venue, sit down dinner, open bar, butlered hors d'oerves, cake, taxes and gratuities.
We chose a venue that allows us to bring our own. I am buying all the liquor at Costco. We are having beer, champagne, and mixed drinks(hard liquor). With a bartender included it looks like it will run about 600-800 for 100 guest.
@mhartnett337: Ouch. I'm afraid to even ask how many people are coming to your wedding :(
We're hosting a beer, wine & soda bar with a few signature drinks and we're paying $60 p/p. This includes our bar for 5 hours, hor d'ourves (2 passed and 2 stationed) and a plated dinner (steak, chicken & veggie option). Our package is normally close to $100 p/p but we're getting an amazing deal because I've had multiple events at our venue. In total our reception is costing about $5000 and I think about $1000 of that is going towards the bar. We're having 75 guests.
We are having an intimate backyard wedding with 50 guests and plan on providing beer, wine, and a signature cocktail and plan on spending less than $1000 since there are about 15 kids in that guest count.
Our venue allowed us to bring our own bartenders and alcohol. The liquor cost around $700, we spent about $100 in supplies, and we paid the bartenders $100 apiece, so right at $1,100. Most venues were about $15/pp for an open bar, though.
Ours was $250 for an open bar for 60 people for five hours. However, we are not a good measure of the cost. The venue owner knows our friends, and knows that they just don't drink much.
i hope 30-40 hope pray n hope i didnt really think it through untill deposit was done and it was too late so now im going along w it lol
Beer and wine were included in our venue package, (not the catering package). Then we paid an extra $8 per person to upgrade to open bar. All in all if we break it down I think it comes out to about $18 per person for FULL open bar.
We found a pretty good deal for our reception. We had two options. We could choose to have the meal for $33/person and pay as we go for alcohol (plus extra for bartenders & security) or we could get the "wedding package" for $43/person. We chose the wedding package. It includes food, alcohol (including glassware, bartenders & security), service charge, cake cutting, etc. So basically ours will be $10/person for 6 hours of open bar. It's about 6 different types of beers, 3 wines, & a large variety of liquors, and all the pop/juices/mixers. At 250 people, we're looking at $2500 total for our open bar.
Well, it posted my comment twice, so this is now a waste of space. =)
Our premium open bar was $38 per person. We had a food and bev minimum to meet so it would have been very difficult to do without open bar. That was for 5 hours open bar.
You must log in to post.
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
| User | Posts Today |
|---|---|
| MissBoPeep | 93 |
| beargoose | 55 |
| ndreighton | 55 |
| hisgoosiegirl | 52 |
| Mrs.KMM | 46 |
| BetterSherm | 42 |
| akp0702 | 41 |
| Beckster329 | 37 |
| stardustintheeyes | 36 |
| MrsPom | 36 |
| User | Posts Today |
|---|---|
| Sassafraskate | 4 |
| BetterSherm | 3 |
| nerdysarah | 3 |
| akp0702 | 2 |
| fishbone | 2 |
| chicky99 | 2 |
| julies1949 | 1 |
| hisbahamamama | 1 |
| KateByDesign | 1 |
| Wonderstruck | 1 |
