Post # 1
Member
544 posts
Busy bee
I just hypervenalated when I received the price of kids drink packages for the wedding…
Full bar (beer, wine, liquor) is $15.95/person. The venue didn’t list a kids price, and when I emailed her she said she could do kids for $10.95/person.
Seriously?? For soda?? Even cruise lines don’t charge that for all-day soda.
For those who had/will have kids at their reception, how much did you pay?
A little back story — our venue is just becoming a “real” wedding venue, and when we signed the contract we were talking about purchasing beer by the keg and wine by the bottle and she would throw soda and iced tea in for free….now it’s all changed two months before the wedding.
Thanks!
Post # 3
Member
1902 posts
Buzzing bee
Did you sign a contract before they changed their prices? If so, have a look through the fine print and see if they are allowed to change the packages like that – most venues I’ve spoken with her (Australia) say that the price they offer you when you sign the contract is the price you’ll pay on the day (unless there are certain conditions, spelled out in the contract).
Maybe just tell her you’ll bring in kids drinks yourself? I’m guessing all you’ll need is a jug of soft drink on the table (maybe two or three depending on the number of kids), so $10.95 per child is pretty steep! Also keep in mind that the kids should be drinking a bit of water too, which is usually free.
Post # 4
Member
4356 posts
Honey bee
That sounds like way too much but I don’t know what the standard is. I think a gallon of soda is like less than $1 cost price for the syrup.
What does your contract say. I’d be pissed they dumped this on you last minute, especially if it was all going to be free before. Sounds like they don’t know what they’re doing now they’re movingf to become a “real” venue!
Post # 5
Member
544 posts
Busy bee
@ladyartichoke: The contract says nothing about the bar…that’s the problem. She kept pushing it off saying that once I decided what I wanted we could discuss prices. I told her I wanted 2 kegs and some white and red wines and then soda and iced tea…to which she said she’d get me the prices. Now, two months of no phone calls later, she comes out with these package prices. I had to ask directly about children’s prices b/c they weren’t listed anywhere on the package sheet.
Everything has been going so right, I knew something inevitably would happen to annoy me.
My fiance is going to stop over after work tomorrow and talk to her himself…he’s annoyed that everything she gave us her “word” on is now being turned around.
Post # 6
Member
4356 posts
Honey bee
@kimberlyr22: That sucks. I wonder if there are any lawyer bees who know about contracts?
I don’t know what you’ve said already but personally I’d be inclined to go back to them and tell them the price point isn’t acceptable. It wasn’t in your contract in the first place, and she’s telling you last minute. I guess you can say that had you known there would be a charge for soft drinks you would have re thought the venue, especially since she said they would be included. That’s a verbal contract. And when they changed the goalposts you had to check since she didn’t give you the prices! I don’t think you can go from included to $10.95. It just seems outrageous. I think because of this mess it should go back to free but that’s just me. As the PP said, perhaps take your own drinks.
Sorry you’re going through this. And sorry I’m not much help.
Post # 7
Member
544 posts
Busy bee
bump…
looking for some more prices for kids drink packages so I can figure out what dollar amount we are going to counter with…
Thanks!
Post # 8
Member
6394 posts
Bee Keeper
Our venue didn’t have kids’ drink packages, but they had a non-alcohol option that included soda and tea, and it was almost as much as the alcohol package. I think it was around $10 per person, and beer and wine was $11 and the full thing was about $13? It might not be exactly right, but it’s close.
When we asked about it, they said it was because they would still have to have someone staffing the bar to pour the sodas.
Post # 9
Member
3618 posts
Sugar bee
Our non alcoholic drink package was $17 dollars a person for 5 hours. So that’s how much all the kids were.
Post # 10
Member
9139 posts
Buzzing Beekeeper
- Wedding: November 2013 - St. Augustine Beach, FL
Cruise lines due $6 per person per day and that’s for all day soda. Maybe counter with that?
Post # 11
Member
3697 posts
Sugar bee
I don’t have a “kid’s drink package” price for you, unfortunately (never heard of such a thing – and the title of the thread did make me chuckle a bit because of the mental picture it conjured up!
What I would suggest, though, is to go to them and say something along the lines of, “this is not what we had discussed at our earlier meetings. Although we didn’t get into details at the time, you gave us the impression that we could do (fill in details here – and if you have any documentation related to the conversation, this would be a good time to trot it out as a reminder). We understand that you are in the process of upgrading your services as a wedding venue and that this will be your policy going forward, but because we signed our contract before this policy was in place, we would like you to honor the verbal commitment you made at that time and not retroactively apply this pricing structure.”
FWIW: our venue is requiring us to purchase alcohol through them rather than supplying our own (grrr) but they are being quite flexible as to how we do it. We are going to host the wine and beer, and make other drinks available on a cash basis. We are also pre-establishing the dollar amount of beer & wine, and if consumption exceeds that (fingers crossed that it won’t), it will roll over to a cash bar. We are still debating what to do about sodas for the kids and non-drinkers, because the soda price at our venue is also wildly inflated (I think it was $2.50 for an 8 oz. plastic cup!). We may opt for drink tickets just for soda, so that we can control how much we are on the hook for. Not sure if that’s useful to you or not, but it’s a thought.
Post # 12
Member
4192 posts
Honey bee
- Wedding: July 2012 - Baltimore Museum of Industry
OP- can you BYOB? We brought everything but the ice and bar fruit.
Post # 13
Member
544 posts
Busy bee
We can’t. Unfortunately this whole mess got started b/c our venue is moving from an exclusive caterer to an ala carte type of venue. Aka – we can pick our own caterer now.
In the past they had the bar contracted through a catering company. When we signed the contract we were told they were no longer going to be using them, and all alcohol would be purchased through the golf club ($130/keg, wine priced by the bottle, etc) and soda/iced tea/bartender, etc would be included in the price of the venue. Unfortunately, while they’ve transitioned most of the way to being self sufficient, they have now decided to keep the company that caters the bar and have thrown these packages at us with 2.5 months left before the wedding. And none of the keg prices, soda/bartender included, were specifically worded out in the contract we signed.
So while we took our venue POC’s word on this (while trying to get her to put it in writing), it is now backfiring, and my $500-$700 drink budget is coming in at actuals of $1500.
Post # 14
Member
7901 posts
Bumble Beekeeper
- Wedding: March 2012 - Pelican Grand Beach Resort
We had to pay the same $55 for the kids ans for the adults except for the 2 really young kids.
Post # 15
Member
635 posts
Busy bee
Ours is $4 for underage guests and $30 for 5 hour full open bar.
Post # 16
Member
3625 posts
Sugar bee
We didn’t have a “kids drink” package persay but we did purchase a soft bar (soft drinks, juices, cherries, lemons, water) package for all the guests and we provided the extra alcohol ourselves since our venue allowed BYOB (as long as we used a licensed bartender). We used one of the pricier/higher quality catering companies in the area and even then, it was $7/person for just the soft bar alone. With this in mind, I think $11/person for a soft bar is ridiculous. Our $7 included standard mixers and ingredients for our alcoholic cocktails too and everything was served in glass. They threw in lemonade and water pre-ceremony (also available the rest of the night) at a standalone station for free.
This is excluding the cost of the bartender/bar equipment (we had a blank canvas venue).
