Wine & Beer-better to add per person or by consumption?

I've posted a while back along these lines, but didn't get much response. We're doing a Sunday brunch and want to add wine and beer, but the hall wants to add $15pp to the pp charge for that. Do you think it would be cheaper to just do it by consumption? If I add the pp charge it works out to about $1200. I was also thinking of just putting a bottle of red and white on each table.

Re: Wine & Beer-better to add per person or by consumption?

do anything other than consumption.

My cousin just got zapped with an $800 bar bill at her son's Christening and she was doing wine and beer. And, NOT a lot of people were drinking. The problem is that if you pay per consumption, you can never PROVE that the hall is overcharging you.

Re: Wine & Beer-better to add per person or by consumption?

I would pay the $1200. It looks like you're having about 80 and $15 per person works out to about 2/3 drinks for each of them. Some people drink way more and some don't drink at all.
Also, I agree with Suven - you won't be able to prove if they are overcharging you or not.

Re: Wine & Beer-better to add per person or by consumption?

Since it's for a brunch, it might be better to do it by consumption. We had an event once where we had full open bar and nobody used it. My FH is a bartender and he recommends by consumption.

Re: Wine & Beer-better to add per person or by consumption?

I would do the $15 p.p. Most places charge around $7 for a glass of wine and $5+ for a beer. It will be well worth it. Try to cut costs somewhere else.

Re: Wine & Beer-better to add per person or by consumption?

Sorry, I misread, for wine and beer it's best to pay the flat fee per person, mixed drinks it's better to do by consumption.

Re: Wine & Beer-better to add per person or by consumption?

I just had this conversation with my brother who is in the business about my RD. He said to look at your audience and figure out who will drink what. For example, my mom drinks wine, his mom doesn't drink, my BIL drinks enough beer for 3. Calculate what you think they will drink in the allotted amount of time, multiply by $5 or $6 (the average price of beer, wine, soda, & mixed drinks). That will give you a rough estimate of the cost of paying by consumption. Compare that to the cost of $15 per head (which translates into consumption price of 3 drinks per person). Go with whatever is cheaper. In our case for RD, we are doing by consumption, but for reception we did open bar.