I am getting married not in a hall but more of a restaurant and I have the choice of either doing a cash bar of $6 per drink(my FH and I would pay for it of course) or a open bar at $26 per head. We have 220 guests and I would say there is about a 30-40 person drinking crowd and the rest are typical wedding guest drinkers then old people and kids. If I do the open bar at $26 per head, 20% will automatically be added to the total. If we do the cash at $6 per drink, we can give what we want for a tip. Has anyone had experience with a cash bar before at their wedding? Our wedding is on a Saturday night in June on the beach and many people are staying at the hotel where we are getting married including both our families and our entire wedding party. We are trying to save a few dollars(aren't we all) and thought maybe the cash bar would work in our favor but am not positive. We had a Saturday Day engagement party in May last year and we did cash bar for 125 people at $5 per drink and we only ended up with a $1500 bar tab. 2/3rds of the guests came from out of town and had to drive home. Thank!
LO13LO13
Posted:
Member since
Re: opinions... cash bar or fixed price?
if alot of people are staying and the wedding is at night people will probably drink more, i would go for the open bar, IMO
AnniesSS
Posted:
Member since
Re: opinions... cash bar or fixed price?
I would do open bar... if you did cash, how would they accurately keep track of all the people drinking all night? That would worry me.
BlondeJD
Posted:
Member since
Re: opinions... cash bar or fixed price?
Posted by AnniesSS
I would do open bar... if you did cash, how would they accurately keep track of all the people drinking all night? That would worry me.
I agree. I think if you want to do the math on it, the 'non-drinking crowd' will probably still have at least 1-2 glasses of wine during dinner. Maybe an additional glass during the cocktail hour. The drinkers, especially if they don't have to drive, might have 6-7 drinks during the course of the night.
nov2004bride
Posted:
Member since
Re: opinions... cash bar or fixed price?
No cash bar!!!
lishbone
Posted:
Member since
Re: opinions... cash bar or fixed price?
i wouldnt do a cash bar...you never know about the bartenders..they could be adding drinks to your tab that werent even ordered..i dont trust anyone to control my money.. i would rather have a set price..jmo
akaMrsT
Posted:
Member since
Re: opinions... cash bar or fixed price?
Posted by rcheltrvel
Hi,
I am getting married not in a hall but more of a restaurant and I have the choice of either doing a cash bar of $6 per drink(my FH and I would pay for it of course) or a open bar at $26 per head. We have 220 guests and I would say there is about a 30-40 person drinking crowd and the rest are typical wedding guest drinkers then old people and kids. If I do the open bar at $26 per head, 20% will automatically be added to the total. If we do the cash at $6 per drink, we can give what we want for a tip. Has anyone had experience with a cash bar before at their wedding? Our wedding is on a Saturday night in June on the beach and many people are staying at the hotel where we are getting married including both our families and our entire wedding party. We are trying to save a few dollars(aren't we all) and thought maybe the cash bar would work in our favor but am not positive. We had a Saturday Day engagement party in May last year and we did cash bar for 125 people at $5 per drink and we only ended up with a $1500 bar tab. 2/3rds of the guests came from out of town and had to drive home. Thank!
I was in this same predicament when we were considering VA for our wedding. However, the open bar was only $12 pp.
What you will need to consider, including if you trust that the tab will be accurate is how many people will actually drink. I had a color coded list with the drinkers in bold/green. LOL
If you pay $26 pp for all 220 guests you are getting jipped if the children (under 21) are included. They can't drink liquor anyway and no kid can drink $26 worth of fountain soda since it's like 2 cents worth of syrup per serving.
So, the real question is can you save by choosing the 'consumption bar' where you & FH pay the tab at the end of the night.
Assuming 220 guests of 21+ year old adults, you will spend $6864 for the liquor ($26 pp plus 20%).
That comes out to 1144 drinks at $6 each (using the consumption bar price). So each person (again assuming 220 of age adults) will have to drink 5.2 alcoholic drinks each.
You have to figure out if your family & friends will really drink 5.2 drinks each (or more). If they drink 6 - 7 drinks each, you make out by choosing the $26pp. If they have to drive home that night, they likely won't drink as much as those staying at the hotel. You must also consider that some drinkers may stay in a friend or family members room and just drive home early in the morning - so they may drink a little more than if they had to drive home.
I have friends who do not drink at all and I plan to invite various clergy members that I know will not drink. So, it all depends on your crowd.
Also, if they know you and FH are paying the tab, some people may restrain themselves if they are normally big drinkers.
Another option - I attended a wedding at Fox Hollow a while back and there was a sign at the bar saying that the bride & groom were hosting a wine & champagne bar during cocktail hour. If the guests wanted anything else they had to buy it.
BriBri529
Posted:
Member since
Re: opinions... cash bar or fixed price?
I think that the right thing to do is have an open bar . . .
dpli
Posted:
Member since
Re: opinions... cash bar or fixed price?
I would just pay the pp price for a few reasons. First, as it was mentioned before, you have no way of keeping track of how many drinks people will have, so they may end up charging you the same amount anyway.
Second, you can't really guess ahead of time how many people will drink vs. how many won't. Normally, I am not a big drinker, but I do drink more at weddings, since it is a party and an occasional indulgence. My friends would probably underestimate what I would drink, and possibly others who are guests at the wedding. If you know you have a large # of people who don't drink, than perhaps that is a different story. I think most people who attend a NY wedding expect to drink.
Third, I think it would be extremely tacky to tell your guests that you are paying for drinks individually, so they restrain themselves. Unless you are making them pay for their own drinks (which I also wouldn't do...) they should have no knowledge about how you set up payment with the hall, that is between you and the hall. I think that if you are having a party, you provide the food and drink and your guests should not feel like it is their responsibility to save you money. If you want to save $ on the bar, maybe you could do beer, wine and soda and negotiate a lower price for that per person.
rcheltrvel
Posted:
Member since
Re: opinions... cash bar or fixed price?
Thank you everyone for all your comments. The conscience seems to be for the open bar, I think I will opt for the open bar. Thanks again!
JessicaM.
Posted:
Member since
Re: opinions... cash bar or fixed price?
perhaps you can split it up....
pay $26 pp for all adults 21 +
then have them charge you for non-alcoholic drinks at the end of the night....this way you don't pay $26 for the kids.....not sure if they will allow it...$26 seems very high for open bar.
another option is to have it limited. perhaps if you limit the bar to wine & martinis or something like that, they will lower the price for you.
Good luck
SomethingBlu
Posted:
Member since
Re: opinions... cash bar or fixed price?
I normally would go for open bar, but if your guests are not big drinkers and you are trying to save cash, the cash bar doesn't sound bad. And based on Kdrainey's calculations, it has to be a lot cheaper! My sister had a cash bar at her wedding, also in a restaurant, and they did a good job of keeping tabs on the drinks. Another question to asxk is if hte $6 per drink price applies to shots also, generally they are more expensive and the whole point of doing cash or open bar is to not have the guests know that there are any restrictions (since that could leave them feling uncomfortable). Have you tried bargaining to see if they would lower the pp price?
You're in a tough spot either way, I hope you find the best solution for you.
rcheltrvel
Posted:
Member since
Re: opinions... cash bar or fixed price?
The price of the drinks has already been bargined down from $9-$10 per drink. We are getting married in the Hamptons. If we did cash bar we would never tell our guests, as far as they are concerened it is a normal NY wedding with open bar. I forgot to mention, what happened at our engagement party with the cash bar was it was supposed to be around $3000 for the cash bar but ended up $1500 because the waiters and bar got so busy, they forgot to write down drinks. I think we got our bill cut in half for this reason.
july06bride
Posted:
Member since
Re: opinions... cash bar or fixed price?
I would do fixed price bar- if at night where people will drink more
akaMrsT
Posted:
Member since
Re: opinions... cash bar or fixed price?
Posted by rcheltrvel
Thank you everyone for all your comments. The conscience seems to be for the open bar, I think I will opt for the open bar. Thanks again!
That's how we came out too after all the haggling and making a color coded list. Had we gone with VA, we were getting open bar only for the adults. Make sure they don't charge you $26 pp for guests under 21.
buggiegirl
Posted:
Member since
Re: opinions... cash bar or fixed price?
We are doing beer wine and champagne only (and soft drinks, of course.) We are trying to keep the budget down and this was a good compromise.
jantany26
Posted:
Member since
Re: opinions... cash bar or fixed price?
Definitely not cash bar.
nylibride
Posted:
Member since
Re: opinions... cash bar or fixed price?
Do you necessarily have to hedge your bets? The place is still going to serve the alcohol either way. Maybe you can bargain with them and tell them you would prefer the per drink (cash bar) option if it will be less expensive. If the amount totals the pp rate of $26 dollars or greater, then agree you'd pay the pp rate.
My general point is, they have to serve the same amount of alcohol, the same quality, etc..either way. Why not ask if they can't be flexible about how they charge for it if both are options? I don't know if they'll do it, but why pay more for the same exact thing if there are options?? ((Hope that made any sense...))
ChrissynRicky
Posted:
Member since
Re: opinions... cash bar or fixed price?
Definitely the Open Bar.
Mrs. dleeny
Posted:
Member since
Re: opinions... cash bar or fixed price?
FH and I started out our planning by looking at restaurants as well. We thought that the $25-$30 per head additional fee for open bar was INSANE!
That being said, keep in mind that people who don’t normally drink will drink at a wedding. it’s a happy occasion after all. My family doesn’t drink at all, but they do at weddings… just something you may want to consider.
