Open bar? Yay or Nay?

The average person spends £60 a night, times that with how many guests so for example for me it would of been 84 x 60 = £5040. I don't think an open bar is necessary. If you've got cash to splash then go for it but it's definitely not something I'd have.

We chose not to have open bar. Both our families are drinkers so we knew the bill would be very high 😂 They all had drinks with their meals and welcome drinks too and thought that was enough freebies 😂

If you can afford it, great, but if not, it’s really not as big a deal as some people make it. My husband and I couldn’t afford to pay for an open bar as they can get very expensive and we’d worked really hard to stick to a small budget. We had an amazing day, and had nothing but compliments and no one even asked if it was a free bar - I think it’s now a little outdated to expect the bride and groom to pay for your drinks all night, I never expect it as a guest, every one of our guests bought cash and card to use at the bar - and thank goodness because there was A LOT of very jolly people by the end of the evening, I dread to think of what the bill would’ve been 😂😂😂😂

We had an open bar but we were allowed to stock the bar ourselves.
We went to bookers and bought the suggested amount which cost us a total of £1200.
We still came home with a shed load of booze.
See if that is an option at your venue.

We put £1500 behind the bar for limited drinks. Beers, since and singles and soft drinks. Along with reception drinks and table wine. We had 130 guests (children and adults) if people wanted to purchase the drinks they could and guests had to buy their own shots, doubles and bottles of wine. We even got money back after the wedding, about £200 I think.

Never do a free ba5 as people will get drinks and not drink the. Do a reception drink with top ups and 2 or 3 choices. Tell the place people can have to a certain price and they will work out how many bottles of each egg. But I have always seen drink go to waste from a free bar x

We got married 2 days ago and had an open bar. We knew what our guests are like and that no one would take the mickey. We underestimated the the bar bill in our budged by £5.65. I think that if you invite people you should pay for food and drink, however I think that for the evening the rules can be more relaxed and to ask people to pay for their drinks is not the end of the world (especially if there is food going around).

Find a bar company that won’t charge you, that’s what we’re doing. “Add to event” was quite useful in that respect. Got loads of quotes and then found one that didn’t pass any cost on to us at all

We're having drinks and canapes after the ceremony for everyone; half a bottle of wine per person during the breakfast (so between 1 - 2 glasses per person), and champagne for the toasts. That's 3 free drinks (possibly 4) per person, along with a three course meal, an evening buffet, and cake for everyone, at not cost for them. Some of our friends/family are big drinkers as well - anything they want on top of that, they can pay for themselves! 😂

Absolutely not 😂 I've personally never expected a free bar at a wedding. We are doing a choice of 3 welcome drinks, 2 bottles of wine per table with the meal and then people can pay for themselves after that... It's expensive enough as it is xx (oh and Champagne for the speeches and toasts!)

Everyone had drinks immediately after the ceremony and, again, during the wedding breakfast. Leftover open wines were brought down to the bar afterwards. We gave evening guests a token for "one drink on us" but, other than that, guests paid for their drinks :-)

We had an open bar, 150-200 people, our bill came out at about 6k including all the table drinks and canapé drinks. You do also need to judge your audience and decide what you want to include. We only had beer, wine, single shot spirits and soft drinks included. I knew of one wedding where anything was available and the guests took the mick and started taking bottles of champagne.

We have arrival drinks & toasting drinks but apart from that, we aren’t paying over £1000 (a hell of a lot more for an open bar!) for extra alcohol when our family and friends are happy to pay for their own other drinks! 😊 I really don’t mind paying for my very own drinks at a wedding. If anyone is offended then don’t come haha, it costs £100 per head for everything else! So if they want other drinks apart from their arrival and toasting drinks then the bar is round the corner 😃 xxx

We didn't. We had champagne on arrival. And for toast and 2 glasses of wine through meal. Our venue wouldn't allow us to provide alcohol as there was a large corkage fee. I saw what ppl drank that night (I was sober as 6 months preg) and I would have needed a new mortgage to cover that expense

we are not having an open bar, we have some money behind the bar in the day and some for the evning and then wine for tables and prosseco for speeches, other than that people can buy drinks and we are stickin g to beer, wine and cider for the tab as well so people will have plenty I think.

No not an open bar, we are having welcome drinks, and champagne or something like it for toasts, but for the wedding breakfast I’m having 2 tokens each meaning 2 free drinks and putting around £1000 behind the bar different colour tokens to differentiate between adults and children. As not everyone likes wine. X

We supplied our own wine and paid corkage (which isn't cheap) but our venue were crafty and wouldn't allow the wine to be put out for guests to serve themselves as they had waiter service they promised they would continuously offer and top people up. But instead they told our guests there was none left so they'd buy their own drinks. Must've had 250 bottles left at the end, which they then tried to hide hoping we would leave it behind (we put personal wine labels on so found them). Wasn't impressed.

Becky Hughes could you imagine my tab 🤣🤣

Personally we are just doing drinks with the meal/toast and hopefully welcome drinks depending on our budget. But this is just because we are doing it all on our own so unless we have the funds we're not stressing over it.

Definitely Not!

I think if you do an open bar it's all or nothing! We are doing drinks on arrival then pay for your own. If you just put some couple of hundred behind the bar and a few people order double spirits it might not even get everyone a drink... so I think be willing to cover everyone's drinking for the night or let them pay for their own. ... you paying for their food after all, what more do they want lol!😆

God no our families would drink the bar dry could you image Emily

I think this will differ widely depending on the venue. Rather than an open bar we had bottles of spirits on each table (corkage charge) we also had a glass of wine with each course, a glass of champagne for a toast and an arrival cocktail. Oh and a shot as a favour. I found this round about the right amount for everyone to have a good time yet no trouble to be caused x

I wouldn't.People get silly,and they leave half drunk glasses lying around,I don't really think open bar is UK culture anyway (certainly not where I am).Welcome drinks,glass or 2 with the meal and a toast is all you're expected to supply anyway

I went to a wedding where you got given 2 raffle tickets
Which = 1 free drink per ticket

Plus the wine that was on the table in the day

Not

Not - it encourages waste and drunkeness