Drinks for guests

nat82

I just wondered what everyone is doing with regards to providing drinks for your guests?

Our venue has suggested these options, with a combination of some or all:-

Drinks for guests after the ceremony (before the meal) ie sparkling wine

A drink of their choice for each guest for the toast (these would range from soft drinks to alcoholic one's with us only being charged for what is ordered) OR sparkling wine (we're too MSE to give them champers!!!!)

Wine on the table (£15 a bottle so £30 for a bottle of white and red for roughly 8 tables plus the top table = at least £270)

We really are on a budget as we are paying for the wedding by ourselves but don't want to appear 'tight' to our guests!!!!

Any suggestions?

picklepick

could you ask the venue if they would let you provide your own wine for the guests?

aimee21j

Agreed...that seems like a lot for a bottle of wine.They will probably charge corkage though if you take your own.

Leopardlady

Try to see if they will let you take your own drinks, then you could get the drinks from france, on a booze cruise, or a supermarket when they have offers on.

We provided: pimms as a welcome drink, half a bottle of wine per adult guest on the tables and sparkling cava for the speaches, our venue was not cheap, but they were the only place in the area that coul suite what we needed. Everyone seemed more than happy with what we provided and no one grumbled that they had to pay for the rest of their drinks.

I hope this helps.

*Louise*

Our venue has a drinks option of about £8.95 a head for Bucks fizz on arrival at the reception, glass of wine with the meal and sparkling wine for the toasts.

After that I know my guests won't mind buying their own drinks from the bar.

snugglepants

I agree....we're paying £30 corkage.

We're providing sparkling wine for the welcome drinks, and wine and beer with the meal.

See what they say for corkage, but if it's per bottle then negotiate a flat rate!! Tell them you're buying some of the alcohol from them anyway plus the guests will be buying drinks after the meal anyway! (from the sounds of it?) £15 is excessive per bottle, especially when you can either get 3 for £10 at supermarkets (plus 5% discount on 6 or more bottles) or go for some fancier wine at half price on offer, and prob get at LEAST 2 for the price they're charging per bottle (if you want to go really fancy!)

HTH

aimee21j

£30 corkage!???? Is that a bottle? Our's is £5 a bottle but the wine from the venue starts at £8 a bottle so we will probably have that.

snugglepants

LOL no - £30 flat rate! I be having no per bottle nonsense!!!! Venue I really liked was £5 corkage (PLUS TAX) per bottle! Nonsense.

deborahmcgeachy

hey there i hope this suggestion goes down well for you, for my wedding we were looking to pay corkage and serve up this sparkling wine
http://www.asda.com/asda_shop/rc04_products/web_rc04_b_products_detail.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0311783760.1233601759@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccgadegfkfglhhcfkfcfkjdgoodgln.0&product_id=2702879&from_panels=&trolley_page=/rc03_trolley/web_rc03_a_trolley_body.jsp&item_status=I&on_promo=

at that price plus corkage you cant go wrong and because its so cheap (and its a magnum) you can 'test' it yourself and have family try it to. My friend owns a limo and uses it as their 'free' bottle of bubbly!!!!!!

*starla*

We're having a drink of choice after the reception (red/white wine, beer) and then sparkling wine for the toast. We're not putting any wine on the table. A lot of our guests drink beer, so either they don't get any drink provided with the meal but those who drink wine do, or they drink wine but would probably get themselves a beer in anyway so get drunk way too quickly. Also it's saving us a fair bit of money and I don't think anyone will mind.

aimee21j

snugglepants wrote: »

LOL no - £30 flat rate! I be having no per bottle nonsense!!!! Venue I really liked was £5 corkage (PLUS TAX) per bottle! Nonsense.

Phew!!! Champagne etc is not being charged corkage on at our venue luckily.