Corkage fees

IWantToBeFree_2

I thought places normally charged you corkage by the bottle, but when we have asked our venue today he asked how many were coming and said he would ring me back tomorrow to let me know the cost....

Frustrating because we don't really know how many are coming, 15 weeks to go, we haven't even sent invites yet, never mind having definate numbers in mind.

Anyone got any experience of what places charge? My venues house champagne is £17 a bottle, we don't really want champers, wanted a Cava, and even if it was £5 corkage per bottle we would save over £100 by providing our own!

sarahh112

Hi

We are paying £7.50 a bottle for wine and champagne, but it is still cheaper than paying their prices for booze. A bottle of their house wine is £16:eek:. I will be making the most of the 3 bottles for £10 offer at Asdas and actually buying wine that I like.

sunshinejoclaire

we are incredibly lucky as wine corkage is only 2 pound a bottle at our venue so I was thrilled

Might I suggest winecellar for bottles of wine. they do some cracking deals (even better than Asda 3 for 10!) and its free delivery over 60 pounds

6 bottles of stowells for 16.94! http://www.winecellar.co.uk/this-weeks-specials/mixed-case-deals/stowells-rose-case-of-6-p-1428.html

shelovestobuystuff

My corkage is £4.50 a bottle.The quotes I had from 4 caterers had the corkage varying from £4.50 to £7.50 and one of them(the most exoensive one for everything)also charged £15 corkage for sparkling wine or champagne.

IWantToBeFree_2

They've said £140 for the corkage, but don't know what that is based on because all they asked was how many people (and I said 140!) its unlikely to be that many adults, more like 100... Even at £140 for the corkage, we'd still save over £100 but hoping to knock them down a bit more, I want a per bottle charge.

shelovestobuystuff

IWantToBeFree wrote: »

They've said £140 for the corkage, but don't know what that is based on because all they asked was how many people (and I said 140!) its unlikely to be that many adults, more like 100... Even at £140 for the corkage, we'd still save over £100 but hoping to knock them down a bit more, I want a per bottle charge.

I would agree to the £140 if I were you.If the 100 adult guest drink only 2 glasses of wine(but I think they will drink more) each during the whole event thats 50 bottles at £2.80 corkage a bottle.Thats very cheap for corkage and if they drink more it will work out less per bottle.If you insist on a per bottle price you will probably end up paying more.

IWantToBeFree_2

We aren't providing wine, just fizz for the toast, 100 guests having a drink for the toast would be about 17 bottles and that would mean that its over £8 a bottle for the corkage which seems very high.

Like I say, even with the corkage we would save, but I just feel a bit angry that they are taking the !!!! abit, seen as they know its just for the toast and not wine.

SugarSpun

We paid a flat rate of a hundred for up to 12 bottles, which I thought was fair - except my nightmare venue only opened 5 bottles (giving everyone enough for just a mouthful at the toast instead of two glasses) and attempted to keep the others!

shelovestobuystuff

Sorry I just assumed it was for wine.Some caterers I got quotes from took double their usual corkage for opening champagne.In that case do try to bargain with them or get them to revise it to 100 adults.One of my quotes was for £15 corkage per bottle of champagne or cava:eek: .

Neeny82

My venue charges £8.50 corkage per bottle for wine and £10.50 per bottle for sparkling wine/champagne! Scandalous!!!

bazza9

Corkage prices are mad - we were fortunate in that we only paid £2 per person for ours.

Luckily my (now) father-in-law lives in France, next to a vineyard, so the low corkage did mean we could make a big saving.