Free Bar - How much alcohol do we need? (for 150 guests)

Candles_by_Lisa

It is my sons 21st and my daughters 18th birthday next year and we are having a joing party for them both. I was at a wedding where you were given drinks vouchers to hand in at the bar for a couple of free drinks. I was of the same opinion a free bar and people are going to start ordering doubles etc. I have decided to give out X amount of vouchers and if they use them up they will then need to buy their own after that.

sweetilemon

reformedEffortmaker wrote: »

In part its a cultural thing, in that expecting guests to "put their hands in their pockets" would cause embarrassment to my parents (although we will have to pay for it all ourselves :mad:), and also because we got caught once at a wedding in country houses in the middle of nowhere with no cash machines and a pricey bar and it put a cloud over the evening for most of the guests (invite didnt mention this). I may be going to far in trying to please everyone but I think this might g someway in appeasing people if the food doesnt turn out right or the music is rubbish - if you get what i mean?

Ah I see. So I assume the venue wont be providing the drinks, you will be buying them from the cash & carry / supermarket? Ie, if you run out of free booze, thats it done completely? If it was a hotel bar you could gave given everyone drinks vouchers for the bar so they wouldnt take the p*** as they'll realise they need to pay after.

MILLYMOLLY

Like the other posters have said people will abuse a free bar and some will get very drunk very quickly.

I know girls who drink 2 bottles of wine and spirits and cider in a normal night out:eek:
I would keep the Archers and JD loads of people drink this but I would also get Vodka.

The grand behind the bar is a good idea but again could be eaten up really quickly with people stocking up and others not getting more than one drink.

Tricky situation, Good luck and have a great day:)

lil_miss_insanity

Will you have anyone manning the 'bar'? If so, you could operate a empty-for-full policy whereby people had to bring back an empty glass to get a refill/fresh one?

We're providing bucks fizz (at 1/2 bottle per person) for our 3 hour drinks reception, then on the evening, giving 3 drinks vouchers per guest - we'll then pick up tab at end.

wannabemrs

We are going to be putting a limited amount behind the bar, and doing the drinks voucher idea, which I do think would work well for a free bar too.
I ran a bar for a charity function, and provided far too many options, In future, I would simply have a beer (peroni is seriously popular), wine, gin, an ale, vodka, JD and either malibu or archers.
Soft drink wise, have coke, diet coke, lemonade, lime cordial, tonic & slimline tonic and cartons of orange juice.

I provided rum, whisky, every soft drink imaginable, guiness and southern comfort, and was left with either full bottles (which could be returned) or, more annoyingly, one or 2 shots out of a bottle.

Dekazer

I'm in a bit of a hurry so won't post a very full reply, sorry. I posted in the thread MrsDrink posted - here's an update.

We didn't run dry! In fact, we're still drinking some of our wedding booze. No one got horrifically drunk, no single drink ran out and everyone had a great time. We're lucky to have somewhere to store it all.

We spent £2000 on booze for about 200 people. We were left with a bit of everything but the popular drinks were red wine, pear cider, lager and ale. Not many people drank Guinness, spirits were attacked by a few folk, especially my home made sloe gin and flavoured vodkas, not a lot of white wine got drunk. Nobody bothered with squash - the kids all got well and truly buzzed on cola and orange juice instead.

I was pleased with how it went because I didn't worry at any stage about running dry!

ktb

I think we are planning to supply booze ourselves if possible and I don't think we'll be providing a whole raft of spirits, but that could be because the majority of the people we'll be inviting drink champagne, wine, beer/ale & cider... so we are targeting our specific audience and even if they like JD, rum etc, i'm fairly certain they will won't necessarily miss it. The only exceptions would perhaps be having a small quantity of vodka and my OH's dad loves a good whiskey, so I imagine we will cater for that :beer:

I have been at events where there were too many free options and people started ordering random things like Baileys and shots of tequila for no real good reason, when they would happily have stuck to wine or beer if they were paying. In my experience this can get VERY messy, although the dance floor tends to be busier, if that is what you are after! :rotfl:

I also echo the comments about people ordering drinks and drunkenly abandoning them... this is very common, so I will ensure the glasses/measures arent too huge either to minimise waste.

payless

Are the prices listed in the OP for supply your own?

You should be able to get cheaper ..
random example peroni - @ £1.50 ... whereas surely you can get 12 for £12 max

LEJC

personally I would have not gone with the spirits and increased the other drinks. Cider is very popular nowadays so its worth considering..although the main thing for you to do is stock it with things you know that your friends/family like rather than trying to get everything

What you should make sure you have plenty of are the mixers and soft drinks....plenty of tonic for vodka/gin and plenty of lemonade/coke to mix down the other spirtis....I would opt for large bottles to be used as mixers as it really does work out a lot cheaper than either handing out a can each time or continually opening cans....

I would also perhaps think of some other fruit juices...maybe cranberry or apple as not all non drinkers want to drink either fizzy or water..

something to also not forget is ice....plenty in the glasses will make the drinks go further....

What you dont specify is how many children you are having....jugs of squash might also be something to consider....they can be made up very cheaply and quickly and would be a better and chaper option to additional fizzy drinks or even something like j2o.
Do not underestimate the amount that a child will drink,believe me they can get through gallons of soft drinks!!!!!

I think you are being incredibly genourous to your guests and I hope that it all goes in the "spirit" in which you've intended it...no pun intended....youre very brave to put on such a generous free bar.

One final question....is the bar going to me manned or is it everyone pouring their own drinks

MrsDrink

Just looked on the July thread - this is what we bought for our 50 guests:

6 bottles of Echo Falls Merlot 75cl (red wine)
12 bottles of Echo Falls Chardoney 75cl (white wine)
12 bottles of Echo Falls Pinot Grigio 75ml (white wine)
12 bottles of Echo Falls White Zinfandel 75cl (rose wine)
8 bottles Bulmers Original Cider 568ml
16 Bottles Magners Irish Cider 568ml
16 Bottles Magners Pear Cider 568ml
8 Bottles Bulmers Pear Cider 568ml
20 bottles peroni 330ml
36 bottles corona 330ml
20 bottles of tuborg 275ml
30 bottles of stella 284ml
24 bottles of Grolsch 275ml
24 bottles of becks 275ml

There was LOADS left over - my mum ended up carrying around 13 bottles of wine home with her. We got 8 bottles of each of the following: Coke, Diet Coke, Lemonade and Diet Lemonade - again had loads of them left. All for around £250

I guess we were lucky in that none of our guests took the !!!!. Also I guess we were slightly different in that it wasn't a wedding reception - more of a house party. We didn't provide a disco - so it was more a family get together, sitting around chatting.

Oh and there was a bottle of Southern Comfort and a bottle of Cointreau as they are my tipple

Forgot to say this 'watered' us from 5pm until around 11pm.