Providing a free bar

16 Posts
My son is getting married this summer. They are hiring a venue and are wanting to provide a free bar because the guests are travelling and therefore have additional costs for staying over etc. The venue is happy for them to provide their own booze.
I am looking for ideas as to how some of the costs of providing the alcohol can be recuperated from donations. Can anyone suggest anything other than a bucket on the bar for guests to make a donation for what they drink please?
TIA x :beer:
I am looking for ideas as to how some of the costs of providing the alcohol can be recuperated from donations. Can anyone suggest anything other than a bucket on the bar for guests to make a donation for what they drink please?
TIA x :beer:
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All weddings ive been to you buy your own drinks, or if the hosts are feeling genous, they put some money in the kitty to cover the bar bill, so most people get at least one free drink on arrival
I agree though either it's a free bar or it isn't.....you can't say to people here's a free bar but you need to donate when you have a drink.
The problem I can see with a free bar is that there's a lot of wastage - people only half drinking drinks etc or people don't have any appreciation of how much they're drinking and drinking too much.
It's a nice thought but unless the venue charges stupid prices for drinks I wouldn't worry too much - most people, if they've accepted the invitation, are prepared to suck it up.
If I was in a similar situation I would happily make a token donation to cover all I would drink!
I'm getting married this year and we had a similar dilemma - of course, we want to give people free drinks to a point but our budget would only stretch so far. So we decided upon getting a bar and leaving so much behind for a few rounds + including plenty of bottles of wine on the tables and some cocktails for the start of the reception (we're going to the a cash & carry to get that!). It's a sticky one for a lot of people I think, but as long as people at least get a couple of drinks included I'm sure no one would be too upset. Or at least I'd hope not!
Good luck!
It'll probably cost you less than if you had a free bar with a donations bucket.
I just looked up the cost of a 72-pint barrel of ale, and it's about £120, so that's about £1.67 a pint. I imagine a bar would charge £3.50 a pint, so you'd need to be getting an average donation of over £1.83 a pint for it to be cheaper with the donations bucket.
http://www.ringwoodbrewery.co.uk/contact
Since we're having a city wedding, though, all the caterers seem expensive for their cash bar lists. I'm considering asking if we can subsidise it by 25% or so (£4 pint becomes £3) or something..
I'm seeing very limited bar choices for the cash bar though. But BYOB sounds interesting as an idea. I know plenty of the guests would!