Wedding Costs- Cash Bar or Open Bar?

My brother & SIL just got married in april and were also on a tight budget, they happened to have their reception at a place that had a bar on site which was perfect. we supplied champagne for the toast and free soda/tea/coffee/water and all other drinks guests paid for. and they were totally willing to pay judging by the hangovers the next morning lol.

I've been to 10 weddings in the past 2 years. I can tell you a couple of things:
Weddings without booze need to give people a heads up
Weddings with booze that you pay for will be talked about in a bad way
Weddings with booze that is free will be remembered well even if the guests are drunk enough to forget.

We did beer and wine ( 3 kegs and 60 bottles...big wedding) everything else people had to pay for...Worked out great.

paying for your own in early 20's? hell, your guests are lucky you didn't send them a postcard with a pic from the JOP asking for "we just got married" presents.

Do what make the most financial sense.

I would say to just provide beer and wine, don't even need to have a cash bar, mixed drinks aren't necessary.

Personally, I find cash bar to be tacky, but it truly depends on what traditionally happens with weddings in your family and where you live.

Another option is just to have beer & wine, and no hard liquor at all. Depending on the venue, you probably have some less expensive options! If you're bringing in your own alcohol, you can do it a lot cheaper than if you go through a banquet hall where you have to buy it through them (or pay per head).

My wedding was at a place where they provided a bartender, but you brought you own stuff in. My father in law paid for all the booze, and he was able to return all unused bottles to the store he got them from (most stores will allow this as long as the seal isn't broken).

Edited to add CONGRATULATIONS...and if that's your engagement in your profile picture..that's a very romantic place to propose! Props to your man!

When planning our wedding, I learned this is a really regional thing so you're going to get a MARIAD of opinions.

Where I'm from (NE Wisconsin), we have open beer and cash bar for everything else. We ended up giving our wedding party some "tickets" for other drinks of they wanted, because we knew that not everyone drank beer, and we didn't have them charge our parents.

My brother just got married this past weekend. They payed for it them selves too. One thing they did for the bar was to have it open for the first hour or a dollar amount which ever came first. then after that it was a cash bar. Also it depends on where you have the reception but some places will throw in the champagne and beer.

The ended up having two receptions to allow for different groups of guests to attend. One way they saved money was in place of start your life gifts from the family, they had family members pay for some parts of the day. Like paying for the flowers, splitting the booking rates on the reception halls, and we even had two photographers and video specialist in the family. So it helped cap the total spending to a point.

Hope this helps and congrats.

Troy

Weddings without booze need to give people a heads up
Weddings with booze that you pay for will be talked about in a bad way
Weddings with booze that is free will be remembered well even if the guests are drunk enough to forget.

^ This.

Open bar = better wedding gift from your guests
Cash bar = gift certificate from your guests

Congrats!! I am also recently engaged and my fiance and I are paying for our wedding ourselves at 24 and 27. Depends on where you have the reception for the bar, we found a place that had an open bar option in the dinner price that wasnt too expensive. If you cant find one fairly cheap I would go with beer and wine and the rest cash bar.

Elope. :drinker:

Either open bar or option B.

Guests enjoy free drinks!
Granted, it's YOUR day, and you shouldn't feel the need to be impressing people, but I think everyone would enjoy the celebration of you two getting hitched a lot more if they had free booze.

....or at least, that's what I have planned in the future. Destination wedding with just the 2 of us, giant reception when we come home to friends and family.

Congratulations!!!

Also on your question about how to cut costs. I did a Vegas wedding with just parents and then a reception back home, but for the reception I picked a venue that had everything. We did an appetizer buffet which was more food than most people even wanted for a dinner and then that included a build your own sundae bar so we had no cake (this was a huge hit). I also made sure to pick a venue that had linens and a simple centerpiece so I didn't have to deal with anything like that or chair covers etc. I'm pretty low maintenance when it comes to this stuff though. I also used Etsy for things such as my flowers which were cheaper than a florist would have been and I get to keep them forever. I managed to get a HUGE bang for my buck because I didn't think it was worth it to spend loads of money on the wedding

You could have a "Cocktail Hour" with open bar for a period of time and then cash bar after that. I've been to weddings with all variations and have never been offended to pay for drinks. I would think your friends and family would under stand limited budget.