You want to host a fabulous party that your wedding guests will long remember. Unless your budget is “out of this world”, you will want (or need) to manage expenses somewhere. An open bar with top label wine and liquor can quickly deep six a budget, but that doesn’t need to happen. Consider your bar as a possible place to save. These money saving tips for your wedding bar are easy to implement.
11 Money Saving Tips For Your Wedding Bar
1. Skip the top shelf liquors and go with house brands instead.
2. Skip the champagne toast and let your guests drink what they are already drinking.
3. If you want to use top shelf liquors for your guest’s drink, just limit the bar menu. Keep the options to a minimum.
4. Keep it simple. Skip mixed drinks that require a variety of liquors.
5. Don’t offer shots.
6. Close the bar an hour before the end of the party.
7. If you can bring in your own alcohol, purchase from a retailer that offers a discount if purchased by the case.
8. If your event is being held at a hotel or restaurant, ask the manager about any leftover bottles of wine that they may have in storage. Some may even be vintages and you can save up to 50% off.
9. Offer unique non-alcoholic drinks as well. Serve flavored seltzers or flavored sodas in festive glassware. You can dress them up with fruit twists and fun swizzle sticks.
10. If possible, negotiate corkage fees out of your contract. Not all venues will agree to remove this fee, but it can’t hurt to ask.
11. If your event is at a hotel, and you will be staying there, arrange for all opened bottles of wine to be corked and brought to your hotel room for the after party if you plan one.
Not sure what is a reasonable price for a bottle of wine? Check out this article The Average Price of Wine in Every State for a breakdown.
Hearts, Joy, Love!
Jean
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Weddings From The Heart can help. Contact me today at [email protected] or by phone or text at 937-581-3647!
If you are putting a free bar on for any length of time I would also advise talking with the bar management about limiting drinks. I was at one event were a young man filled his pockets with as many bottles of lager as he could, I counted at least 15!
Hi Jason,
That’s an excellent tip. While something like this is probably rare, it obviously can happen. Thanks for sharing.