Here are some routes you might want to go:
1. Open Bar: An open bar is the most considerate approach but it's also the most expensive. Guests can order whatever they want and you pick up the bill after the wedding.
2. Limited Bar: You can offer only beer, wine and vodka only drinks. A way to limit the cost is to have waiters go around with drinks or limit the time the bar is open. Make sure you have a beverage table with water and tea/lemonade for those who don't drink.
gracious This is a pretty unpopular choice because people don't come to a wedding with a wallet full of cash. It is also pretty controversial. I would steer clear of this.
4. No Bar: You can have fun drinks like pink lemonade and sparkling cider.
5. Jackki's Option: We decided to do beer and sangria. I found and modified a delicious sangria recipe. We are going to have a beverage table with Iced Tea, Pink Lemonade and Lemon/Cucumber Water. Then there will be a bar area with someone making sure no one is going over board and serving the sangria/beer. This way we aren't paying a lot for hard alcohol and we have a fun, fruity and delicious wedding drink. You can also spring for good beer. Since we are also having it in a park we can bring our own and just pay the $12 for liquor permit. I have included my sangria recipe!
This makes enough for 25 people
3 1/2 cups Superfine White Sugar
5 Oranges Thinly Sliced
3 Thinly Sliced Granny Apples
5 Thinly Sliced Lemons
5 Thinly Sliced Limes
4 3/4 cups Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice
9 Bottles of Red Wine
Add some ice cubes to each glass to chill.
You can put the sangria in a dispenser kinda like this :
That way everyone can see all the fruit.We are having a cocktail hour before the recpetion [so we can take pictures] then the bar is going to be closed during the dinner and then open during dancing. This way we can limit the amount people are drinking and save some money.
We decided to spend the extra little money to have a person manning the bar that way we can also make sure it's not a free-for-all. the worst thing would be for one of my friends to be throwing up all over the cake. We are using these cups as well to have decent serving sizes with our going overboard:
Over all cost for our bar is: $350.00
The sangria and beer is $290 and the Wine Glasses are about $60 [from the Dollar Tree]
I love the idea of being able to see all the fruit in the sangria in that dispenser. I think that's a great idea. We ended up choosing to have a limited bar. We'll have X amount behind the bar and our guests can order anything off the drinks menu until our money runs out when FH and I will decide if we want to put more money behind the bar or not. All our guests were given tokens so they know that the bar is only until the money runs out and hopefully will come prepared for that.
ReplyDeleteYeah we were going to do drink tickets so it was limited but the cost didn't fit in our budget. Here is a website that makes custom drink tokens $70 for 500 http://www.ordertokens.com/ that way they can be personalized!
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