Your Wedding Bar and How to Swing It

Ah, yes the bar at your wedding. The thought  alone, brings a smile to your face. It’s the place where the party gets pumped up, where the corks are popped and the glasses clinked. It’s where your groomsmen can be found at any time during your wedding, and where a chunk of your reception budget is going to go, too. 

Oops! Frowning

 But let’s take a look at that, shall we? We’ll start with the basic premise that you want a hosted (“open”) bar at your wedding, which means you pay for the booze and your guests don’t have to spend a dime. When you’re throwing a party, you don’t make your guests pay for their drinks. We’ll talk budget friendly tweaks in a minute, though. 


 So, hosted bar. Logistics are usually managed by either your venue or your caterer, so start there. Can you bring in your own alcohol? This can be a god-send for your budget and for your joy level. Two reasons: You get to serve your favorites, for one, and you can control how much gets served, for another.  If you live in California, you CAN’T return unopened bottles, however, so keep that in mind. if you do end up with leftover bottles, make sure you grab enough to keep your liquor cabinet stocked for a while, and then give the rest away at the end of the night. If you’re not in California, call your local liquor store and ask what’s possible. 

How much alcohol are you going to need? Here’s a great wedding bar list to get started. You can get four glasses out of one wine bottle, think at least 2-3 glasses per person. You can’t charge for drinks, but you can limit the alcohol.  You can host a “full”  bar, where your guests can order whatever they want in terms of alcohol and cocktails, or a “limited” bar with a list of choices. 

Either way, post a menu on the bar,  so your guests know what’s available. Limited bars can be really fun – I had one couple who created their own specialty cocktail, which they served with wine and beer. And, speaking of bear, last year another one of my couples brought in cases from their favorite brewery in Michigan. And remember: It doesn’t matter if your wine is “two buck chuck” as long as it tastes good. Slap on a custom label and no one would be the wiser! Some of the best wine I’ve ever had cost less than $10. Don’t forget about sodas and water, too. Oh, Lord, and ice – 2.5 lbs per person, which will also cover any bottles (wine, beer, sodas) that need to be chilled. If you don’t have room in your fridge or car to bring that over (you don’t), get it delivered. It’s less expensive than you think. 

 What if you can’t bring in your own alcohol? Wedding venues and caterers also offer full and limited bar packages,too, which usually cover up to 4 hours of service. Which is where the panic sets in. Four hours? How are you supposed to keep a good party going if alcohol is only going to be served for four hours?? 

Well, hang on a second. Say your wedding goes from 5 – 11pm. So, ceremony from 5-5:30, and alcohol doesn’t get served until the Cocktail hour at 5:30pm, so from from 5:30-10:00pm. No, no, chill. Your wedding ends at 11pm, yes, but you’ll  want to shut down the bar about an hour – 10:00pm – before your reception ends, so people can sober up a little bit before they have to drive home. Plus, everyone is free to get as many drinks as they can carry before the bar closes, they just can’t get anything after it closes. 


If you still don’t feel like that’s enough time, many venues offer two options  – an extra hour for x amount of money, or drinks based on consumption. Consumption? That means that you agree to put down a certain amount of money for the bar, and once that is used up per-drink, the bar is automatically closed, OR you can pay more money at that time to keep it open. Ask about it. 

 Finally a parting gift. A few years ago, I held a wedding budget class called The Recession Bride’s Workshop. To get you started, here’s a recipe for the Recession Bride’s Cocktail, created for me by Deana Deacon of 701 Cocktail Kitchen. It has the maximum amount of yummy with the minimum amount of money spent on ingredients, and you can subtract the non-alcohol elements and it’s still awesome. Feel free to call it something else when you serve it at your wedding:

muddle then add:

  • 1oz citrus vodka
  • squeeze of fresh lemon

add ice to shaker
Shake for 20 seconds
strain into martini glass
garnish with lemon sorbet ball
 

Enjoy! 

See you at the end of the aisle, 
Liz

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