If you’re like most brides and grooms, you’ll want to offer your guests a drink or two. But this can quickly add up to a lot of money! Banquet hall managers are often faced with couples on a tight budget asking us to help keep their costs affordable.

Remember that while alcohol prices at a venue can sometimes seem high, there are significant overhead costs to the venue for having alcohol on the premises, such as: the actual alcohol license fee, bail, paying an employee to buy and transport alcohol, security costs for drinks, monthly reports to the alcohol board, cleaning, bartenders, auditing, etc. you understand. These costs are passed on to the customer.

The most common question we get is “can we bring our own alcohol?” Unfortunately, we are prohibited by law from allowing outside alcohol into the banquet hall as it may result in the loss of our state alcohol license. But we have some other solutions for you.

The most expensive way to provide alcohol for your guests is to have an open bar. Costs can add up quickly since there are no limits to the number and types of drinks your guests can order.

Some ideas on how to keep costs down are listed below.

• Negotiate with the banquet hall. In today’s economic environment few places can afford to lose a customer over a few dollars worth of alcohol.
• It offers a limited time open bar before or during the reception. Close it at least 30 minutes before the end of the reception. An hour is even better, as it allows time for the alcohol to wear off before your guests leave.
• Have a themed drink with alcohol. You can find one on your own or let us help you. We can make it the same color as the bridesmaid dresses, match a college color, or match the color of the bedding.
• Serve wine and beer as the only alcoholic drink. And go for the “house” wine, which is usually a cheap wine, and the cheap beers.
• Say the champagne! A lot of people don’t like it and having it on every table just for a toast ends up being a very expensive waste! Let people toast with what they are drinking
• Keep water glasses full and serve a non-alcoholic drink at each table.
• Don’t refill wine glasses at tables, have guests go to the bar to get a refill.
• Do not allow servers to take drinks from tables unless they are completely empty.
• Use a token system where you “buy” a certain number of drink tokens and control the amount and distribution of the tokens
• Have an open bar with a specific dollar limit
• Have a cash bar or have a cash bar after a specific dollar limit
• Choose distilled beverages at a good price. These can be a fraction of the cost of premium brands
• Use combinations of the above.

You can save money on the alcohol component of your wedding celebration. You should discuss these ideas with the venue before signing a contract so that you can lay out all the contractual details in the contract. You can create an inexpensive way to get a little spirited up and still have a wonderful celebration!