I am getting married next summer and my FH and I have decided to have a toonie bar. We live in Alberta and every wedding I've been to in this area has had a toonie bar so I really do not want to hear how rude it is for guests to pay for drinks. While I would like to host an open bar, it is just not remotely possible within our budget. I also realize we could choose not to serve alcohol, but both our families and friends like to drink and we are sure they will not be bothered by having to pay for their own drinks at a price of $2. This is not a ploy to make money off our guests or anything like that, but we are young and paying for the wedding ourselves so we are limited. We are planning on having soda, juice and water available for no cost to everyone, as well as providing a few bottles of wine for each table for toasting and dinner. My question is to people who have had toonie bars, how much should I budget for alcohol since only $2 a drink will be covered by the guests? We are having roughly 100 guests over age 18 and the vast majority of them do drink alcohol.How much will a toonie bar cost me at my wedding?You know your guests best, think of how many drinks you and your friends would drink during a night of 'hanging out' does everyone have 2, 3, 4 drinks or more? Multiply by how many guests. That's how many drinks you'll need
As for cost, where are you hosting? How much will the drinks cost you? At my venue drinks are $4.50, so a toonie bar option would cost me $2.50/drink...times the number of drinks = cost of toonie bar.
Hope this can help a little...it all depends on how many drinks each person will drink, and the best way to think of that is think how many the group would drink on a regular night
Also worth considering may be a ticket bar, where you provide guests with one or two drink tickets which you pay for, then after that the guests pay for the drinks. Its really easy to budget for because you are controlling just how many drinks you will end up paying for.How much will a toonie bar cost me at my wedding?I would suggest you have your reception in a hall were the bar/liquor license/liquor and bartender are provided by the hall or club. This way they take care of the amount of liquor/liquor license etc; to be needed. You would pay the club/hall so much for the entire evening (having them supply the bartender and liquor) They look after all of that so that you can enjoy your evening. A toonie is a great idea (as your not into making a profit) but the money would help to get some recovery for the money paid out to the hall etc. Also the bar would have pop, bottled water and juice available to purchase(or buy it yourself and give it to the bartender to give out/or sell if you choose). It's great you also have thought of non-alcohol drinks as there are adults/children that don't wish to drink alcohol. Also you have thought of wine (have both red/white available) for the tables, maybe have it chilled before puting it on the tables. It can be chilled in the coolers at the bar area before putting on the tables. And lastly have a special day!How much will a toonie bar cost me at my wedding?If you are bringing in your own alcohol, you actually will make a bit of a profit with a toonie bar.
