5 Ways to Save On Your Wedding Reception Drinks

One of the highest costs of most wedding receptions is the bill for drinks. You can save money in lots of ways, whether you're supplying your own alcohol, having an open bar, or paying for corkage through your venue. Here are the top five ways to save money on reception drinks.

1. Have a bar

When you have a bar at your reception, limit how much you spend on alcohol. The bartender will let your guests put drinks on your tab until you reach the limit, after which point they'll need to pay for their own drinks.

You can contact the manager at the venue you're using or if you’re doing your own thing, ask a local bar to set up a bar at your reception.

2. Figure out the corkage costs

Bringing your own wine and champagne can be a money-saver, but make sure you know the corkage costs. Buying cheaper wine could end up saving you no money at all once the venue adds corkage, so sometimes it's easier and maybe even cheaper to buy drinks through the venue.

3. Think of creative ways to negotiate corkage

Most venues make their profits off from alcohol, so corkage costs on beer and wine can be very high. Bringing the drinks yourself will probably cause the venue to add a lot of corkage so they can still profit. If this happens to you, try something creative.

Figure out exactly how corkage is charged. Wine may be charged differently from champagne and spirits, and different sized bottles may have different costs. Once you know all this, you may be able to find a creative way to pare down the corkage costs.

One way to do this might be to buy big bottles of wine or magnums of champagne because the fewer bottles you use, the lower the corkage will be. You can even have a cocktail hour, as this also means you'll open less bottles. Besides, cocktails are interesting and different from most receptions.

4. Sale and return

Many wine merchants, such as Majestic Wine, and supermarkets, like Sainsburys, Tesco, and Waitrose, will allow you to buy plenty of wine and then return the unopened bottles. This way, you don't have to pay for alcohol you didn't use. You may even get free glass hire thrown in.

5. Limit the drink options

Lots of choices at the bar costs lots of money, so limit how many types of drinks you will serve. If you have a full bar set up, you'll have to open lots of different bottles, and you may not even use more than a bit of each. Unless you limit the spirits that are used at the bar, people will ask for all kinds of off-the-wall drinks, and your bill at the end of the night will be out of your budget.

One creative way to limit options without seeming stingy is to create a signature drink for your reception. A cocktail or punch can stretch the alcohol a bit further, and you can also simply offer wines and beers for the whole evening. Less variety means a lower drinks bill.


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