Open toast instead of wine - thoughts?

soon2Bmrs

We have decided to have an open toast instead of wine with the meal - tbh it's just works out so much more expensive with wine.

I'd just like some thoughts if ye don't mind

All feedback welcome

toadfly

I dont drink wine so I think it is a brilliant idea!

aviendha

at the end of the day, do what you want to do, as it's your wedding day, and not for anybody else to decide...

however.. be prepared for some surprised faces/remarks when wine is not served with the meal, as it has become the norm for guests to expect it (not saying this is right/wrong, just what happens)

I would be in favour of having a limited amount of wine and dropping the toast drink instead of having toast>wine, but then I'm a wine drinker so I'm biased!

smelltheglove

The open toast is becoming more and more popular. The way I did it was to have the open toast but also wine during the meal, wine was not left at the table however and Ive seen this done more and more often now, the waiters will go to tables and offer to fill glasses of wine for those who want some so rather than having half bottles left at various tables each bottle would be used completely. I think we only went through 11 bottle of wine in the end at our wedding and that was with 180 guests. Not many takers I guess.

inquisitive one

personally I prefer the open toast as I don't drink wine. if i was at a wedding with wine as the option I would take a glass for my partner - cheeky i know, this wouldn't happen if you had an open toast.

an open toast is quite common now however for my own wedding i have decided against it as it was working out much more expensive than wine & I intend to do speeches before the meal so it is easier to serve wine at this stage & to just continue with it through the meal.

we plan to buy our own wine and have negotiated a good price for corkage with our hotel, friends who have married have told us that you can buy good wine online at a fraction of the cost so fingers crossed that we find this the case

aviendha

smelltheglove wrote: »

ving half bottles left at various tables each bottle would be used completely. I think we only went through 11 bottle of wine in the end at our wedding and that was with 180 guests. Not many takers I guess.

wow only 11 bottles of wine?! we had freepour at our wedding, which meant the waiters went round at different times topping up, but didn't leave any bottles on the tables. we went through 126 bottles for 215 guests.. but I suppose we are more wine drinkers than not....

smelltheglove

aviendha wrote: »

wow only 11 bottles of wine?! we had freepour at our wedding, which meant the waiters went round at different times topping up, but didn't leave any bottles on the tables. we went through 126 bottles for 215 guests.. but I suppose we are more wine drinkers than not....

I know, thats pretty much what we had but we also had the drinks toast too and we didnt have a limit on the price of the drink allowed. I guess we had a lot of beer drinkers;)

niceoneted

A friend of mine had wine at the wedding but put 2 bottles of red and 2 of white on each table. Best man said to gets to help themselves to the wine and feel free to swap reds for whites with other tables and for those tables who weren't going to use it to pass it on.
She had a teenage niece and nephew checking on the QT tables where wine wasn't being used and passed on (the non wine drinkers) and had drinks sent down to these tables. Takes a small bit of organisning and trusting the people involved/picking people that have the confidence too, but it worked very well and people commented positively about it.
She also said it was cheaper than doing a toast and wine. about 200 guests so 80 or so bottles.
I know on our table there were a good few wine drinkers but for the few that were not drinking wine we all bought them drink - as we were being well looked after with the wine.

BC

We used 74 bottles for 150 guests. We had an open toast then as well. I prefer the open toast but just make sure you're clear with the hotel on the 'rules'. Our hotels normal practice was to not allow cocktails or doubles as part of the open toast. Obviously if you want to pay for that you can allow it, just be clear with them.

ABajaninCork

Is an 'open toast' a round of drinks for the toast???

If so, it's a good idea TBH. We did this for our wedding, not so much for the cost (although it helps!), but to allow people to have a choice. We didn't have bottles placed on the table, but just told our venue, house red/white, and just top up. We used 25 bottles white and 20 red for 100 guests. You should allow 1/2 bottle per person, although some will drink more, some less.

The hotel allowed E6 per person, and no doubles/cocktails. Check with your venue to see what they will allow.

Zaph

If I was a guest at a wedding and given the choice between the two, I'd rather a glass of wine with my meal rather than being bought a drink for the toast. It's not like there'd be lounge service during the meal where I could order a glass of wine if I wanted it. I'm quite happy buying anything else I want to drink for the rest of the day myself and wouldn't think any less of there not being an open toast.

BC

I just realised I didn't read the thread right. OP are you saying you're thinking of not having any wine with the meal and just having an open toast for the toast drink? So you're not giving any drinks with the meal?
If thats the case then i'd definately prefer the wine to the toast.

soon2Bmrs

Yes, we are on a tight budget and tbh there a quite alot of our guests who wouldn't drink wine. Is it so bad not to have wine with the meal?

How Strange

OP, it really comes down to this- it's your (and your OH's) wedding so do whatever you want. Don't feel pressured into doing something because it's the 'done' thing.

We didn't have flowers or a wedding cake or official cars because we felt they were a waste of money and we had a very tight budget. Some people passed comment beforehand but we didn't give a sh1t. Did anyone miss them on the day; no.

Based on experience, an open toast is more expensive than giving wine on the table. You can shop around and get great bargains on wine if buying in bulk and negotiate the corkage with the venue. For an open toast, each drink will cost at least €5 which goes up to €7-8 if people want wine or spirits. If getting wine don't over buy. Allow for 1/4 bottle per person and no more and arrange with the venue to serve the wine to avoid people filling their glasses to the brim.

IMHO if you can't afford it then don't do either.

aviendha

How Strange wrote: »

OP, it really comes down to this- it's your (and your OH's) wedding so do whatever you want. Don't feel pressured into doing something because it's the 'done' thing.

We didn't have flowers or a wedding cake or official cars because we felt they were a waste of money and we had a very tight budget. Some people passed comment beforehand but we didn't give a sh1t. Did anyone miss them on the day; no.

Based on experience, an open toast is more expensive than giving wine on the table. You can shop around and get great bargains on wine if buying in bulk and negotiate the corkage with the venue. For an open toast, each drink will cost at least €5 which goes up to €7-8 if people want wine or spirits. If getting wine don't over buy. Allow for 1/4 bottle per person and no more and arrange with the venue to serve the wine to avoid people filling their glasses to the brim.

IMHO if you can't afford it then don't do either.

Agree with the above poster, at the end of the day, if you can't afford it, just don't do either

it's easier to drop extras like the cars/cake/flowers as they won't impact on the wedding breakfast itself, whereas the lack of wine at a meal would be noticed by guests moreso than a lack of a wedding car...

soon2Bmrs

The hotel we are getting married in charge 10-15 euro per bottle for corkage but if we decide to get wine they will drop it to 9 per bottle. We are having around 65 to the actual meal, would anyone know how many bottles would be needed for this amount of people?

niceoneted

Are you saying that they are going to charge you €9 per bottle to open and serve if you are buying the wine from the hotel itself. That is madness. Their wine is could be €20 to start with and then the €9 on top.

Is it €10 or €15 or how do they determine the exact price of corkage?
Crunch the numbers.

aviendha

there should definitely be some leeway on corkage, try and bargain with them - I know when we discussed corkage first we were quote 12 for wine and 15 for champagne, and we haggled down to 5 and 7 respectively... there are a lot of hotels that don't even charge corkage now in the competition to get a wedding.

we brought our own wine in then for 6euro a bottle so total wine bottle price was 11 per bottle.

best of luck!

The Big Red Button

Obviously it's your wedding, so don't go spending money that you can't afford.

But if I were you, if at all possible I would forget about the open toast, buy your own wine (if you shop around you should be able to get decent wine very cheap when you're buying it in bulk, I've definitely seen relevant threads about that here on this forum before), do some serious haggling with the hotel about corkage, and if necessary only buy enough wine for even just one glass per guest with the meal.

I'm just speaking from the perspective of a guest ... I wouldn't usually have or expect more than one glass with my dinner, but I would be used to having wine with meals when I'm out, and I just don't like the idea of everyone having to get up and down all though the meal to go to the bar (I assume that's how it would work? Unless the bar did table service, but I can imagine that would get quite awkward and messy for paying and everything, and besides people don't want to go messing around rooting for money during the meal?)

Also, how would the guests know that wine wasn't being served? It is sort of what's expected, I can imagine a fair bit of awkwardness with guests sitting there after the food has been brought out and not sure if the wine hasn't been brought out yet or if they have to go to the bar to get their own?

As I said, if you can't afford it, fair enough, but I reckon if you put the time and research in you'll be able to find a way to provide the wine with dinner at a relatively low cost.

How Strange

niceoneted wrote: »

Are you saying that they are going to charge you €9 per bottle to open and serve if you are buying the wine from the hotel itself. That is madness. Their wine is could be €20 to start with and then the €9 on top.

No, the corkage applies if you bring your own wine into the hotel. They charge corkage to chill, open and serve it in their glasses.

OP, we got a very decent french red and white in Superquinn for €7 per bottle. You don't have to go up North etc to get a good deal just shop around your supermarkets and off licences.

For quantities of wine, I'd say 16-20 bottles max. 16 bottles should give a glass each. 50/50 split between red and white. We were told about the 50/50 split and I thought most people would drink red (because I'm a red drinker as are most people I know) but on the night most people drank white. Maybe they were afraid of spilling a bit on their clothes etc.

If you really want to give your guests a drink and are undecided about open toast v wine, calculate that your open toast will be on average €6 per guest x 65. Then have a scout around and see if you could pick up a decent bottle of red and white for €7 or less. We had €7 as our limit spend per bottle. Negotiate a bit more with the hotel on corkage, see if you can get it down to €5-7 per bottle, and work out which is the cheaper option.

Also, don't be afraid to scrap it and not have either if you're budget is too tight.

soon2Bmrs

Well, after looking around at the prices of wine and calculating the figures again for the open toast I think we are going to go with the wine and no open toast. I suppose when you think about it, it's nice to be offered a glass of wine with your meal.

I'll keep my eye out for bargains and we are going to see if we can get corkage down to 7...

Toots

soon2Bmrs wrote: »

Well, after looking around at the prices of wine and calculating the figures again for the open toast I think we are going to go with the wine and no open toast. I suppose when you think about it, it's nice to be offered a glass of wine with your meal.

I'll keep my eye out for bargains and we are going to see if we can get corkage down to 7...

I think that's a good idea. I've been to plenty of weddings where you had to get your own drink for the toast, but never to one where wine hasn't been served with the meal.