Bar at marquee

Bride2012

I'm thinking about doing a marquee wedding in our garden next year rather than a hotel. (If it seems like too much hassle after some homework this month I'll book a hotel.)

I'm not sure about how a bar/drink would work, any ideas?

I was thinking of providing wine and beer but with 250 guests it's not too cheap.

Would some wine for the meal and then BYOB be cheeky?

Can't charge for anything in a bar style as it's illegal without a license.

jollygood

I too am having a marquee wedding. After the reception I have contacted a few local breweries and am getting barrels of real ale and old fashioned cider for people to help themselves. It is not expensive at all, 72 pints in each barrel and they are about 100 quid each so worth thinking about rather than making people bring their own.

Bride2012

Thanks jollygood. I hadn't even thought of local beers and ciders, micro breweries aren't nearly as prevelant in Ireland unfortunately. All the known brands I checked out through partykegs.ie are €200 per keg and that was adding up quickly with so many guests. I'll have to start ringing around. Thanks again.

macinalli

A friend of mine set up a bar in a marquee for their wedding about 2 years ago - I thought it worked really well! As I understand it, if you don't need to have a bar licence if you don't make a profit. The wedding was in Carlow so they did a deal with O'Hara's to provide the beer for the night. I think they had 2 types of beer and they sold all of these for cost price (or a bit below). It also was a great excuse for a follow-up party the next day - I think that bars/breweries etc don't take back part kegs!

All in all it involved a fair bit of extra work to bring together but it worked really well on the day and the couple were glad they did it. I reckon go for it!

sweetie

We had to run a bar at our marquee wedding. We had bottles of miller, heineken, and cans of smithwicks and guinness and various spirits. We hired a good barman who also made mojitos and cosmos. We charged a donation of 2e for bottles and 3 for cans and spirits/cocktails. It was a private house and we took the risk!

prettygurrly

as the daughter of former marquee company owners, go for the marquee. I used to work weddings in hotels and every single one was the same except for about 3. 3 weddings out of 150 I can remember being different. Same cutlery, recycled plates, cups, bowls etc. same colour scheme (which often clashed with the bridesmaids dresses), same centrepieces and same food. At least with a marquee you can have it in a nice setting, choose the colours (or lack there of) for the inside, be a bit interesting with food, decor etc. that usually hotels will give out about or charge you loads of money for.

The bar will be tricky for 250 people. my cousin had an open bar for 100 and I dont think we went dry but 250 is quite a lot and I think it wouldn't be cheeky to ask for a contribution, particularly as if it was in a hotel they'd have to pay for drinks anyway. Also the best thing, as it's a private party on private grounds it can keep going for the whole night without worrying about "resident's bars" etc. as long as there's drink and a bit of moosic you'll keep going. If I get married in Ireland then it'll be in a marquee.

trixie11

ive been looking into this recently for a wedding venue for ourselves with no bar or bar licence. there are some bar event companies out there who will setup a bar for you and provide the drink and staff once they turn over a certain amount on the day. €3000 was the figure quoted to me. if they did not reach this on the day the fee was €350 to pay staff etc..

another option would be to ask your guests to donate €20-30 each when sending back the rsvp's. 250 guests you would get so much drink for that and an open bar for the day....if you think what the average person spends on drink at a normal wedding your guests would be delighted with just €20 for the day! you would need to hire some bar staff to server, collect and wash glasses.

Bride2012

Thanks for all the replies. I'm definately leaning more towards a marquee now. I think that the 2/3 euro donation might go down better than 20/30 in the RSVP though. I know what you mean by €20 being a bargain and it is I just think that people might not like it and think in terms of what's the present for. At least a direct per drink donation will cement in their heads, this is for drink and it's cheap.

I just heard before of an invitation where people were asked to pay for their meal in the RSVP. Not the same thing I know but it really put people off. Lots of people didn't go even though they probably would have given more as a present but it just seemed so cheeky.

prettygurrly

jesus, never heard of that before! you might as well just charge an entrance fee of 100 euro to cover your food and drink some people are mad...
enjoy the marquee, if you have any questions pm me.

dollybird2

Have you checked re: a licence? We borrowed one off a local club that was closed the weekend of our wedding & went to court to transfer it for one day. Ran an open bar for a while & then charged after that. Had 300 guests and it ran very well