Bar Service at Wishes Weddins

[Sapphire_Ag]

My fiancee and I are planning our Wished wedding for May 2011 and we are wondering if we should pay for beverages based on consumption or their hourly fees? Also, has anyone done any signature drinks? How much did those run and does anyone have any pictures of their drinks? Any information about the bar service and their pricing would be appreciated.

[orangetiggs]

we paid for four hours and it worked out better than on consumption for us

[tinkerbell 766]

My fiancee and I are planning our Wished wedding for May 2011 and we are wondering if we should pay for beverages based on consumption or their hourly fees? Also, has anyone done any signature drinks? How much did those run and does anyone have any pictures of their drinks? Any information about the bar service and their pricing would be appreciated.

According to your ticker, your wedding is 4 days after my VR!!!! I will still be at WDW so will have to do a bit of wedding stalking!!!!:thumbsup2

[Pirate's Princess]

We are planning based on consumption. We are doing this because we are having an Epcot ceremony so our reception will be immediately afterward from around 10:30/11 to 2:30-ish. We figured not many people would drink that much that early. Also many of the guests are not big drinkers. I can't imagine them having more than 2 or 3 (if that) so it just didn't make sense. Of course, after getting our BEO we may change our minds.

I think you need to think about your guests and the time and type of reception you will be having.

[Boardwalk_bride]

We decided on BOC. The only reason we did this is because we have a signature drink, which doesn't count in the hourly hosted package, and we wanted to add the premium wines. Our signature drink is the Italian Margarita from Epcot, and it think it is $13 each.

[Cait8383]

Yum Italian Margarita. How does a signature drink work? My reception is at the Atlantic Dance Hall and i was thinking about doing a package bar because we have quite a few drinkers.

Also, i had read somewhere about someone doing a champagne punch for cocktail hour and then using the remaining punch for the champage toast. Any ideas on that?

Thanks for your help this is a great thread!

[tiggerrifficheidi]

We had BOC for our Welcome Dinner and our reception(one was at night, one in the afternoon) and we saved hundreds, if not a couple thousand $ over a package plan. We had 68 guests.

[MainStMandy]

We only had 35 guests but also did BOC. It worked out great and saved us TONS!!!

[pezaddict231]

I think you need to think about your guests and time of day. If you don't have many big drinkers, a BOC will be much better. If you do have big drinkers, my DF can drink 5 beers at dinner alone :eek: and I don't even want to think about his friends :laughing:... a package might work out better. But we're having an evening wedding and where we're from most guests drink quite a bit at weddings.

For our welcome party we're going to do BOC since it's more casual and I'm hoping people won't drink as much. ;)

[Skylarr29]

We did a BOC bar for our reception. Disney charges you based on what they think your guests will consume on your BEO. After your wedding, if you went over they take it from the deposit and return the remainder to you, or if you were under you get that refunded along with your deposit.

We got more than half of what Disney charged us back after our wedding so BOC saved us thousands. There was also a break down of how much every one drank and I think we went through 50 signature drinks alone... and we only had 30 guests, plus other beverages.

Here are our signature drinks.
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j269/Skylarr29/reception/0608.jpg
I think they were $15/$16 a piece, somewhere around there. We just told them at our menu tasting that we wanted two signature drinks and the colors we wanted. We also told them we would be providing the light up rings and ice/glow cubes. Later they asked us to email them drink recipes so we told them to make the blue one after the year of a million dreams glo tini that was featured in all the Disney restaurants that year, and to just use a red apple martini recipe for the pink one but to use less grenadine so it would appear more pink.

[girli565]

We are just had our planning session and we decided on a bill on Consumption bar because it's a lunch reception, early afternoon so we didn't expect people to drink as much as a dinner reception. We're being charged 3 drinks per adult and whatever we're over they will take from the deposit or if we're under they'll refund me What wasn't spent. I'm hoping this will save us a bunch of money. Our group of friends are big drinkers but that's only 8 people. The rest of our guests aren't really drinkers at all.

[WDWBride04/19/2010]

We're doing by consumption. A lot of our guests aren't big drinkers, so it just makes more sense to do it that way.

[lpizzuro123]

We did a BOC also and we got back a lot of money. We also had a bunch reception. Our Pre-reception was from 10:00 to 11:00 and our reception was from 11:00 to 3:00. We did champaign punch at our pre-reception (we ordered a certain number of pitchers - based on our guest count) and what ever was left over was brought down to our reception (at ADH) and put at the bar downstairs.

I think we only had a few glasses of wine, 20 or so beers and maybe 5 or 6 mixed drinks and we had 50 people at our reception.

Linda

[Dr.Cinderella]

I have three bar questions, first is can you close the bar during dinner for an hour to save money? Second is, does anyone know if you can order Cosmos with the standard call liqours package? They are my favorite! Last question, for Wishes Weddings do the bride and groom get a bottle of champagne if we don't get the toast for everyone? Just wondering about it for our flutes we got. Thanks for your help!

[girli565]

I have three bar questions, first is can you close the bar during dinner for an hour to save money? Second is, does anyone know if you can order Cosmos with the standard call liqours package? They are my favorite! Last question, for Wishes Weddings do the bride and groom get a bottle of champagne if we don't get the toast for everyone? Just wondering about it for our flutes we got. Thanks for your help!
I don't know about closing the bar...

I'm sure they can make anything you like, the call brands are just cheaper than the signature/premium ones. Open bars have mixers, juices and all those things that make mixed drinks.

Champagne is not included in the Wishes package. If you want a toast you will have to buy the bottles of champagne for it, I believe the house sparkling wine is $40 and the Fairy Tale Cuvee is $60 per bottle. We're not having a toast but I LOVE champagne so we reserved two bottles of the house one because it's sweeter than the cuvee. We were charged $96 including tax for those bottles.

[Sccrmnky2005]

I was wondering if you can do the first two hours BOC and the rest 2-3 hours to be the package? We are having an evening reception. But if not I'm still stuck on what to do. The only real big drinkers are in the bridal party. The rest of the guests are family and friends that might drink one if that. We will have about 40-50 guests so really not sure what the better way to go is:confused3

[twiu]

Yes you can close the bar during dinner. We did this and saved a lot. ''The standard bar has vodka and triple sec.. which is basically all you need to make cosmos, and cranberry juice, so it should be fine.

Just a piece of advice, I told everyone in their welcome newsletter about the bar closing for an hour. If you have big drinkers (like we did) they will appreciate this.

[girli565]

I was wondering if you can do the first two hours BOC and the rest 2-3 hours to be the package? We are having an evening reception. But if not I'm still stuck on what to do. The only real big drinkers are in the bridal party. The rest of the guests are family and friends that might drink one if that. We will have about 40-50 guests so really not sure what the better way to go is:confused3
I think a BOC would save you the most. If your family are not really drinkers than that would be a wise thing to do to save money.

[Skylarr29]

For us, the price of the package bar was equal to every guest drinking approx. 7 drinks. No way is grandma going to drink 7 drinks. We figured if even a handful of people had 10 or so (which I think is a lot), it would still end up cheaper. We got so much money back at the end and we figured the worst thing that could have happened was we paid for what people drank. I would have rather paid a little bit more in the end for what people did drink, than paying for something they didn't drink ahead of time.

[twiu]

Am I the only one with drunky friends? :lmao: :rotfl2:

We had a night wedding and I will guarantee you most of our guests had at least 7 drinks each! Everyone was drunky at the end of the night. I myself had at least 5.. and being the bride, I was busy running around with everyone!

I dunno. guess it just depends on who your guests are.

Here's how I look at it... a beer is what, $6.00? The lowest package was like $36.00 pp for 4 hours. Plus tax & tip. That's just a beer. Now you have a vodka and tonic. Prob about $8.00. 4 of those, and it's paid for.

It really just depends on your guests. I know for a fact that if I hadn't done the open bar package, I would've owed a lot of money.

[kcampbell]

Am I the only one with drunky friends? :lmao: :rotfl2:


Definitely not! :rotfl:I had lots of drunky guests too. Which was good...my mom was going around telling everyone to drink up b/c she wanted to get her $$'s worth! :lmao:Let's just say those guests that did drink definitely enjoyed themselves.

We did a package bar- the Full Signature Brand bar, had cordials served for an hour with cake, and added 2 signature cocktails at the last minute. Yes, there was a lot of booze. Maybe we paid more in the end, but I truly don't know and have decided not to care. I figured the math out the same as Tracy when I was planning and considering the liqours we had-- a cocktail would've been $10-$12. That adds up FAST! Plus, I've been to a lot of BOC weddings where you take a sip of a drink, put it down, and the waiter picks it up. :headache: I HATE that and didn't want it happening to my guests.

All I know for sure is our guests had a great time and I was very happy no one had to drive anywhere! :thumbsup2

For our Farewell Brunch, we did have a BOC for Absolut Peppar Bloody Mary's and Mimosa's. (We prepaid for 100 drinks to be served) We got money back for that, but we also had a few of our big drinkers not make it to the brunch that morning either...:sick: :rotfl:.

[twiu]

[QUOTE=kcampbell;36372652]Definitely not! :rotfl:I had lots of drunky guests too. Which was good...my mom was going around telling everyone to drink up b/c she wanted to get her $$'s worth! :lmao:Let's just say those guests that did drink definitely enjoyed themselves.

Thank goodness! I was feeling alone in my drunky ness :):rotfl:

[kcampbell]

[QUOTE=kcampbell;36372652]Definitely not! :rotfl:I had lots of drunky guests too. Which was good...my mom was going around telling everyone to drink up b/c she wanted to get her $$'s worth! :lmao:Let's just say those guests that did drink definitely enjoyed themselves.

Thank goodness! I was feeling alone in my drunky ness :):rotfl:

Never! Isn't that the point of weddings anyway? To have a fantastic party where guests get all tipsy and have a blast?! :laughing: I only had a couple glasses of champagne (my mom encouraged everyone but me and DH to drink.), but got my fill on the honeymoon! :upsidedow Good times!

[WDWBride04/19/2010]

We paid based on consumption because while my family is Irish (lol), D.H.'s family and guests ('cept for groomsmen) don't drink as much, so we thought it would've been a waste to do the hr.ly. I didn't do a sig. drink. HTH!

[KR1343]

!

[Boardwalk_bride]

My wedding guests were all big drinkers, so we were originally going to do a package. However, we ended up adding a signature drink, so it made more sense to do BOC. Because we had such an early ceremony, people didn't end up drinking as much as we thought they would I guess, because we are getting a ton of $$ back!

[Ann117]

We did a BOC bar for our reception. Disney charges you based on what they think your guests will consume on your BEO. After your wedding, if you went over they take it from the deposit and return the remainder to you, or if you were under you get that refunded along with your deposit.

We got more than half of what Disney charged us back after our wedding so BOC saved us thousands. There was also a break down of how much every one drank and I think we went through 50 signature drinks alone... and we only had 30 guests, plus other beverages.

Here are our signature drinks.
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j269/Skylarr29/reception/0608.jpg
I think they were $15/$16 a piece, somewhere around there. We just told them at our menu tasting that we wanted two signature drinks and the colors we wanted. We also told them we would be providing the light up rings and ice/glow cubes. Later they asked us to email them drink recipes so we told them to make the blue one after the year of a million dreams glo tini that was featured in all the Disney restaurants that year, and to just use a red apple martini recipe for the pink one but to use less grenadine so it would appear more pink.

I love these!!! Where did u get teh light up rings and ice glow cubes? The bar tender had no problem adding these to each drink?

[*Pixiedust1438*]

We are deff. doing a Package Bar because although my family isn't really big drinkers, DF's family all are! I am just wondering how a signature drink works with a Package Bar? Do you still have to pay BOC for every signature drink ordered? Or will they just add some $$ pp on the package price? I would love to have one but if it's going to be an additional $10+ every time someone orders one we might have to skip it.

Just wanted to add also that we are doing a package bar because as I said, we have some big drinkers, but also because I just don't want to worry about it. I know if I do BOC I will be sooo worried how much it will end up costing, with a package bar I will know ahead of time, and I know I would get upset seeing all the half full drinks lying around!

[sambycat]

sooooo does BOC rely on the bartender making little hashmarks on the bar for each type of drink and then tallying them up? and are sodas and juice part of that too?

i know i will understand my circumstance more soon,but we are having brunch and not a ton of drinkers - except for the bride and her brother, SIL and a couple drunky pals. heh. yes, that would be me.

in my mind, i want brunch with juices, water/club soda, teas, coffee, i guess soda for the freaky people who drink that with food in the morning (cause if it aint diet pepsi forget it!!!), then i wold LOVE a bloody mary bar, champagne and mimosas. maybe spiked coffee.

now in our preliminary conversations, and from reading the boards, i think BOC is probably the way to go, and wile i dont begrudge anyone drinking whatever the heck they want, i guess my bridal vision involves all these sort of matchy and themed drinks and cocktails, where as bottles of beer and jack and cokes just dont look as nice.... heh

i tried to explain my idea and diane kind of didnt get me i dont think, i guess its just have the BOC and set up say 2 samples of "signature" drinks, ie, aa bloody mary and a mimosa or kir royale or something??

do you think you really have to ask the wait staff not to snatch half finished drinks without asking?

has anyone done a specialty coffee bar? i love me the lattes, have had that at parties before, but still have a budget. what to do what to do!!!!

[kcampbell]

in my mind, i want brunch with juices, water/club soda, teas, coffee, i guess soda for the freaky people who drink that with food in the morning (cause if it aint diet pepsi forget it!!!), then i wold LOVE a bloody mary bar, champagne and mimosas. maybe spiked coffee.

now in our preliminary conversations, and from reading the boards, i think BOC is probably the way to go, and wile i dont begrudge anyone drinking whatever the heck they want, i guess my bridal vision involves all these sort of matchy and themed drinks and cocktails, where as bottles of beer and jack and cokes just dont look as nice.... heh

i tried to explain my idea and diane kind of didnt get me i dont think, i guess its just have the BOC and set up say 2 samples of "signature" drinks, ie, aa bloody mary and a mimosa or kir royale or something??

do you think you really have to ask the wait staff not to snatch half finished drinks without asking?

has anyone done a specialty coffee bar? i love me the lattes, have had that at parties before, but still have a budget. what to do what to do!!!!

For our Farewell Brunch on Sunday morning we had BOC Bloody Marys w/ Absolut Peppar and Mimosas. There is nothing wrong with having a BOC bar w/ 2 signature drinks or what we did for the brunch was just the 2 alcoholic offerings along with the juices, coffee and teas. It was plenty for us, but then again we already had the blowout reception the night before. I completely understand not liking the look of beer bottles....just ask that all beer be served in glasses, but be prepared that some guests may not like that.

We had a specialty coffee bar at our rehearsal, but it really was just coffee with a bunch of different flavored syrups. My MIL looked at the espresso bar, but it wasn't advantegeous and the coffee ended up being enough for us. I think if you have a budget you need to decide what is more important to you and what your guests will most appreciate. That's my advice anyway. :goodvibes

[sambycat]

thanks kccampbell for the info - that is a BIG help!! i hope it helps others too and isnt a total "highjack"!!

i will maybe be more specific then about the drinks - i think BOC is the right way to go, but I think some kind of bar set up with sodas/non alcoholic choices and then just the bloody mary bar/champagne/mimosa "fixings" sound right up the alley.

and i will look into the coffee bar - most probably would drink plain coffee, i am a tea girl and will need my english breakfast and honey! if all it is is syrups, not so much, but i bet my grannie would love a little baileys in hers!!!

[kcampbell]

You're welcome! Just so you know for your grannie, (Prices may have changed) but when I got married cordials (bailey's, kahlua, grand marnier, etc) were $8.00/drink or it was $10/pp per hour for the package bar. We served them for an hour w/ coffee and cake at our reception.

I think you should do a BOC soda & juice package and then have bloody marys, mimosas, and Kir Royales. Since you said you don't have too many drinkers and it is a brunch, sticking with typical brunch cocktails is a great way to go. :goodvibes