{"id":457,"date":"2016-12-12T11:04:10","date_gmt":"2016-12-12T16:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.steliascentre.com\/blog\/?p=457"},"modified":"2021-09-22T11:26:21","modified_gmt":"2021-09-22T15:26:21","slug":"2017-ottawa-wedding-cash-bar-vs-open-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.steliascentre.com\/blog\/2017-ottawa-wedding-cash-bar-vs-open-bar\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa Wedding: Cash Bar vs. Open Bar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>To have an open bar or not: that is often the question for many couples when planning their wedding day. And it can be a tough one. When it comes to the (sometimes) heated debate about how freely those beverages should flow, it can be a stressful decision to make. So before you make your decision, here are a few pros and cons for each that will help you determine which is best suited for your Ottawa wedding:<\/p>\n<h2><b>Cash Bar<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What the cash bar actually entails can differ depending on your venue. Sometimes, cash bar could mean that a champagne toast is provided at dinner, or the guest must purchase any beverage &#8211; including non-alcoholic. In other cases, limited cash bars can be an option, where you provided wine and beer during the reception, and anything more must be purchased.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So it\u2019s important to discuss all of the options that are available at your Ottawa wedding venue. But here are some of the general pros and cons.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b><i>Pros:<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Saves you money<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can help prevent over-indulgence from your guests<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can help keep your guests focused on the events and moments throughout the evening<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b><i>Cons:<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Expensive for guests<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Disgruntled guests<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So this really comes down to the factors of your budget and of course, how your guests may feel for having to fork out money for each expensive drink, especially for those who may have spent money on an expensive flight just to be there.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Open Bar<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Open bars tend to be more common during the big day. Sometimes it may entail both the cocktail hour and the reception, and other times it may just include the reception. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b><i>Pros:<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No need for guests to worry about carrying cash<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Guests don\u2019t have to necessarily wait on the staff \u2013 can get their own drinks<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More enjoyable and easier for guests<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b><i>Cons:<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More expensive \u2013 could take up a significant portion of your budget<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Might need to sacrifice other items from your budget<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over-indulgence from guests<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Deciphering whether a cash bar or open bar makes more practical sense for your wedding day really comes down to some essential factors. Those factors must encompass primarily, your budget \u2013 can you afford an open bar \u2013 as well as how much you feel it may affect the \u201cmerriment\u201d of your guests and the evening. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So in order to determine which may suit your day best, first talk to your venue providers to determine what all of the options are that are available to you. From there, you can factor in your budget and determine what makes the most sense for your wedding dinner and reception. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To have an open bar or not: that is often the question for many couples when planning their wedding day. And it can be a tough one. When it comes to the (sometimes) heated debate about how freely those beverages should flow, it can be a stressful decision to make. So before you make your&nbsp;&#8230;<a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.steliascentre.com\/blog\/2017-ottawa-wedding-cash-bar-vs-open-bar\/\" style=\"color: #a54548;\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ottawa","category-wedding-planning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.steliascentre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.steliascentre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.steliascentre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.steliascentre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.steliascentre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.steliascentre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1150,"href":"https:\/\/www.steliascentre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions\/1150"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.steliascentre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.steliascentre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.steliascentre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.steliascentre.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}