Marquee wedding free bar?

Hi everyone, Im getting married next year. We're having a marquee wedding for about 250 guests. Does anyone have experience of getting married in a marquee and if so did you do a free bar? How much did it cost etc?

I haven't done it but I know that the reason most bars at marquee weddings are free is because you need a licence if you're going to serve. The licence will involve instructing a solicitor to draw up paperwork and making the court application for you. It'll set you back about €2k. You could always do a free bar and just have a donation box.

I was a bridesmaid to a friend who had a Marquee wedding with free bar. . . While it was the absolute BEST wedding ever for the guests (EVERYONE commented on that) it turned out so expensive for the couple who hadn't really counted on the bill being so high.. For 140 guests the tab came to in or around 5k? If you have it in your budget I wouldn't think twice . . otherwise maybe applying for license would be the best option.

One marquee wedding I went to did BYO and the other, I'm sure we paid for drink. It was staffed by the local pub and some stuff ran out quite early (mixers, mostly) probably as it was an absolutely roasting day.

[quote="eleoc42":nyfffg86]I was a bridesmaid to a friend who had a Marquee wedding with free bar. . . While it was the absolute BEST wedding ever for the guests (EVERYONE commented on that) it turned out so expensive for the couple who hadn't really counted on the bill being so high.. For 140 guests the tab came to in or around 5k? If you have it in your budget I wouldn't think twice . . otherwise maybe applying for license would be the best option.[/quote:nyfffg86] Thanks for all the replies! Was that 5k.... by them providing the bar themselves?....if so do you know where they sourced the drink? Or was it having a local bar with their licence whereby the couple had to pay the bar the bill at the end of the night? + was it in Ireland? .....as in were there lots of 'heavy' drinkers ?