The Wedding Party

Are you ready for a party made just for your wedding? And we’re not talking about the usual wedding and reception. We’re talking about a pre-wedding party, and no, not a bridal shower, bachelor or bachelorette party either. This is called a Social.

In Canada, a social is an event held to help raise financial capital for your big wedding day. And in these economic times, it could be just the ticket to a debt free wedding.

Imagine walking away with $7,000 or more to cover your upcoming wedding.

Here is how it works. Find a reception hall or cheap venue to hold your Social. Find a DJ to spin the music and layout a dance floor. Get a liquor license, if you are required to, and provide alcohol for this one night event. Make sure your coordinate with the selected venue. They may provide this liquor license for you, and you want to make sure you know your limits. But if you’re making money off of the bar, you’ll need some sort of license.

This is not a party reserved for just the bridal party and guests…this is a party that you want to bring as many people as you can to, whether you know them or not. But make sure you limit the number of tickets to the space you have. If your hall will hold 200 people comfortable, don’t sell 250 tickets.

The key to making money is to limit your expenses. Don’t go to a venue that is too pricey, and don’t spend more than you need to on a great DJ, otherwise, your ticket sales will do nothing more than pay for the cost of those expenses and you won’t walk away with any profits, which is the goal of this Social. And if you need to, don’t forget to pay for some security so when the money comes in, it’s protected.

One of the ways to draw people into the party is to raffle off prizes throughout the night. Advertise a big giveaway when selling tickets to get their attention. Even consider holding a silent auction. Keep people entertained as much as possible. And at midnight, throw out some free appetizers and keep the party going until closing time.

The goal is to have people spend money, so when it’s time for your wedding, you’re spending less.

OPEN BAR...Sort of

You’ve picked the venue. The band is all lined up. The flowers are set to be delivered. The food you’ve chosen will wow your guests. What’s left to decide other than the obvious: to open bar or not to open bar? That could be one of the biggest questions of all.


In today’s weddings, men are fronting the financial responsibility just as much as women are. The traditional ways of a woman’s family paying for the wedding are less and less apparent. And let’s face it…you need all the money you can hold onto so that your life post-wedding is not off to a rocky financial start.

So how can you save a little dough and still provide a nice experience for your VIPs? As a man, you want an open bar. Let’s be honest with ourselves, when you’re invited to a wedding, one of the very first thoughts to pop into your head as a man is “open bar?” You want to drink, you want to let loose, and will gladly do so if it’s not on your dime. But now you’re the groom. Now you have to step up, right?

There are several options. Other than the obvious to have it open all night, or to a certain time in the night, you could limit the open bar for the cocktail part of your reception, the one-hour post-ceremony, while your wedding party is taking pictures. The only downfall is people will see that open bar window, and take full advantage. Plus, if someone is halfway done with their drink and decides they don’t really like it, they will leave it behind and go pick up something else. That just cost you $8 in leftover alcohol. As my dad always said, no beer gets left behind…but sad to say, people do ignore that idea.

But here is an option that worked, it can help you plan to spend no more than you can afford: Drink Tickets. By creating drink tickets, you can choose to take care of your VIPS (your parents and bridal party members) or everyone at the wedding reception. If you have 17 people in your bridal party, including parents, you can hand each of them three drink tickets good for a beer, well drink or glass of wine. Knowing that is 51 tickets, figure the high side of $8.00 per drink, and you’re sure not to spend more than a little over $400.00. But if you want to take care of everyone, consider handing out two drink tickets to each person. Let’s say you have 100 guests, including your bridal party, then that is 200 drink tickets and you can budget, on the high side, spending no more than $1,600.00 for alcohol. Anything beyond the drink tickets you hand out is a cash bar. So you’re not on the hook.

Whatever you decide, drink tickets are a great way to limit the amount of money you spend on the technically open bar. The great thing is, no matter how many you hand out, you can budget the max amount you will spend out of pocket. Better yet, you’re likely not to see all of the drink tickets turned in, hence, you save money for better things, like the honeymoon!

Stayed tuned for next week's blog on Monday at 3:33 pm.