Planning Your
Bartending Package

Tasty local brews, or popular draft beers & ciders

Prepaid Draft Beer (Kegs, 1/2 Kegs, 1/6 Kegs)

Leftover beer in the kegs is rare, we’ve found last year, since we help our couples estimate the amount of consumption based on adult drinkers. Here’s what we did for you:

Bud Light = 2 kegs = 330 pours

Cider = 1/2 keg = 165 pours

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Total = 495 pours prepaid

For crowd consumption, bars estimate 2 drinks in the first hour, 1 drink per hour thereafter.

So for a 3pm-10pm wedding: a 7 hour timespan x 80 adults = (160+480) = 640 drinks are needed overall.

Unless told differently, we estimate: 60% beer/cider drinkers, 30% cocktails, 10% wine drinkers. (And when something is free to them, more guests drink that option!)

So you are pre-paying 465 pours, which most likely will be used up during the 7 hours. The other drinks “needed” will be covered by cocktail and wine drinkers, all for guest purchase.

State law prevents leftover alcohol from being taken offsite.

Bar Options

Champagne Toast

We provide the bubbly service that suits your budget, and service to the tables. We’re not wine snobs—a bottle of Pink Barefoot Bubbly is as fun and meaningful as a pricey French Champagne. You can decide how many refills per guest.

Themed Custom Cocktails

Wouldn’t it be fun to design your own signature cocktail, complete with unique drink flag? Maybe it’s a fun Tequila drink, Mule, or a decadent SteamPunk-style “english tea and egg whites” concoction, or a tropically savory-sweet drink, or a bitter-sweet shrub-based sensation… it’s your day, you decide!

Open Bar (Pre-Paid)

Some wedding couples offer a some pre-paid options (“open bar”) for their guests. This means that the wedding hosts have pre-paid the bar tab for all their guests. To cap your budget, you can elect to provide an open bar from a certain time range, and convert to a cash bar afterwards (or before). Or you can prepay for just beer and wine. There are many options to be generous to your guests but to also conserve your budget!

Cash/Credit Bar

The most budget-friendly option, where your guests order and pay for their drinks themselves, as if they were at a restaurant. Our drinks range from house-brand to premium spirits and liquors, so there is wide variety to please everyone. You can even provide a Champagne service or a Themed Signature Cocktail to your guests that you cover for them. We even offer money-saving drink tokens to help you offer one or two drinks affordably to your guests!

About Maine Food & Alcohol Taxes

Many of our wedding couples ask about Maine taxes: there are just two taxes that apply to event venues: (1) prepared food & beverage sales tax (for catering and alcohol) and (2) lodging tax. To quote a Maine.gov source:

The tax rate is 8% on sales of prepared food and alcoholic drinks sold in establishments that are licensed for on-premises consumption of liquor. The tax rate is 9% on certain rentals of living quarters.

For the catering and bartending the 8% prepared food sales tax would be calculated on these service costs (not the venue rental price).

Let’s do an example for catering: the typical food cost per guest range is $60–$120 (depending on how premium the menu offerings), so let’s say $60 x 100 guests = $6,000. So the sales tax of 8% = about $480. We do not include gratuity in our tax calcs, to save you money!

There is no Maine sales tax on venue rentals as of 2023.

Planning Your Bartending Package