osts often light up when they hear that our venues are BYO alcohol. But we often get the feeling they don't know exactly why other than that there may be some cost savings involved.
What is BYO Alcohol?
Venues take well-understood terms and change their meaning to suit there needs, and BYO alcohol certainly fits the bill. BYO alcohol simply means that you may bring in alcohol from any source, take what's left at the end of the event, and not pay any fees related to alcohol. Pretty simple, and that's exactly what we do at our Ruby and Celementine Hall venues. Some venues purport to be BYO, but then charge corkage fees or set-up fees, or they twist the meaning in some other way.
How does BYO practically work at our venues? It's easy. Clients can bring in alcohol of any type from any source. The smart way to do it is to order alcohol from one of the large retailers in Nashville. They have salespeople to assist with these specialized orders, and then they'll deliver the order directly to the physical bar in the venue on the morning of the event. The bartenders will unpack the order and set the bar. At the end of the night the bartenders pack up what's left and those boxes make there way into the back of the host's vehicle. And there are no fees related to alcohol here.
What are client misconceptions about BYO?
As it sounds, BYO at our venues is very easy for the client. It's so simple and low touch for our clients that non-BYO venues (those requiring in-house bar packages) often try to make it out to be the world's most complicated process. This makes sense since these venues have a big profit center to protect, but more on that later. We assure you that the BYO ordering/delivery process is far easier than deciphering a venue's consumption or per person time-based bar packages.
A periodic misconception about BYO is the bartender requirement. The state of Tennessee, like all other states we assume, requires that bartenders serve alcohol to guests at an event. I suppose it's the same reason we don't have self-help bars on Lower Broadway or anywhere else in this world! Bartenders screen for under age drinkers and determine if someone has had too much and needs to be cut off. This experienced intermediary is an important liability buffer for clients as well (and we do collect insurance from all bartenders here). Bartenders serve every alcoholic beverage at our venues, and venues (and clients at those venues) that have self-service champagne walls, shots, or bucket beer are playing with fire. Clients have a choice of approximately 17 bartenders on our approved vendor list.
A last misconception, an oversight really, is that warm beer delivered the morning of the event will be ice cold by the reception. We don't have any advanced refrigeration technology, it's just like the refrigeration at your home. Beer takes a long time to get cold, especially when we're talking about many cases of beer in the same refrigerator. Make sure you're retailer delivers the beer cold.
What are the advantages of BYO alcohol?
There are three tremendous advantages of a real BYO alcohol venue:
- Ease and time saving
- Cost
- Selection
Ease and time saving. As mentioned earlier, an unsung advantage of BYO alcohol is its ease and resulting saving of time, despite what the bar package venues would have you believe. This should be far more valued by clients. Planning an event, especially a wedding, can be complicated and time consuming, so any reprieve from this work should be exhilarating.
Cost. Clients know that their costs are lower with BYO than with a managed bar, but they rarely have a good idea of how much less. To know that, of course, they have to start with what the bar packages will cost at other venues. There are some expensive outliers out there, but I'd say a fair estimate is about ten thousand dollars per 100 guests. And at out venues, clients will save about 85 percent, more or less, through the BYO option. The savings can be a staggeringly high number, so high in fact that they could easily exceed the rental fee for our venues once or twice over.
On the other hand, if you're not a big drinking crowd, well there are no minimum beverage fees either. You could even choose to not serve alcohol altogether and we won't mind a bit.
Selection. A BYO venue allows you to select the types and brands of beer, wine and alcohol that you want, and not what the venue stocks. It's nice to get what you truly want. And why shouldn't you get what you want at your wedding or event?
