14 answered questions
Wedding Bar & Bartending FAQs
The questions couples ask Shaker most often about the bar at their wedding, answered directly. Prices quoted here are the published rates and are the same numbers used by the estimator on the pricing page.
4.43★on Google, from 14 reviews14 of 14reviews answered$15–$35per guest, publishedDFW + Houstonboth metros served
This hub covers Wedding bartending.
How much does a wedding bartender cost in Dallas-Fort Worth?
Shaker’s bar packages run $15 to $35 per guest for four hours of service, plus bartenders at $50 an hour. A 150-guest wedding on the Specialty Bar with five hours of service and a champagne toast comes to roughly $6,000 including the 20% service charge.
The per-guest figure covers the alcohol, mixers, supplies package and cups for the tier you choose. Staffing is added on top: one bartender per 75 guests at $50 an hour. A 20% setup and service charge applies to the booking.
The estimator on the pricing page runs your real numbers, and four worked examples are published there in full so you can see the arithmetic rather than take a range on trust.
How many bartenders do we need for our wedding?
One bartender per 75 guests. A 150-guest wedding takes two, and a 250-guest wedding takes four. Add a bar glassware busser at $50 an hour if you are renting glassware, because collecting and washing glasses is a full job on its own.
The ratio matters most at two moments: immediately after the ceremony and immediately after the last speech, when most of the room arrives at the bar within a few minutes of each other. Understaffing shows up as a queue at exactly those points.
How far in advance should we book a wedding bartender?
As soon as your date and venue are confirmed. Saturdays in spring and autumn are the first dates to fill in the DFW wedding calendar, and bar service is usually booked after the venue, photographer and caterer — so couples often reach it late and find their date taken.
What is included in a wedding bar package?
The alcohol for your tier, mixers and sodas, the supplies package, nine-ounce cups, bar setup and teardown. Staff arrive at least two hours before the ceremony and finish an hour and a half after the bar closes. Bartender hours are quoted separately.
The supplies package is the part couples underestimate: coolers, plastic cups, an ice serving bucket, tongs, cocktail napkins, straws, pitchers, a serving tray, a tip jar, a water dispenser, garnish bowls and plates, bar towels and pour spouts. It is $275 on its own for BYOB events, and included in every bar package.
The Platinum Call Bar is the only tier that also includes ice, coolers, lemons, limes and napkins in the per-person price. On other tiers, ice is $25 per 50 lb and lemons and limes are $50 if you want them added.
Can we have an open bar?
Yes. The Premium Call Bar at $27 per guest is what most couples mean by an open bar — a full spirits bar with call brands across vodka, whiskey, rum, gin and tequila, plus beer and wine. The Platinum Call Bar at $35 is the top-shelf version.
Couples often describe the Premium Call Bar as the open bar package and the Platinum as the platinum open bar, which is how Shaker’s own site refers to them. The practical difference is brand tier: Tito’s and Espolon on Premium; Grey Goose, Don Julio, Hendrick’s and Maker’s Mark on Platinum, with mid-tier wines instead of house.
How long does the bar stay open?
Package prices are based on four hours of bar service. Extending is $2 per person per hour, up to a maximum of six hours. Most DFW weddings run a five-hour bar, which on a 150-guest Specialty Bar adds $300.
Six hours is the published ceiling for extended service. Bar service hours are separate from staff hours on site: staff are there two hours before the ceremony and for 90 minutes after the bar closes.
What happens if our venue does not allow alcohol?
The Non-Alcoholic Bar at $15 per guest is a complete dry bar: two specialty batch lemonades, a soda package and a sparkling non-alcoholic toast, with the supplies package and cups included. It is designed as a real bar, not a drinks table.
Can we have signature cocktails for the wedding?
Yes. A specialty batch cocktail is $400 for a five-gallon batch — 75 nine-ounce servings — and includes the dispenser, ice, cups, straws and garnishes. The Specialty Bar at $23 per guest includes two of them. Choose a signature and you are invited to a tasting.
His-and-hers cocktails are the classic use of this. There are eight signatures on the menu plus seven margarita flavours, and made-to-order drinks like espresso martinis or a French 75 are available at $600 per 100 servings because they are shaken per guest rather than batched.
Do you serve champagne for the toast?
Yes — a champagne toast is $5 per guest, served in glass champagne flutes rather than plastic. A champagne tower is $600 and includes the tower setup plus 100 servings in glass flutes.
Can you set up a mimosa bar while we are getting ready?
Yes. The mimosa bar is $600 and is served two and a half hours before the ceremony with a bartender included: champagne, glass flutes, a variety of fruit juices and mixed fresh berries with supplies and decor. The smoked old fashioned station is the same price and format.
Both are built for the getting-ready window rather than the reception — the mimosa bar for the bridesmaids and family, the smoked old fashioned for the groomsmen and family. Because a bartender is included in the price, they are close to self-contained.
Do you provide glassware, or is everything in plastic cups?
Both are available. Every package includes nine-ounce clear disposable cups. Glassware is a rental: $1 per glass for house glassware and $1.25 for elevated, for four hours of service, and it requires a busser at $50 an hour.
House glassware covers water goblets, rocks glasses, champagne flutes and wine glasses. Elevated adds double old fashioned, martini and Collins glasses. Budget about two glasses per guest, or three if you are running a champagne toast alongside a full bar.
Do you travel to Houston?
Yes. Shaker serves both Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, including The Woodlands, Sugar Land, Katy, Spring, Cypress and Galveston.
Houston has its own service-area page listing the cities covered.
Is there a travel fee for venues outside your usual area?
Client to confirm
Confirm whether a travel or mileage fee applies beyond a certain radius, what that radius is, and how the fee is calculated. Couples booking a Hill Country or Houston-area venue ask this early, and it is one of the most common reasons a quote request goes cold.
What deposit do you take, and when is the balance due?
Client to confirm
Confirm the deposit amount or percentage, whether it is refundable, and when the final balance is due. This is one of the first two questions in almost every wedding vendor enquiry.
What is your cancellation and date-change policy?
Client to confirm
Confirm the cancellation terms and whether a date change is permitted, and on what notice. Publishing this plainly is a trust signal, and its absence is conspicuous on a wedding vendor site.
Are you licensed and insured?
Client to confirm
Confirm the specifics we are allowed to publish: TABC certification for bartenders, general liability limits, liquor liability coverage, and the insurer or certificate we can reference. Venues frequently require a certificate of insurance naming them, so this answer also needs to say how a couple requests one. Right now the site makes no licensing or insurance claim at all, and every competitor in the market makes one.
What does the 20% service charge cover?
The published rate card states that a 20% setup and service charge applies to bookings. It is a standard event-industry charge covering setup, service and administration rather than a gratuity.
The estimator applies the 20% to the full subtotal, which is the higher of the two possible readings and therefore the safer figure to plan against. Whether it applies to the bar package alone or to everything is confirmed on your written quote.
Do your bartenders accept tips?
A tip jar is part of the standard supplies package, so guests can tip if they choose. The 20% service charge is not a gratuity.
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