I had no idea what an honour bar was before I started planning our wedding. Around here, as uncouth as it is, nobody has an open bar at weddings - at least I have never been to a wedding with an open bar, and with the huge family that I have, I have been to a lot of weddings! Around here people usually have weddings in a hotel banquet room or in a community hall, and guests either pay full price for the drinks (hotel) or they have a Loonie or Twoonie bar (Community Hall where the couple can bring in and serve their own alcohol).
Time out! Okay, I guess I should explain what a loonie and twoonie are for those of you who don’t know. In Canada we have $1 coins and $2 coins. The $1 coin came out first and it has a picture of a Loon on it so Canadians started calling it a loonie. Then a couple of years later the mint started making $2 coins and, being as we are so clever, Canadians started calling it a twoonie. Both names stuck. So, when you come to visit us and someone asks you if you want your change in loonies or twoonies you will know how to answer!

So, back to the issue at hand. If you have a loonie bar every drink costs $1, if you have a twoonie bar every drink costs $2. The point is really to recoup the cost of the alcohol and everyone knows that so we always expect to buy our drinks at weddings, it is just accepted around here.
When we first sat down with our caterer at the restaurant where we are having our reception, we asked about drink costs because we thought that we might break tradition and have an open bar. When he told us the costs ($4.50 - $7.00/drink), we didn’t think that we could afford it so he suggested an honour bar. He explained it as sort of a donation system, so there are pretty jars on the ends of the bar and people can contribute, if they’d like, to the cost of their drinks. If they don’t want to they don’t have to, the bar is essentially open. We just thought that it was a nicer way to do it than to have a twoonie bar, which wouldn’t cover the cost anyway, or having guests pay for all of their drinks.
So, what do you think? Have you ever been to a wedding with an honour bar? Is it something that you would consider doing yourself? I know that this is going to be somewhat of a controversial post because it is so frowned upon to have guests pay for drinks at most weddings in the States. So if you would like to comment on the idea or respond to other posted comments (and I certainly welcome all comments!), please just remember to be sensitive to other views, and that what is tradition or commonplace where you live is not always the same in other areas of the world. ![]()
I’m from Vancouver and it’s considered kind of taboo to have a cash bar here too. But I think that may be a product of living in a major city rather than living in the US. I’m actually not too surprised to hear that cash bars/twoonie bars are acceptable and even expected in SK, it’s a totally different lifestyle there!
If cash bar/twoonie bar is the norm in your neck of the woods, then I think an honour bar is a nice way of doing things. But, despite customs, it IS always nice for your guests if you do a host bar if you can swing it. If the drink prices are $4.50 - $7, can you do a limited bar with just the lower-priced items? Maybe a wine & beer only bar? Because $7 a drink can sting a bit, but $4.50 is not so bad…