Wedding bar sign wording, including the cash bar problem

You reach the front of the bar queue and the bartender points at a card taped to the till. Cash only. You brought a card, and there is no ATM in the building.

So what goes on a wedding bar sign? Each drink name with its base spirit and a short ingredient line, two to four featured cocktails, the non-alcoholic option, and prices plus accepted payment methods if guests are paying. Use 8×10 inches for a single signature drink and 11×14 inches for a short menu. One sign at every bar station.

Wedding bar sign wording

Start with cap height, the height of a capital letter on the finished sign. In good conditions an inch of cap height is readable at about ten feet at the outside, and comfortable reading runs 30 to 50 percent shorter. So one-inch capitals sit comfortably at five to seven feet, which covers a bar queue, and two-inch capitals at ten to fourteen feet, welcome sign range. Drink names get one-inch capitals.

Point size is a different measurement, and it is not cap height. Ornate scripts stop being readable around 9 to 11 point, which is where stationery sets its detail lines, so a menu line lifted from your invitation suite starts below the floor a bar sign needs. Keep script to the drink names. Set ingredients and prices in a plain serif or sans, in sentence case, because all caps slows a reader down. Then print the proof at full size and have someone else read it from six feet, in light as dim as the reception. Enlarge any line they miss.

What size should a bar sign be

8×10 inches for one signature drink. 11×14 inches once you are listing several. One at every bar station, not one per wedding.

Then solve the placement. An 8×10 on the bar top competes with the shaker and the bartender's hands. Hung behind the bar, clear of the shelving and the bartender's head, it reads down the length of the queue. The Personalized Linen Wedding Welcome Banner at $89.95 hangs, and cotton-linen is matte, so it is far less likely than glossy acrylic to throw a hotspot back at your photographer's flash.

If an 11×14 card stays visible on the bar, use the card and spend the $89.95 on a sign you will keep. The banner earns its price when guests are reading from ten feet or more and the venue has approved a hanging point. The wording cannot be changed once printed, so if the caterer is still moving your drink list, buy a frame and swap the card instead.

Signature cocktail sign wording

Two to four drinks. Put the base spirit in the drink name, because a guest deciding in a queue wants to know it is gin before they read anything else. Then pick one naming convention and use it for every drink. First names need no explaining. A nickname works only if every guest already knows it. Your names and the date are optional here; a welcome sign already carries them.

Signature cocktails
Maya's Gin Spritz
elderflower, grapefruit
Theo's Rye Old Fashioned
bitters, orange peel

Leave the origin story off. A drink that needs a paragraph gets read by one guest while the queue waits behind them.

Put the non-alcoholic line on the sign

Print one line, set at the same size as the ingredient lines. Set it smaller and it fails the six foot test.

A non-alcoholic version of both is available. Ask the bartender.

Confirm it with the caterer first. Not every cocktail has a version that works without the spirit, and a sign promising one the bartender cannot make is worse than no line. Ask what goes in it, because orgeat, cream and egg white turn a drink into an allergen question. Once it is confirmed, a guest who is not drinking can order without announcing why.

Cash bar sign wording

Tell guests before the wedding, on your wedding website or the details card. Not at the bar. Guests who know in advance turn up with a card in their pocket, and the sign at the bar just confirms it.

The website line:

The bar is guest-paid from [time]. Beer $[price], wine $[price], cocktails $[price]. The venue takes cards. There is no ATM on site.

Then the sign itself. Partly hosted:

Beer, wine and our two signature cocktails are hosted. Other cocktails are $[price]. Cards only.

Guest-paid:

Guest-paid bar. Beer $[price], wine $[price], cocktails $[price]. Cards and cash both accepted.

Say which one it is, because the phrase cash bar tells a guest they are paying but not whether their card works. For drink tickets, print how many and what happens once they run out. Use whatever term your venue contract uses. A consumption bar is not a cash bar: there the host pays per drink poured and guests pay nothing. Skip the apology.

Before you send it to print

Order bar signs about one month out, once the drinks are settled with the caterer, working back from the printer's proof and shipping dates. Have ready:

• The number of bar stations, which is the number of signs.
• Drink names and ingredient lines, typed exactly as they should print.
• Prices confirmed by the venue, the payment methods it takes, and its tip policy.
• The non-alcoholic option and its ingredients, confirmed by the caterer.
• A venue-approved hanging point, if the sign is not standing on the bar.

Personalized signs print exactly as typed, and LunaVows only takes one back if it arrives damaged or wrong through our error. Read the proof out loud before you approve it. A sign cuts the repeated questions. It will not make an understaffed bar faster.

If guests are reading from ten feet or more, print your bar menu on the Personalized Linen Wedding Welcome Banner. If not, a framed card does the job, and the the signs and decor collection cover the rest of the room.