DIY Wedding Planning on a budget is NO JOKE. I did it, but, Man! So much harder then I expected. If you want to plan your own wedding and make the most economical choices while keeping it classy, you will really benefit from finding the BEST VENDORS to make that happen. Vendors who care beyond their paycheck. I am not writing Yelp reviews for all of my vendors because it's too awkward to document anything less than a five star experience considering they totally remember you and have all your personal deets on file! Beverlees was five star all the way.
I had a heck of a time finding a bartending service that would allow me to purchase my own liquor to keep costs down in the area of my wedding (near Valencia, CA) with good ratings. I tried using Thumbtack which ended up being scary-- bartenders who had great ratings on that site had terrible ratings here on Yelp. Beverlees didn't have many Yelp reviews, but they had pages of handwritten thank you notes posted on their website as reference. It's an old school business that precedes online reviews and has relied for decades on referrals and repeat business.
Before I contracted them, the manager Brian was already giving me I started massive amounts of helpful information on the phone and we formed an instant relationship of trust. Brian and I must have spent hours on the phone over the next few months if you added it up! Whenever I thought I had my questions answered, it turned out I had more, and he never hesitated to take the time to help. He was seriously committed to helping me plan the most efficient, cost effective, and personalized wedding bar. He made me a shopping list with items and quantities and even helped me figure out which places had the best prices on what. He took care of ordering ice, cups, and other complicated logistical stuff for mere dollars more than the cost of doing it myself (SO WORTH IT).
I am sad that on the day of the wedding I never made it to the bar! As the bride, the wedding party was something of a dreamy blur. People handed me drinks all night so I never needed to go over there. I do know that the drinks were AMAZING. Exactly as I wanted them to taste, and I am pretty picky about my cocktails. I received compliments on the drinks from everyone. I also received many compliments on the bartenders being friendly, fast, generous, accommodating, funny, and even "hot". I wish I had met these mystery cuties!
Cost wise and clean-up wise there were no surprises. They treated my guests like gold without a tip jar. We tipped them cash ourselves at the end of the night. I read horror story reviews of other companies hassling guests for tips, eek!
Thank you to Beverlees and Brian from the bottom of my heart for so much help making my dream wedding come true on a budget. I'm so glad I found you!
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Other DIY Bar Tips: Costco will accept unopened alcohol returns, Bev Mo will deliver for free when it's over $500. And don't even think about schlepping your own water, you need too much, that #$% needs to be delivered. Stick to 3 or 4 specialty cocktails plus beer and wine and then you don't have to buy all kinds of booze, a cute cocktail name goes a long way. People go nuts for Luxardo cherries which you can order online. You don't need bubbly for a toast, people can raise whatever they are already drinking! (My husband insisted on getting it and nobody drank it! We spent some money on renting the flutes and then some broke we had to pay for.... ) read more