What Is Corkage?
Wedding corkage is a service charge that is levied by venues for opening and serving bottles of wine, sparkling wine, champagne and even spirits that are bought externally by customers with the intention of consuming them on site.
Champagne wedding reception
It’s a little known fact that many venues throughout the UK will offer wedding corkage as a service. However, very few will actively advertise or promote this service to their clients and customers. You often need to ask for it. Here is why!
Naturally corkage fees vary from wedding venue to wedding venue. Some venues charge per head but most will charge per bottle opened on site. In 2026, the average the fee is iro £15.00 per bottle of wine, £20.00 per bottle of Cava or Prosecco and £30-40.00 per bottle of champagne. Whilst the fee per bottle of spirits will be in the region of £50-£60.00.
Now, these fees may appear to be exorbitant but with some careful planning and selective sourcing you can still slash a drinks bill by hundreds of pounds! And that’s great news for plenty of couples struggling to manage their budget.
Why Should You Use Corkage At Your Wedding?
In an earlier post we saw that you can pick up a decent bottle of Cava or Prosecco for £8.00 or an award winning Champagne for £12.00, if you purchase it from one of the supermarkets on the high street. And a pretty decent bottle of wine can cost as little as £5.00 if you shop around.
Whereas many wedding venues typically charge upwards of £25.00 for a house bottle of wine, £30.00-40.00 for a bottle of house sparkling and £75.00+ for a bottle of house champagne.
Now for the all important maths…
Let’s say you have 100 guests attending your wedding and you calculate that you need a standard 1/2 bottle of Champagne per head (that’s 2 glasses per person for the reception and 1 for the toast) and 1/2 bottle of wine per head. That’s a total 50 bottles of bubbly and 50 bottles of wine.
Costings Without Wedding Corkage
50 bottles of the venue’s cheapest house Champagne at £70.00 will cost £3,500.00 and 50 bottle of their cheapest house wine at £25.00 will cost £1,250.00.
Total venue drinks bill = £4,750.00
Costings With Corkage
50 bottles of personally sourced, award winning £12.00 Champagne will cost £600.00 and 50 bottles of your chosen wine at £5.00 per bottle will cost £225.00. With corkage fees for Champagne at £30.00 per bottle and £12.00 for wine the total service charge will be £1,500.00 for Champagne and £600.00 for wine.
Total drinks bill, including with corkage = £2,925.00
Conclusion
The bill is almost halved! And the savings have practically paid for the wedding dress, or half a planners fee!! So, when using corkage the savings can be enormous! Bear it in mind.
TOP TIP: you can save even more if you hop on the ferry to France for a Booze Cruise!
