Reception Drinks

KK22_2

I'm glad to hear that others aren't offering their guests loads of free booze. I was concerned about the half bottle of wine on the table as they did say that any unopened bottles woul dbe refunded, but i am aware that i have some selfish friends who would horde the wine from the table and just drink that all night.

Thanks for the opinions!!!

MaggieBaking

Yes there would be no unopened bottles, another table would pinch it/be offered it

I've been to a wedding where there was no drinks given by the bride and groom, a couple of people didn't get it, but most were happy with it - myself included.

Olokia

The wedding package at my venue was going to cost £18.50pp for a drink after the ceremony, 2 glasses of wine and a glass of champagne. We decided that we were going to get the wine and champagne ourselves because we wanted to choose how much and what people were drinking.

So now we have got (for 50 guests):

1 pimms and 1 fruit punch per person and a couple of jugs of fruit juice. These will be served after the ceremony.

I was going to get 11 bottles of red wine and 12 bottles of white wine (and 2 bottles of rose for the top table as it is all I drink) but my future MIL said it is better to get 16 bottles of red and 16 bottles of white (plus my 2 rose) so that is what we are doing. Any wine that isn't drunk will be given back to us and corkage fee refunded. Our wine supplier will also refund any unused bottles.

For the toast, Marks and Spencer were doing a half price deal on champagne (£30 dropped to £15) so we bought enough bottles of that for each person to have 1 glass.

We are also ordering 10 packages of non-alcoholic drinks for any people who don't want to drink alcohol.

For the evening, the guests can buy their own drinks at the bar.

BabyBoots

OP, your drinks package seems quite good value at £15 - we are having the same quantities of each for our guests for £20 (obviously the wines themesleves will differ!). Our venue's standard package was to include 2 welcome drinks, so we cut one out - I would've thought no-one would take 2 'welcome' drinks, they'd feel they were taking someone else's!

Roz_V

Does your venue offer the option of a glass of wine with the meal rather than a half bottle per person? That could be one way of cutting down if your mum insists on the whole shabang;

However the most common option at weddings I have been to we have had a drink after the ceremony (sometimes fizz, sometimes wine, sometimes bottles of lager depending on the couple), and a glass to toast with and that's it.

Personally we are just serving a drink on arrival (Prosecco) as we are not having a sit down meal or speeches, and this will be £2.50 per guest... (But then we are only having an evening reception really, as the ceremony is just immediate family & we're going for a meal afterwards where we will pay for food & whatever drinks people want)

Mrs_Moore_To_Be

BabyBoots wrote: »

I would've thought no-one would take 2 'welcome' drinks, they'd feel they were taking someone else's!

Haha I thought that. One of our guests took 4 x cosmopolitan cocktails just for himself....!

Idiophreak

Just to go against the grain (why's it always me?? ) ...

I hate to say it, but I think the booze is a really big deal at a wedding. I'm not a big drinker, but I can honestly say when I look back at the weddings I've been to one of the clear patterns is that more free food + more free alcohol = better wedding. When you think about it, the food and drink is the only way you get to be directly generous to your guests and thank them for coming. (and favours, I suppose...)

At our wedding we had a few mojitos, 1/4 bottle of white sparkling, 1/4 bottle of pink sparkling, 3/5 bottle white and 2/5bottle red per person. It all found loving homes and I didn't feel in the slightest peeved that "greedy" people obviously drank a good couple of bottles to themselves - that's what it was there for. The booze was really not massively expensive (about £7/person iirc) and it meant everyone could have a fairly cheap night which was important to me - I hate it when you go to weddings only to be given a single glass of fizz and faced with £5 pints for the rest of the night.

So personally I'd cut out other things before scrimping on the booze.

sugarwalsh

I would have 1x sparkling for after ceremony, 1 x welcome drink, 2 glasses of wine at meal and 1 x sparkling for toast.

I do agree with above poster, although most people do expect to pay for their own drinks after the meal (Or during if they are big or picky drinkers) there is nothing worse than a wedding where you spend most of the time parched! I recently went to a wedding and there was one drink for after the ceremony and that was it. We then had the meal (A chinese banquet, very cool) served in the ceremony venue which had no where to purchase any more drinks. We were all parched and by the time we had all moved on to the night do it took about 2 hours before people started letting their hair down. It was a shame as the couple had spent a lot on a band and no one really felt at ease to dance.

I'm not saying 'pay to get them drunk', but be aware that people do tend to have a better time when they are relaxed. The best weddings feel like a luxury to me and this can be done with a bit of careful planning on a budget!

Megan