Providing free drink at your wedding?

GwylimT

I personally have never attended a wedding where guests have to pay for any drinks, we had a free bar at ours and gave drinks to toast as everyone entered.

duchy

catkins wrote: »

Been to plenty of weddings where all the drinks were free.




If people are having a cheapish wedding far enough but when they have spent thousands so they can have seat covers, favours and all the other completely unnecessary things then I would think them tight not to include free drinks.


I only had a cheap wedding but ALL drinks were free.




Me and OH went to a wedding at a hotel a couple of weeks ago and all drinks were free all night.


There were 10 people to a table at the meal (300 guests) and 6 bottles of wine on each table (3 red 3 white). We had champagne for the toasts and then a free bar.


We were told that there was a limit on the bar (not sure if that was true or not) but if it was true it was never reached.

I wouldn't invite anyone to my wedding who was the type of person to judge me on what I spent. My wedding guests were and are my friends and family who I care about enough to want to share the celebration of my marriage - Not the people who see a wedding invitation as a reason to get off their face at someone else's expense and if it isn't free to slag them off and call them "tight".

I am sure some of it depends on who you invite. My friends would think the normal drink on arrival and wine with the meal and champagne for the toast is fine but they aren't the type of people who don't feel they've had a good night out unless they got wasted anyway so a pay bar after isn't going to have much impact the way it would on some people.

Jolene89

Fianc! and I have decided to only provide an arrival drink of prosecco to the ceremony guests when we reach the reception. Is that too tight? I've genuinely never been to a wedding with anything over than a pay bar, so to be honest, feel a bit miffed about paying for drink anyway, but that's just the experience I've had, what does everyone reckon? It's going to cost us £450 just to provide the one drink but that's a huge chunk of our entire £8,000 budget - so opinions please?

burnoutbabe

No drink with the meal?

And what if people don't want proseco but something soft?

What about toasts during speaches?

Fuzzy_Duck

Jolene89 wrote: »

Fianc! and I have decided to only provide an arrival drink of prosecco to the ceremony guests when we reach the reception. Is that too tight? I've genuinely never been to a wedding with anything over than a pay bar, so to be honest, feel a bit miffed about paying for drink anyway, but that's just the experience I've had, what does everyone reckon? It's going to cost us £450 just to provide the one drink but that's a huge chunk of our entire £8,000 budget - so opinions please?

If you're having a formal sit down meal I think it may seem odd to some guests if they don't get a drink or two with it. If you're doing speeches a toast drink would be expected, but in my opinion it doesn't have to be anything fizzy- people can toast with whatever drink they have.

As far as I'm concerned though people shouldn't expect anything. It's usually a welcome drink, wine with the meal and toast drink tops. The one time I ever saw a free bar at a party all the guests took the !!!!!! and it had to be closed earlier than intended. Honestly, I find it strange that people expect unlimited drink at a wedding, but apparently it's the norm in America!

I must say this thread has made me feel tight and we are now providing welcome drinks and two glasses of wine per person with the meal. There are no speeches and no table plan so I don't see the point in having a toasting drink on top of that. Providing fizzy drinks would be very expensive for us as the venue don't provide it, so we'd have to pay corkage.

Do whatever you feel comfortable with though. If you can't afford it, you can't afford it. The only reason I can afford to provide an additional drink is because my parents have offered to contribute towards the food and drink costs.

Jolene89

Meant to clarify, we're having a served fish n'chip buffet and are likely to have speeches soon after arrival/before food, hopefully eliminating the need for a toast drink.

The Prosecco was just an example drink. I'm struggling to convince the fianc! that our families would probably more appreciate pints of beer and cider but I don't think it's "traditional" enough for him.

awal85

I think it's fine. It really surprises me that people from the UK on here think it's the norm for free drinks all day and night. I just totally disagree. I think it's lovely if you can afford it, but not the usual. And in fact, when I visited quite a few venues before we decided on one, almost everyone tried to put us off a free bar anyway and said it encourages people to get absolutely wasted and also waste drinks. We are in a bit of a different situation to you in that our package does include drinks; fizz on arrival, half bottle of wine pp with the meal, champagne toast, then cash bar in the evening, but as you re not strictly having the traditional sit down meal I think a free drink on arrival is fine.

At the end of the day, it's your wedding and your money! You do what you see fit!!!

Fuzzy_Duck

I think beer/cider would be lovely with fish and chips. I've just been to a wedding where they had a ice bucket full of beer bottles which was very popular. Perhaps give everyone the one drink when they come in, that way they have something to toast with when you do the speeches?

Also are you having tables or are people going to be holding plates? If it's the latter I think it would be a bit awkward to provide drink as people will struggle to hold on to both. I'm having a couple of street food vans for my wedding and I still have no clue where I'm putting the wine bottles!

steph2901

I'm not providing drinks at my wedding. I'm not having a sit down meal, or speeches/toasts either. It's an informal evening buffet with a DJ for close family and friends.

I'd never expect drinks at a wedding and always go prepared to buy my own.

I wish I was in a financial position to be able to provide more for my guests, but they understand that we haven't got a lot of money and won't expect it.

michelle09

From my experience, most people will provide one drink for their guests, but I've never been to a wedding where they were all included. We're providing a welcome drink (with an alcoholic and non-alcoholic option) and wine with the meal. No drink for toasts though.


I'd be surprised if there were no drinks at all provided, but I wouldn't judge anyone. Long as there was somewhere to buy drinks (alcoholic or not) and it wasn't stupidly expensive then I'd be happy.