Alcohol!!!!

Your doing WAY more that us... I dont think anyone should ever 'expect' anything more than water and soft drinks unless they pay themselves, we're planning just a drink with the meal per person (especially since we cant afford it and dont want to pay so people can distroy our day with drunken shernanigans) and will have an alcoholic and non alcoholic option

im not sure what drinks we're doing as I also hate wine, one of the venues we looked at is a brewery so im guessing if we do choose there then beer would be the sensible option (although I hate beer too) also considered cider, spirt mixers, cocktails and mead

We have paid for a glass of Prosecco each on arrival, half a bottle of wine each for the meal (red or white), and another glass of prosecco each for the toasts. We will also buy some orange juice from the supermarket for those that don't drink. We have 52 people sitting down and the total for alcohol came to £300 as we bought it from our local wine merchants who does a really good wedding package. There will be a cash bar there as well so if anyone wants anything different they can buy it themselves.

I think that amount of drinks is the norm when it comes to a wedding breakfast but you can do what is best for you, it is your day and your budget. I don't think any of our friends would get so drunk during the wedding breakfast that they would destroy our day. They may be a bit raucous by the end of the night but it's a party so I'm happy for people to let their hair down and I don't even drink!

If you put money behind a bar you might want to have a ticketing system for those two drinks per person so that somebody doesn't have somebody else's drinks if you know what I mean. xx

I think a ticket system for money behind the bar is good otherwise people will drink more and some people won't get any. It can be put with your favour or instead of your favour.

You could have a drink on arrival and a drink for the toast and provide water and orange or similar for with the meal. Especially if a lot are non drinkers. It wouldn't bother me if there was no wine with the meal. I would have the water or buy one.

Unfortunatly I have been to wedding's ruined by my OH friends drinking, my family use to apparently be bad too although they have all outgrown drinking now and my foster family are heavy drinkers to and tend to fight a lot (although they manage to be quite entertaining in the process lol but I dont want it at my wedding)

however talking about tickets my friends invite had a peel off bit and if you brough the invite you got 1 free drink from the bar + they had a free drink handed out by waiters to people when people arived to have with the canapes which worked well for them and no one seemed too drunk but on the downside it ment every person needed an invite not just couples/families which must of doubled printing costs

Wow that's a difficult one as not getting free drinks won't stop heavy drinkers drinking.

Hopefully if they foot the bill themselves it will slow them down, we're also getting married early (hopefully the earlier the more people will take it easy) and not having a big gap between ceremony and meal (because thats when everyone seems to load up on drinks)

We are thinking money behind the bar and a voucher system - love the no bubbles, doubles or shots line!! I think what your are offering sounds fab, an arrival drink and a toast drink and somethings for the table in my opinion is enough xxx

Do you guys think if I just supplied a welcome drink and enough prosecco for the toasts and then water/orange on the tables, like Jayne E said. If people want alcoholic drinks during the meal - they can pay for them!

The other issue is how will the staff know who has what and how much to pay at the end!

All the guests are staying over in the hotel we're having the reception in, so my idea would be to put their room numbers on their place cards, and get the waiters/waitresses to write a "receipt" for the rooms with what drinks they had - then it can be paid after the meal or the next morning!

What do you guys think?

I had an open/free bar. I did not have wine on the tables. We had servers that went around offering drinks to ensure everybody was well watered and ensured there was no wastage.

I think your idea of putting cash behind the bar sounds like a good idea. For a meal, two drinks should be sufficient.

I think that's fine mellis89, I never expect much free alcohol at weddings as long as something for the toast! When you know how expensive weddings are I think it makes you expect less & appreciate more! Do whatever you can afford and don't worry what people think!

In fairness I wouldn't put money behind the bar as there are always some who will abuse it and others who get none. I think if you provide a welcome drink and waitor gives everyone a drink for the toast then as long as there is water or something on the tables let them buy their own.

Yes some people have a free bar and half a bottle of wine each allowance but we all work to our budgets. I wouldn't be offended as a guest if no free wine.

Work with your budget.

Why don't you make little 'drink vouchers' to go with/or instead of your favours. You could give 2 to each guest to use at the bar, sticking with the no doubles, bubbles, shots rule, and then you can settle up with the bar at the end. For your 26 guests, even if they each had 2 drinks at £5 (unless your venue is super pricey), then you would still be under the £300 you were originally thinking.

My friends had a ticket system and it worked well.

Otherwise, why don't you look at the cost of corkage and providing some wine yourself which will cut some of the cost?

Voucher/ticket system sounds good!

We struggled with the same thing - I wanted to provide a toast drink at least for everyone, but really didn't want to pay my venues prices for a glass of bubbles (£5 per person!). So we opted for a soft drink (elderflower and soda water with a strawberry on the side) as it looks classy and came in at 50p a glass. Also means no waste, as it's a soft drink.

Corkage fees of the venue would be worth looking into if you're gonna have a lot of drinks- depends how much they're charging for a bottle of wine themselves.