Booze!

Hi

a few weekends ago we went to 'bring a bottle' wedding reception. The bride and groom had stocked up and provided bottles of cava / shots for toasts etc but guests bought whatever they wanted to drink. It worked really well as no one was having to drink something they wouldn't normally because it was the only option and it was also cheap! There was also loads left over! Could that be an option?

I think I would be a bit miffed if I were invited to a reception at someones house/garden and was charged for booze.

I feel the best way around it would be to keep your 'free' booze offering simple such as just beer, wine and mixers and maybe a welcome cocktail or glass of fizz and suggest bringing a bottle in the invite i.e spirits.

When did I say I was charging for booze? ?

The bring a bottle is a great idea, but half the guests will be flying in from abroad so I don't think it's a goer in practice (unless they all nip to Tesco on the way, I suppose!) I have no objections to funding the bar myself, I'm more worried about not having enough, or some people taking it all a bit far. My plan was to have a large quantity of refreshing, relatively low alcohol cocktails as first option.... I just have visions of a couple of particular guests getting plastered and being a bit of a nightmare.

That sentence.

Being worried about having a 'totally free bar' is different to being worried about a 'free bar' the 'totally' bit to me suggests you were considering that parts of your bar would not be free hence my response.

?

Oh I see, no, I was trying to convey that certain guests might be like 'woo, totally free bar!' and go a bit nuts. To be honest, writing this out has made me realise I'm not worried about the practicalities of the bar, I'm worried about people getting too drunk and obnoxious because there's no 'limiting' factor (i.e. price). I have no idea what the solution is though.

I think those people that want to get hammered will regardless of it being a free bar or not (I certainly tend to forget the value of money after a few, much to my regret the next day), I don't think there is any way around it.

Maybe having jugs or bottles of water available and stocking up on coffee might limit the damage?

Good plan with the water, thanks! Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a good drink (or six!) but there's one particular guest who always gets too drunk and is quite mean / embarrassing with it. I just feel like a free bar might make it worse, but that's actually never stopped them when there's not been free booze! I guess I'll just have to hope for the best, I just don't want my evening ruined by it. Gosh, I hadn't realised how much this was upsetting me. How random.

Is there a friend or family member of this particular guessed that you could confide in and maybe ask them to monitor their drinks/encourage to drink some water/slow down.

My best mate is a nightmare when she drinks wine shes asked me to make sure she alternates between wine and water at our wedding.

It's difficult because she gets quite defensive about how much she drinks, but I reckon my MOH might be able to keep an eye and stop it going too far. Thanks for letting me talk that through, I'm worried about this particular person coming to the wedding full stop and I'd sort of avoided thinking about it until last night. Ironically, it took a few wines to admit it!