poll (kinda) about alcohol

We are providing our own up until the end of the meal (no corkage charge) and then a cash bar will open for the evening.

We are providing all the booze, all night. We had the option of providing it ourselves or paying a per head price for unlimited alcohol, we couldn't be bothered to source it, store it, cool it, and serve it so we have paid the caterer to do it. It was something we wanted to do, as a small way of thanking our guests for travelling away to our wedding.

So, am I the only person who is expecting their wedding to end in a drunken, raucous mess and isnt going to do a thing to avoid it?

My family all love a good drink, as do most of our friends. I have no doubt at all that everyone will be hammered, and it doesnt bother me. My mum has a tendancy to go to soon, but she will pace herself cos I have asked her too, but other than that I want everyone to let their hair down and have a great time!

Ours is a hotel reception so includes a food & drinks package including welcome drink (choice of two) so will probably go for cocktails for girls and beer for boys, half a bottle of wine per person with the meal and a champagne toast. If guests want other drinks there will be a bar with loads of choice so they can buy from there.

We're supplying the drinks for the day, so beers (yes bottles)!, pimms and bubbles.

Then we'll have enough wine so it wont run out during the day, Think we've based it on two bottles per person so far, anything left will come home with us !

And a sparkling something for the toast.

We're lucky we dont have to pay corkage for the drinks during the day, they just ask that you use their pay bar for the evening.

Me too Chips. Guess that makes us both common!

Ha !

I dont know why you wouldnt if you could ! - I bet you 90% of the blokes at the wedding would rather be having a beer than bubbles or pimms !

I know I would !

Exactly and that's why we had all three.

We are having bubbly for the ladies and cold bottles of beer for the men. It is better to provide what your guests want rather than what looks nice and gets wasted. I don't understand why people expect guests to act totally out of character on a wedding day. None of my male guests would order pimms or champagne in a pub so I don't expect them to want it on a warm summers afternoon at my wedding.

I would hope nobody has a drink in their hand for the formal group shots, but for the unposed shots of guests enjoying themselves it isn't a problem.

We plan to do the same. My drink decisions were based on catering for my guests' preferences, not worrying about what may (or in all likelihood won't, because my photographer is fabulous) appear in my pictures. I think making sure everyone can drink what they would like is more conducive to an album of smiling guests enjoying themselves

We are having a bit of a combination, Reception drink provided by the venue - Pimms or Ale (we are having a barrel of our chosen brew. The corkage is reasonable so we are suppliying our own wine - I figure that even with the corkage we canget a better quality wine than the House wine for similar price - looking at a Malbec and a Sancerre (Half a bottle per person Then we are having port with the cheese and champagne for the toast - by the evening there should be some of the barrel left and perhaps some wine - after that they're on their own. I wanted to try and provide as much drink wise as we can afford. We have been to so many weddings with expensive bars - I didn't want our guests to be paying for drinks straight away.

We're providing a toast drink and thats all.

In my own experience, and with a lot of OH's family not being drinkers, the wine on the tables would end up just being drunk by just one or two people.

So we've decided that for us, theres better things to spend our money on!

We're providing reception drinks- winter pimms or bottled beer, then 1/2 bottle of wine per person for the meal and cava for the toast. We're also putting money behind the bar during the day for people who don't want wine with the meal (we have put limits on this e.g. only single spirit measures), there will be a cash bar in the evening along with what money is left over from the day

Nope, mine will be too. I just won't be paying for the privilege!

We provided all of our booze - no corkage charge either.

Champagne, G&Ts or (real ale) beer on arrival, matched wines on the table (replenished when the 'wine monitor' waved the empty bottle), more wine for the evening plus two different barrels of beer, bottles of lager, gin, vodka, whisky and rum (plus mixers). We also served homemade limoncello as a palette cleanser during the meal and our cheese 'cake' was served with bottles of port.

For our wedding in Australia, the norm is for the drinks to be included in the per head price, so it's unlimited, beer, wine, sparkling wine and soft drinks. We then have three choices for spirits 1) let them pay for their own 2) we'll pick up the tab at the end of the night 3) we can provide bottles and they'll serve them. There's a minimum spend at our venue and there's a good chance that our per head cost won't meet the minimum spend, so we'll have some money to play with.

Our home party will be at FPIL's farm, so we're getting in a mobile bar, but will be buying some bubbly and beer bottles for the start of the party. We were at a charity event yesterday and one of our friends bought us a Methuselah of champagne! We're keeping that hidden away until the party.