Evening reception drinks - What do guests expect?

If it were me, I don't think I'd expect any free drinks at an evening reception. If you think about it for a UK wedding, then the evening guests don't usually get any free drinks when they arrive. I went to an evening reception a few years ago after the couple had got married abroad and there were no drinks provided, just a bar. They did have a buffet though if I remember rightly.

We are providing a basic buffet, and also a chocolate fountain and sweet table, but I think we were mainly thinking of adding drinks because of not having a formal reception in the day, but wasnt really sure what the norm is

I agree with jen - if it were me I wouldn't expect anything as I wouldn't normally expect anything attending a wedding as an evening guest.

To be honest, from my experience, it's not usual to necessarily provide drinks for evening guests. Some may say it is, but i haven't been to an evening reception yet where we've been provided with drinks and i didn't provide any at mine. I think usually it's tended to be provided after the ceremony and for the wedding breakfast.

But, i do think it's a nice idea and a lot better than suggesting an open bar where you'd end up with a huge bill at the end !

As people won't all arrive at the start time of the evening reception, i'd be tempted to not provide on arrival drinks, but like you say, have wine on the tables. Could you provide jugs of orange juice too? That way the non alcoholics are catered for and you've saved from the arrival drinks anyway. I think it may be worth letting people know that there will be an initial wine/orange juice drink available at the table, but after that it's a cash bar. Or another idea altogether - would you consider no drinks on the tables or arrival, but have someone serve a sparkling wine (and sparkling apple juice) for the speech/toast/cake cutting time? If each person was catered for with 1 drink plus a little extra of each to cover all bases. Not sure which would work out cheapest if you want to keep costs down. I think usually with the wedding breakfast, venues usually say 1/2 a bottle of wine per person for during the meal (as they usually offer an arrival drink plus toast drink too).

I'm a second timer. First time around I got married abroad. We came back and had a big party. We just did the same as you would for any party. Guest didn't expect arrival drinks or free drinks.

I have been to 3 wedding receptions for couples who have married abroad in the past 18 months and none of them did arrival or free drinks a fair amount of guests wont arrive dead on say 7.30 they would probably be quite staggared from 7.30 - 8.45 ish as not all people like to go out early, i would be happy with a buffet to soak up the alcohol as a guest and certainly wouldnt expect it esp since you have choc fountain and sweet buffet on top of the main buffet, if you decide you defo want to provide some form of drink maybe a non alcoholic punch and maybe pimms would be the way to go anyway good luck whatever you decide. x

I agree with the others. I've been to an evening reception of a couple who were married abroad and there were no drinks supplied and we certainly wouldn't have expected any.

We're not providing any to the evening guests. I've seen a free bar on extremely rate occasions

I don't think anyone expects it, and as you've found, it quickly gets very expensive.

One of our guests is a Wine Critic, and did offer to provide Wine as Wedding Gift - but with Corkage, it still would have worked out expensive.

Putting Water/Juice on the table is a good idea though. Not everyone will be drinking and those driving will welcome not having to pay bar prices for soft drinks.

Thankyou all for your advice,its much appreciated

I think we will definitely provide soft drinks for those who will be driving, and then maybe some wine on the tables if our budget can stretch to it!

If you really want to give everyone a drink you could always include a drinks voucher with the invite. Then you are giving everyone one drink and they can have it at any point in the evening. Or you could have a toast at a certain point in the evening - maybe an hour or so into it as most people will have arrived by then. Someone could anounce it, some people could have trays to drinks to hand out at the appropriate time (ushers maybe or staff from the venue) and eveyone could toast the happy couple.

I do think an evening reception when you got married that same day may be a little different to an evening reception when you got married abroad and are essentially having a party on your return.

For example, most people do speeches at the wedding breakfast before the evening reception, but I've heard a few destination brides say they want to have some speeches at their reception party so more people can be involved. If this is the case with you, I would probably think about providing a glass of fizz for each guest (not necessarily 'champagne' if you don't want to) rather than wine on the tables, as then they can do a toast with fizz.

I also think it's more than fair to just provide soft drinks after that, I don't think people will expect any other free drinks and they probably won't 'expect' soft drinks either but I personally think it's nice to provide them.

Hi Sarah, we're doing the same as you - overseas wedding and evening UK reception. We're having a choice of wine or fruit juice as a welcome drink, and after that we're only providing champagne for toasts. There is a private bar in the venue, so if anyone wants anything else, it will be on hand. All weddings in my family are cash bar, and my family make up 50% of the guest list, so at least the majority won't be disappointed! (we'll also put "cash bar" in the invitation info)