2 drink tokens ?!?

Well I can understand like 2 drink tokens free, then cash bar on top of that. But that's seems a bit... Boring

First of all, better off having a dry wedding than tokens or cash bar. I know this is controversial, but honestly, no one should be going to a wedding hoping to get wasted - that's really immature. If you don't want to be there sober, don't go!

That said, we had 80 people, including some kids. According to online alcohol calculators, we needed to buy $540 worth of wine, beer,and liquor for Gin and Tonics - the only hard liquor we served. We bought $450 worth, because it was a Sunday daytime wedding, and we still had 3 cases of beer and about 10 bottles of wine left over, plus 2 bottles of gin. We could've spent $300 on alcohol total, and had plenty. We let people order what they wanted, and if something ran out, oh well, it's gone - and we didn't want anyone getting drunk and driving home, either.

Alcohol at weddings is SUCH a big deal, it's really annoying. Go to support your friends. Go to have fun. Alcohol isn't necessary, and you don't need provide a full bar. A white, a red, a light beer, a full beer, and 1 signature cocktail is all you need. People will deal. And if they complain about the alcohol, they're there for the wrong reasons.

We are lucky and there are no guidelines for alcohol at our venue. That would be really frustrating!

Ehh...I'm not buying the story that grandma is intolerant of alcohol and that's why the tokens will be flying (if that's the case, it's time for the adults who are paying for this wedding to tell grandma that they will miss her if she boycotts the wedding due to an open bar, but they have every legal and moral right to serve alcohol). Grandma is probably just this couple's scapegoat version of Uncle Jim, the recovering alcoholic, or Aunt Jane, the active alcoholic (you know -- the two kids who ruin it for the whole class). Grandma may be intolerant, but if she was so militant that she threatened not to attend the reception because she doesn't like alcohol, there would be no compromise. Grandma's not stupid. She knows the drinkers will get their drinks by bothering everyone -- including grandma -- for tokens. People will enjoy their alcohol -- one way or the other, and she's been around the block -- she knows that. The whole concept behind this so-called "compromise" makes no sense, and when it doesn't make sense, it's usually not true. I suspect the couple decided that grandma's dislike of alcohol would be the whispered excuse the couple gave for their limited bar (it has nothing to do with their budget limitations or with their unwillingness to spend their own money -- nothing at all -- it's all because of grandma). Do wine or beer, do a consumption bar, do well liquor, do signature drinks, limit the options by offering vodka, rum, beer, and white wine only, serve sangria or an alcoholic punch, replenish bottles of table wine, serve champagne only, or have a dry wedding. But own it and stop blaming grandma.

Wow! I have never heard of this before.

Eventually someone in these discussions mentions that they don't want an open bar because everyone will get drunk. I've never witnessed this, and frankly? By the end of most cocktail hours (when I leave) the bars are usually empty. People just don't drink as much as non drinking people think they will.

If you're thinking that serving alcohol is going to make every one at your wedding drink till they're plastered, then get more adult friends. Problem solved. 

Love what you said @celia!

At least give them 4 drink tickets. For most people that would be enough for them at any event. That way your non drinking guest don't have to be annoyed every 5 seconds with someone wanting their drink ticket.