Alcohol at rehearsal dinner?

I don’t think you need alcohol at the rehearsal dinner especially for a lunch. People can toast with whatever they have. I’m only doing beer at my rehearsal dinner because my fiancé wants that to be his special night with his groomsmen.

We included it (it was a dinner, though, for both the wedding party and OOT guests, so it was a big crowd and a "party" atmosphere), and guests definitely enjoyed it. Can you provide limited offerings like house wine & draft beer? Can you do a less expensive location/option like pizza or Mexican food, that will cost less overall even with alcohol? If not, do an event without alcohol. Especially at lunchtime, I'd guess it will be a fairly short event anyway.

We are going to have our rehearsal at a restaurant as well. it will be a lunch so we'll probably have pitchers of sangria or something like that if and that is a big if we decided to have alcohol at all. Its's day time, it's not the wedding so they don't really need it

We had alcohol at our RD but I have been to RDs that don't have it. Considering yours is a lunch, I wouldn't even worry about it. A great solution would be to have it somewhere that doesn't serve alcohol, if you haven't already booked it.

We are having an open bar at our rehearsal dinner. However, ours is a dinner. I think at a lunch, it would not be that big of a deal to not offer alcohol. But I also think it would be nice to maybe have a small amount of champagne or wine/beer (which might be cheaper than champagne depending on your area) to do your toasts with.

If you're going to a restaurant then it might be hard to discourage but if you're catering it through the venue I suppose you can just not open the bar. Honestly it's lunch and the point is to rehearse the ceremony so I think it's fine not to drink.

I don’t think it’s a big deal if alcohol isn’t provided. Don’t worry about it.

Since you're having an open bar at the wedding, I think it's okay to not pay for it at the RD!

I didn't have any at mine. That's one of those things that isn't necessary

Thanks everyone for the input! Nice to hear that alcohol isn't a need-to-have; I'm going to choose to put that money to good use on something else instead!

Are you going to the rehearsal after lunch? We’re in a similar situation so we’re hopeful that most people won’t have more than one drink (if at all) since we’re driving to the rehearsal immediately after. Our situation is a little different though because FH used to work at the restaurant so they’re throwing in a free champagne toast. We are also sticking to beer and house wine only, if they want anything else they can go to the bar and order on their own

I would say maybe have wine and beer if possible? Even if it's just wine, that would be really nice for a lunch. Or a sangria or similar beverage. But that's if it's within your budget. I don't think anyone would be upset if there's no alcohol at a lunch rehearsal. But, it would be nice to have at least one option.

It really depends on the group. Our friend group (and us) have alcohol at every event whether it be a birthday, wedding, BBQ, dinner, etc. So we obviously had it at our rehearsal dinner. We did two drink tickets per person and it didn't include premium liquors or shots (to help the cost stay lower for my FIL). But if your group doesn't drink, not having alcohol isn't a big deal. I don't think champagne is necessary and people can toast with whatever drink they have.

We are doing a cash bar at ours!