Alcohol at the reception?!?!

I haven't necessarily seen a wedding where you can BYOB, but I know some restaurants are starting to do this and it's becoming quite trendy, so this may be worth a quick google and see if any have any cute BYOB lingo! You could say something along the lines of "we will have some beer and wine, but feel free to BYOB" on the wedding website and leave it at that.

In the past, we have been invited to a pre-wedding party/event that was a "stock the bar" party for the bride and groom!! Essentially, it was similar in style to an engagement party but in lieu of any gifts, each guest/couple brought a bottle of wine/liquor or case of beer. This was about a month before the ceremony and a super fun, casual way to get to spend time with everyone

Does your venue allow this? If they do, I agree, a quick Google or Pinterest search will work!

Yes you can provide alcohol or people can bring their own, just not allowed to charge for it. We are expecting between 350-550 people... I know that is alot... and can not afford to supply enough for everyone all night long. We have budgeted about $300 for booze but that will not go far at all. Want to let people know we will have some, but not enough and not a wide variety. Don't want it to seem like we are cheap, but feel people should be interested in spending the evening celebrating with us rather than how much alcohol we provided.

I did this but I didn't word it in any cute way. It was also something we put on our faq page on our wedding website. We said stuff like alcohol will be provided but please feel free to bring whatever you'd like to drink

I would do a Pinterest search as I have seen this because I'm thinking for whatever post elopement celebration that we may have I would probably just do beer and wine but I know some of my friends like hard liquor or prefer maybe a certain type of wine or beer so as 1pp said I may just say we will serve beer and wine however feel free to bring any libation that you prefer.

View Quoted Comment Girl, that’s like MAYBE one economy beer per person. 👀 Bless your guests if they don’t have feelings about that kind of hosting.

No dramas with putting something about BYO on the details card, but I seriously think you need to consider upping the budget for alcohol.

Weddings don't come cheap but if you are inviting 300-500+ people you need to be prepared to deal with the costs of that many people and less than $1 per person for alcohol is unrealistic - that's not even a soft drink per person. Even for 100 people, $300 is not a very generous alcohol budget, let alone for close to half a thousand people.

Honestly I would consider not even supplying alcohol because I feel like as much as people don't like dry weddings, the alcohol will run out in the first half an hour which people will consider cheap of you, imho.

If you are only providing $300 worth of alcohol for 300+ people I wouldn’t even say you’re providing alcohol. I’d simply make it BYOB and if people get a free drink out of what you provide great but if not, at least they’ll be more adequately prepared with their own supply.

With your budget I would provide Coke, 7-up and mixers such as OJ, Cranberry, and Selzter/Tonic. (or whatever goes with what most of your crowd drinks). Let them know mixers are provided, but, alcohol is BYOB.

Agreeing with previous posters, $300 is what I just spent on a company party for 20. People weren't going that hard because it was co-workers and a Tuesday, so I can't imagine how fast that will go for a wedding! The mixers idea someone mentioned is interesting.

I agree with everyone above. Either go dry or tell everyone BYOB. You might be able to get away with doing two big signature drink/punch options if you up your alcohol budget to about $500.

Personally, I think the expectation is to provide for your guests as you would any other dinner party. If you cannot afford the big wedding, don't have it. People will definitely understand!

Attempting to be "cute" usually results in being cloyingly self-conscious and making a bad message worse. Especially when attempting rhyme and rhythm, best left to the pros (and I don't mean people on the Internet). Just say what you want to say.

Any chance you would consider inviting fewer people and hosting them properly? Or simply going dry, which is very close to what $300. for 300 people already is?

Another thing you may want to think about is liability if someone drinks too much and gets in to an accident. With a bartender, they have the knowledge to cut someone off if they think they are drinking too much. With the BYOB, you may be on the hook for any damages that occur.