Alcohol Options- Please forgive me- i know this is touchy.

We are having beer and wine and non-alcoholic drinks only. No hard liquor

I would stick to beer and wine only. This would make it easier and less likely for people to get too drunk.

A professional bartender should mitigate your concerns for level of drunkness. It’s their job to help make sure people aren’t over-served.
Would your venue allow your mini bottle idea? Seems like that puts more risk on you and the venue if you’re letting people self serve liquor....
If this is truly a budget issue disguised as a my-drunk-uncle issue, just provide what you can afford. Have less variety and lower quality beer, wine, whatever.

There isn't any venue........It will be an outdoor wedding at someone's house. Still working out the logistics of who is in the middle, has the space, and the parking availability. But it's definitely in some family member's yard. Traditional venues were not really feasible with some of our halloween plans- like trick-or-treating stations for the kids, or utilizing our halloween decorations. Not to mention, my location doesn't have many options for venues. so the allowance question isn't a big deal. A professional bartender is out of the budget, unfortunately. Budget is a small portion of the concern, but I am saving money in most places of the wedding already. The largest concern for me is the amount of small children running around with potentially tipsy and or drunk parents. One of my sister's just got married last week and we had family members who literally could not walk back inside and two who got lost in a fenced in back yard (Still trying to figure that one out). Beer and Wine are my primary choices, but I do want everyone to have something and some of my guests, like my dad, would be offended by no liquor as they don't drink either of those options. I really just want to find a happy medium for me and my guests, as the alternative to ensure that children are safe and no one is dangerously drunk is a dry wedding, and for the love of everything- I do not want that.

I would just stick with beer and wine only.

I was going to say just do wine and beer but I saw your response. This sounds hard. The idea itself is not bad but I can foresee a lot of trouble with it. Maybe you can provide whisky (if that’s what your dad drinks) to have some sort of hard liquor but have it somehow limited. I see your point of wanting to be responsible for the kids but I do think each person specially a parent should be responsible enough to know better than get wasted with their kids around. Since is a family house maybe have a back up plan for them to sleep over but for sure this is a hard one to find a happy medium!
Good luck.

This is a tough one... I am only serving beer and wine and non-alcohol also due to the small kids. maybe you could get your dad a personalized flask with booze in it.

Stick with beer and wine. You can't please everyone. Giving each guest a predetermined number of mini liquor bottles is super odd. It also comes off as cheap and micromanagy. You could do beer, wine, and a couple of signature cocktails that are low proof

Unfortunately, if someone is going to get obliterated, restricting alcohol to beer and wine is not going to prevent that. I see people bring this concern up all the time. I think you just need to be prepared to put your family members in an Uber and send them home. Or you should let them know ahead of time their behavior at the previous wedding will not be tolerated. You could have a beer garden type setup, which would keep those indulging in alcoholic beverages in one area. That would at least keep the kiddies from getting underfoot and the shenanigans contained.

I think it's best to have a beer and wine bar only. Additionally, you can set out the beer and wine at a certain time so, that people don't spend the whole event drinking.

I know you said its out of budget, but I think if your this concerned looking to hire a bartender of sorts isn't a bad idea. I think that's your best chance at avoiding people overdrinking. Maybe a friend or something would be willing. I like the idea of the non-alcoholic punch and mini bottles, my only concern there is people passing around mini bottles to people who have already had enough.

A good bartender will know when to stop serving people, so guests won't get blackout drunk and still be able to enjoy themselves.

I went to a wedding where it was just beer and wine only and no one complained about it

I'm not sure of what you are planning as far as food/catering is concerned, but our caterer provided a bartender since we are purchasing the alcohol through them. I personally would just provide beer and wine. People always tend to get a little out of hand when liquor is involved. As far as budget is concerned, choose a few types of beer and wine and make that it. If they don't like the alcohol options, then they can drink one of the non-alcoholic options. As far as your dad is concerned, maybe give him a flask as a gift on the wedding day.

I agree with everyone saying to get a bartender. If hiring someone is out of your budget, I would suggest asking a friend or coworker to volunteer to do it and possibly setting up a drink ticket system rather than having a fully open bar. This would naturally cut people off at 2-3 drinks (depending on how many tickets you give them) so people can still enjoy themselves without going overboard. Also, consider having a last call fairly early on in the evening—keep the mocktails/iced tea/lemonade/whatever flowing, but stop serving alcohol pretty early into the evening.

I would stick with beer and wine. You don’t want tons of little liquor bottles all over the place if your main concern is safety of the children. Also if an adult wants to get drunk, they will get drunk. Giving people mini bottles actually sounds easier to get drunk than by serving only wine or beer. One mini bottle is a shot, who is to stop people from just drinking the bottle and not adding a mixer? Also a bartender would pour the drinks with the proper amount of liquor. I wouldn’t let guests self serve liquor period. Even less so if I was concerned about drunkenness. And I wouldn’t have small bottles all over the place if I was concerned about kids.

To echo others, offer just beer & wine.