Alcohol policies in certain venues

We didn’t have an issue with that. Our venue is letting us have a couple of signature drinks (Malibu & Coke, etc). With all the weddings in ‘19 & ‘20 being rescheduled to ‘21, I wouldn’t be looking into another venue. Besides the no hard liquor, are there any other things that would stop you from booking?

Our venue is a park and they only allow beer and wine as well. I didn't want people making a scene at my wedding so that was fine with me. People can definitely get drunk off beer and wine...!

View Quoted Comment So we were also allowed signature drinks BUT we have to pre make them ourselves and they’ll serve them ONLY during cocktail hour from 4-6. That’s where we got more iffy about it. I do like the place though and you’re right! It’s been a nightmare trying to find a place

Do your best to make the experience as pleasant for your guests as possible. Many times that means you need to keep looking for a venue. If your guests are used to and prefer a certain something, in your case the liquor, then accommodate that by finding another venue.


For us, beer and wine only would not work with our guest list because only a very select few would partake of it. That's just bad hosting.
Have you checked peerspace.com or eventective.com?

View Quoted Comment That’s very true, I don’t think I want people getting blacked out at my wedding

We are having a completely dry wedding.

View Quoted Comment Yes so for us both of our families they don’t really drink wine and they drink beer, but I know they prefer liquor to have a good time and that’s just the honest truth. Yes that’s what I don’t want is for people to be bored or think wow why did I come. I just hope we can find something quick. It’s been hard finding a place with every one rescheduling because of the pandemic

I think it’s a combination of “know your crowd”, and deciding how important a full bar is for you and your fiancé. For us, this would have been a dealbreaker. Both of our families and friends enjoy cutting loose and having cocktails, and it is really important to both of us to make sure our guests are well hosted and having a great time. We wanted to make sure everyone could enjoy whatever cocktails they preferred (including us!- I don’t enjoy beer or wine). We also wanted a more carefree, party vibe at our reception.

View Quoted Comment People will still enjoy themselves. But it will be more subdued. If someone absolutely can't have a good time without alcohol then there are bigger issues to deal with. But in general, if you know your guests will not like something then it can backfire. Picture it being a caterer: they only offer 2 meal selections and your guests won't touch either of them. It would be a waste of your time and money to hire that caterer. Same applies to the venue with the alcohol policies.


Also people do know how to monitor their alcohol intake and bartenders and security are required by law to cut people off and get the situation under control long before they reach that stage of drunkenness. That should not be a concern.

I don't drink at all, but one of the venues we looked at had a similar policy, and it was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of why we didn't book with them. Everyone *else* I know drinks.

If their alcohol policies are funky, they might have other weird rules they haven't mentioned, yet.

Know your crowd.

We toured a venue that allowed hard liquor, but had similar strict requirements on what/when/how it could be served. Follow up questions made it apparent that this venue prides themselves on ensuring no one gets drunk (to the extreme of not allowing groomsmen into their getting-ready suit after the ceremony in case they smuggled in liquor). But they also cater more to younger couples with large wedding parties (very southern!)
Dictating what our friends can drink isn’t something we want - being in our 30s, hopefully the drinks help our new-parent friends stay out past 9! Hah.
Long way of saying that you should consider why they have these rules and what that would mean for your day. (Since it clearly isn’t due to lack of liquor license etc)

I don't mind a dry wedding. But unless finances were extremely tight, I would always give people more of a choice than beer or wine. In part,🙂 because not only do neither my husband and I drink wine, but neither does anyone in my family. Having champagne and wine is redundant. Beer , wine, and at least 2 hard liquors with a variety of mixers for each, plus juices. For us it would be white rum, and scotch or blended whiskey. And I likely would change venues to get it.

We chose a beer & wine only wedding. Neither of us are big liquor drinkers and I didn’t want guests taking shots or getting too drunk. Luckily none of our guests were huge liquor drinkers either. But it was our wedding our choice and no one had any complaints.

Our venue is the same way almost! We're allowed one signature drink during cocktail hour. The rest of the night has to be wine and beer. For us, it isn't an issue. Not many of our guests drink hard liquor on the regular, so wine and beer/white claws/trulys are perfect for our crowd.

Personally, I think have wine and beer at a wedding with a signature cocktail for cocktail hour is perfectly fine. You won't have to worry about someone having too many shots and things getting out of hand.

If you know that your guests like alcohol then I would say no to that venue. That was a must for us, we had to select a venue where we could do open bar and our guests would enjoy. If our venue only allowed beer and wine then it would've been an easy no for us 🤷🏾‍♀️

If you think that it could ruin the guests' time, then look for another place