Anyone have a dry reception?

I was MOH for a dry mormon wedding this past August and it went alright. The only guests that were really bummed were the young non-mormon friends of the bride. Since basically the whole guest list was Mormon, a bar probably would have gotten minimal use. Ask some of your VIP guests what they think....

I'm all about the booze at weddings so, I'm useless.

But in all seriousness, I think you should consider what entertainment, if any, you'll have. If you're just having dancing, people are going to need booze to get on the floor, most do. If you're doing lawn games, or other activities during the reception, I can see a dry reception being alright if that's what you choose to do.

People drink during celebrations! Plus, alcohol is a social lubricant. So, if YOU drink, and most of your guests drink, you should offer alcohol - at least beer and wine. I have been to one dry wedding and it was very boring. Plus, most people brought flasks or pre-gamed in the parking lot which to me was really not classy and took away from the reception.

I really really want to have a dry reception.

But FH wants to have alcohol. I have drunks on my side and he has drunks on his side and most guests are coming from sea level and we live 2 miles above sea level so alcohol hits differently (harder). We compromised on have a two drink limit. Granted I know people will get around it but I don't care, I tried. lol.

I plan on when they arrive, they get two raffle tickets. As they get a drink, the bartender takes a ticket. No ticket = No drink. Like I said, I know people can easily give/take other peoples tickets, but thats my effort and compromise. Also since its an open bar but all alcohol is provided by FH and I before the ceremony.

Good luck!

It's not important for a wedding, it's important for a party. If you want people to have fun, dance and socialize, that generally goes best with some alcohol. Most adults enjoy a few drinks when they're at a party. A dry wedding is certainly acceptable, but depending on your crowd, you may have a lot of people leave early, dance less, etc.

I've been to two weddings recently. One was dry, the other was not. They were equally fun though. Neither had a packed dance floor but the dry wedding actually had more people dancing than the drinky wedding.

I'm not a frequent drinker (I'm frequently the designated driver) We are having a limited open bar. I've been to several dry weddings and had a great time.

FH's extended family does not drink alcohol. We still intend to serve alcohol, so hopefully they will not be offended. I would not consider a dry reception, although I am perfectly capable of having a good time without alcohol.

My FBIL and his bride had a dry reception. His groomsmen (and most of my future in laws) aren't drinkers, but her BMs are. She figured it would be best to just not have it. Everyone still had a blast and weren't afraid to boogie.

Maybe you could just offer beer and wine. You don't really need to offer the hard stuff.

I'm having a dry wedding. Mostly out of respect for my parents, his mom, and my grandma. All for different reasons. Its just a bonus that it saves money. I have only ever been to 1 wedding with alcohol and it was a cash bar, sure it was fun but the others were fun as well. I'm ready to go the Piano Bar in my wedding dress lol

Both FCIL had near dry weddings. They had wine for toasting, but other than that there was no alcohol. It worked out and both were very fun. We are planning on doing this too.

Our wedding will be dry, but our crowd calls for that. Our families don't drink; we don't serve alcohol at any family functions, unless one of my siblings is hosting. Even then alcohol is fairly minimal. I've warned our friends coming; it helps that it is in the afternoon too. But then we are having an after party after, and we'll be drinking then. :-)

Sorry no help here...never been to one and having one would result in both our families disowning us. Anything but an Open premium bar was not an option for us

Just depends on your crowd. If your crowd doesn't drink, you will be fine. We have a very heavy drinking crowd, so a dry reception would be a failure.

We didn't have any alcohol--as others have said, it depends entirely on you and your crowd. Our reception wasn't a crazy party but we're not crazy party people; it was perfect for us. And we're still hearing from people who much they enjoyed it.

Our wedding was full open bar, as are most in our area. I wouldn't mind a dry wedding but I would appreciate a heads up beforehand as Emilie mentioned.

A dry wedding wouldn't bother me a bit. We had an open bar at our wedding - only because a to-be-unnamed family member of mine INSISTED on it AND paid for it. I'm usually not a drinker at all, but hey - I had my champagne toast and an amaretto sour. lol Guests loved it, though. And no one got out of hand.

But again, I wouldn't turn my nose up at a dry reception as long as there is something else to drink (soda, etc).

I think a lot of it depends on timing of your wedding. I think an evening wedding would call for alcohol. FH and I don't drink and are having a dry wedding, but we're also doing a 2 o'clock heavy hors d'ouerves reception. We are going to do some sort of cute signature non-alcoholic drink to serve as well though.

I don't like dry weddings. I enjoy a drink when at a celebration. I've only been a guest at one dry wedding and it was just that "dry."

We had a dry wedding. We both drink and so do our friends. But due to the location, we would've had to get our own liquor license and had it on our home owners policy. We weren't willing to take that risk for one night. We also didn't have it due to having a few struggling alcoholics in our families and to save on costs. We did have people leave early, but that was also due to a college football game and another wedding in town. I absolutely hate when people say that they 'need' alcohol for a good time. I don't regret not having it a bit. The place that we had our reception, we had to clean up. We only had to mop two small areas where as if we had a bar, we would've mopped the whole floor.

Do what feels right to you and your FH, not all of us on WW