Bartender vs. Self-Serve

I'd personally hire a bartender just to be on the safe side.

I think self-serve is a great idea! Make sure to tell the parents to keep an eye on their teenagers! Keep it somewhere where there will always people that can see it. However, I don't have many teenagers coming to my wedding, so I'm not as worried. The amount of money you can save by not having a bartender is worth the risk to me.

Check out the law in your area. In ours, the hosts can be liable if a guest drinks and then causes an accident while driving, but hiring a licensed bartender eliminates the risk.

What about the risk of people over serving themselves, then getting in their vehicle and driving? You as the host may be liable so I would make sure you are fully aware before you do this.

IMO peace of mind of having a qualified bartender far exceeds the price.

Always manage the bar.

Just got married! And one of the experiences we regret is not having a dedicated bartender. We had only beer and wine, and while plenty of guests pitched in and helped and everything was okay, it was still kind of chaos and could have been smoother.

My wedding is n Nov. We're buying the liquor at Costo to save money, but hired a bartender to serve. Much cheater than buying a full beverage package from a vendor.

Have a properly licensed bartender. Self-serve opens you up to a lot of liability and legal trouble, especially if minors get to the alcohol. Save yourself the headache and hire someone.

Self serve beer is one thing. self service liquor on the other hand? thats just asking someone to turn a bottle up and hide it in their jacket.

im doing self service beer..were building a kind of draft beer bar thing but we're having bartenders for liquor and wine.

We are doing both. Any mixed drinks and wine will be served by a bartender. Beer will be self serve.

I would hire a bartender, for both legal and logistical reasons. When people serve themselves, they take forever so a line grows behind them, spill, give themselves too large a portion (like filling a wineglass to the brim or making a gin-gin-gin-gin-gin and tonic), etc. Much better to have a person managing things for them.

I went to a wedding where it was self-serve beer and wine but you had to go to another room for a bartender to serve liquor. I had never seen this before but it worked out perfect (probably because we were seated fairly close to the bar) and ended up leaving the bottle of champagne on the table since everyone was drinking it.

Just hire a bartender. It's totally worth it. Someone to grab more ice when needed, someone to make sure a single isn't a triple, someone to reduce your liability, someone to great your guests, it keeps things more tidy with a bartender, and believe it or not, lots of people don't know how to make their favourite drinks- or the drink they are getting for their date.

Our wedding is in October. It's going to be small (45 guests) and is also a laid back, DIY affair. We are having self-serve. We're only offering wine (we'll also have water, lemonade and sweet tea). We only have 5 youngsters and they are elementary school aged and will be well supervised. I think it will be fine.

Bartender. My family will go over board with the drinks.

How many guests did you have?