Beer, wine, and alcohol dilemma.

Perhaps you could choose certain times during the reception that the alcohol is served? Maybe the beer and wine is only available before the toast and after the cake has been cut, for example. I don't know, just throwing ideas out, haha.

No matter what you serve, you can't control other people's behaviour. Sorry.

Most of the venues in my area won't serve shots anymore, and that's a good place to start. Make your sig cocktail a mixed drink (rather than a martini, which is basically four ounces of liquor) or a sangria.

I've found that people's action tend to mirror their environment. I very rarely witness any unwanted behaviour in my more upscale venues.

That's true about actions and environment. There are actually some pretty cool articles you can find about expectations and behavior while consuming alcohol. If the wedding crowd expects to get raucous when drinking, you might have a problem. Best of luck to you!

I agree with Celia! This is the exact reason that we won't be having alcohol at the wedding at all - we have too many people that would be acting like idiots unfortunately.

However we're having an after party at a local bar (a buy your own beer event and we can leave if things get out of hand :-D )

Thanks ladies! You have given me some fabulous input!

It's really difficult to control how others act. Besides from not serving alcohol you really can't. You could do a 2 ticket/drink limit, but that doesn't really go over too well. I think if you limit the time the alcohol is served and do beer and wine during the reception you should be okay. You really can be accountable for others actions.

I've never been to a wedding with an open bar (and those are the majority of the weddings I've been to) in which people got so drunk that it tarnished the event. But, Celia may have a point I hadn't considered. These were all very upscale venues.

As far as preventing drunken behavior at a wedding -- you can't (even if it's a completely dry wedding, some will bring their own in flasks and run out to the car every now and then). People can (and do) get completed wasted on wine and beer, so serving that in lieu of alcohol is not a guarantee.

You can always higher Security. This way you don't have to babysit anyone.

This won't help for cocktail hour, but for dinner, can you have servers walking around pouring wine etc so the flow of beverages is a little more controlled than just an open bar? For cocktail hour, you could serve a signature drink only or champagne only just for that hour so that might slow people down some as well?

We've decided to only do beer and wine for this purpose. I was so excited about doing "signature" cocktails but liquor tends to lead to idiot behavior so I dropped them. We're also putting a little sign over the bar prob with some other "funny" saying too that says

"Our wedding will have an open beer/wine bar. It will also be heavily photographed, so any drunken shenanigans will be well documented and thoroughly mocked for years to come. Proceed with caution."

You all have fabulous ideas! We will have service staff serving the beer and wine during the reception, Jennifer I love your idea of the silly sign. That is just too cute! My father-in-law promises that if anyone gets out of hand he is kicking them out!

Encourage the bartendera to cut people off who are drunk.

Just make sure you have a bartender that knows when to cut some off and will do it with no problem and have someone that will remove someone that gets to drunk and out of control.

People can get drunk on wine or beer, too -- not just liquor. Have a professional bartender who can keep an eye on people before they get out of hand.

You can't really control how adults act unfortunately. I think knowing the people you are inviting is enough. I know that my people like to drink but none of us get sloppy. It will get everyone dancing though so that's my main reason for wanting it. If I had beer and wine only people will leave. I am also thinking about having different kind of alcoholic drinks pre-made though.

Agreed although people do get drunk its only themselves they embarress! @ Jennifer I love your sign! I might use that idea!

Thank you Nancy I see a lot of people on these forums saying how that's why they do beer and wine and I am like I can get pretty freaking plastered on wine lol. It doesn't take a lot. It actually takes me longer to get drunk with hard alcohol than wine. If it has alcohol in it you risk the chances of people getting drunk. They are adults. Your bartender should be watching for those who are really drunk but other than that I would just make sure you have people available for if anything gets out of hand.

There was a recent wedding in the family and everyone was good. The venue requires us to have police if alcohol is served. And I am just fine w/ bar tenders cutting people off =)

Hello everyone! First off, allow me to clarify my reasoning behind beer and wine only. I am well aware that people can get drunk off of beer and wine as well as liquor. I chose not to do liquor because I do not want my guests taking shots and getting drunk at a faster pace. I'm hoping the bartenders will be cutting people off after they have seen them more than a handful of times at the bar/serving station.

We hired an outside bartender to cut people off and we have security. We are serving beer, wine, soda, water, and champagne. No hard liquor and shots or mixed drinks and definitely no help yourself to whatever you want!