Bottles of Champagne at each table?

You should have the bartender serve ALL alcohol if you are concerned about kids drinking. Are most of the guests underage or something?

Champagne is usually poured for the guests before the toast.

I think I would understand the situation better if you explained why underage drinking is such a big deal at your wedding.

Skip the announcement- it's pretty tacky. But you need a licensed bartender, who is checking IDs for every single drink. YOou can spread the word by mouth that underage drinking will not be tolerated! But then it's the bartender who is legally liable, not you.

And FYI- in my state, it's legal for a minor over the age of 16 to drink under the supervision of a parent. I (as a bartender) cannot serve the child, but I can give the drink to the parent who can give it to the child. If the parents gets up, I need to remove the drink from the child until the parent returns, give it back to the parent... blah, blah, blah.

But hire a professional bartender, do not put alcohol on the tables without supervision and make sure the bartender is licensed and insured.

Since I am having an open bar and are not selling drinks we do not need a licensed bartender, although we will have someone in charge of all the the drinking. We will also have someone checking i.d.s

Future KH: If I as a legal adult provide alcohol to someone under the age of 21 I will be the one responsible, it is a BIG deal, I can be fined and possible arrested for it.

We are not having a fancy wedding and the only 'staff' we have is the close friend/bartender so i was just thinking of ways to make the toast less hectic. Thanks!

Jessica, we are also having an open bar and are not selling drinks. Nor are we purchasing the alcohol from the venue. We are buying it at Specs. Given all that, we're still having a licensed bartender. The venue requires it. Your's might as well for insurance and liability purposes. Even if they don't, you're are better off having one for you're good.

If someone gets hammered because you've put bottles on the table and they go out and kill someone in a car accident, you are liable.

We've thought about that too. We are having a shuttle service from the hotel for out of town guests and we will require all drinking participants to check in their keys before they will be served. On top of that we will be closing the bar two hours before the dance ends.

You do have good reason to be concerned about drinks after they leave the bar. Since it's easy for someone over 21 to pick up a drink, put it down go hop on the dance floor and leave it unattended and a 15 yo sneaks it. It does help a little if the alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks are in distinctly different containers (ie: only beer bottles & wine glasses for alcohol), but really you will need to have all of the adults paying attention. A bartender can prevent alcohol being given to minors, but they are only one person, they can't attend to every glass on every table.

Yeah we figured we would serve alcohol in colored cups verses the clear for soda or anything else.