Cash bar signage?

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In my social circles we follow the rule of thumb to gift as much as a cost of the meal, and WW overall has a consensus to call that inappropriate, but to then go on and say as a guest you purposefully would spend less on a gift in favor of buying yourself 5+ drinks instead? I'm sorry, but this is incredibly more shallow.

View Quoted Comment To be honest I fully agree with Hanna.

In my culture we tend to gift generously so as to try coming as close as possible to covering our entire share of attendance at a wedding, and I’d be pretty livid if after weeks if not months of saving up to give a nice gift I found out that I have to pay for a single thing at a wedding, and yes, I would have reduced the amount/value of my gift to reflect my likely expenditure at the wedding had it been notified in advance.

Maybe that’s shallow maybe it isn’t but all I know is that in our circles people would be furious if they didn’t know about any unhosted portion of a wedding in advance and would be far more concerned about not knowing this in advance than the actual fact that alcohol is only on the house for the first glass.

View Quoted Comment This. Let guests know by word of mouth, not in the invitation and no sign at the bar, that they need to bring cash. Cash (folded) and credit/debit cards are the same size so they will equally fit into a clutch. But many people don’t carry cash unless they know they need it, but they will carry a card even though many places don’t accept them. Be prepared to serve many non alcoholic beverages because guests don’t want to pay and some may leave early.

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Maybe it's shallow, but I would absolutely give a less expensive gift for a wedding with a cash bar. In my social circle the rule of thumb is to give what you can afford. Which is why I always spend significantly less on gifts for destination weddings due to the costs that add up from the hassle of travel, accomodation, etc. I would be upset if I attended someone's wedding without knowing beforehand that it would be a cash bar, and I had already given an expensive gift. The way I see it, if someone sets aside, say, $150 to give as a wedding gift, he/she might not necessarily be able to afford an additional $50 for the cost of drinks on top of this. Therefore, the reasonable thing to do would be to give $100 instead in order to account for helping to offset the cost of the drinks at the reception. In my view, it's best to be upfront with guests so that they can plan accordingly. You don't want to surprise people and catch them off guard--I've heard stories about people retrieving their checks from the card box after learning there was a cash bar. Therefore, going back to your original question, I think your best bet is to warn guests in advance and the verbiage of the sign can indicate the price of each drink.

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This truly leaves me speechless. I honestly cannot wrap my head around that there are demographics of people who will be genuinely angry over being unable to get irresponsibly intoxicated at someone else's monetary expense, when the hosts are already providing ample amounts of other options to consume. If that is truly the case where the guest would then go and grab back cash from a gift box on their friend's or family's wedding day then why bother attending at all? If the priority is to get drunk go to a dive bar instead. How cruel.

View Quoted Comment I think part of your issue with it is you view it as people just wanting to get drunk.

Not everyone drinks alcohol to the point of being “irresponsibly intoxicated”.

I sparingly drink and when I do, I will usually tap out at two glasses of wine, maybe three if it’s over a really long period of time but even then, that’s only been on a handful of occasions at most.
Not everyone’s “priority” is to get drunk but that still doesn’t mean that people will be pleased about opening their wallets. It’s the principle of expecting this type of event to be fully hosted.

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Pardon me, I don't have any issues here other than the entitlement of stating that the provisions being given to our guests aren't good enough. While I respect that most will stay within reason, there is always going to be the handful that will take advantage of the hospitality. I'm sorry, but we're just not condoning that for our special day. Such a choice isn't something that guests have any right to attack because the day is not about them.

To put this in comparison, this viewpoint is the same as if I were to be upset over a guest gifting me something that wasn't on our registry. While it may be "expected" to give gifts at this type of event, it isn't required, and it certainly isn't required to get them off of a specific list. That's ill-mannered.

If you still see that as my issue, then so be it. To each their own!

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I don't think it's that people want to get irresponsibly drunk, it's the principle of having to open up one's own wallet while attending a wedding which is bothersome. I've seen stories about people going back to remove their checks when confronted with a cash bar on Reddit, not IRL (though I don't doubt that it's happened). I would personally rather attend a dry wedding with no alcohol at all than be faced with a cash bar, unless I knew about the cash bar in advance. Since you're set on having a cash bar, I think your situation is pretty simple. You can help alleviate the taboo nature of a cash bar by spreading the words to guests ahead of time. That way, you won't catch them by surprise and you won't need some crazy long sign about drink vouchers with complicated verbiage. You can just list the prices of the drinks on your sign.

I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but I must agree with all the previous posters. Cash bars just aren’t a good idea for hosted events. You should never invite anyone to an event where you offer something, but then expect them to pay for it. That’s like inviting your friends or family to your house for dinner, offering them wine, then telling them they need to pay you for it. It’s just poor hosting. If you are going to offer a bar at your wedding, you should be footing the bill for it. If it’s not in your budget, it would be better to just not have a bar at all
I have only been to one wedding in my entire life that had a cash bar. And to be perfectly frank, everyone gossiped about how tacky it was. A huge portion of guests left right after dinner, or shortly thereafter. A lot of the younger crowd left to go to local bars because they could drink cheaper there than at the reception.

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Following this same logic, if someone wants to receive a second serving of steak, then it would imply that I'm obligated to provide them a second meal. That's ridiculous.

We are providing everything for our guests within reason. Receiving a complimentary, full 4-course meal, plus an hour of appetizers beforehand, AND one alcoholic beverage of their choice, is absolutely plenty. Our wedding isn't about over indulging, it's about celebrating our marriage. If every person needs everything I just listed and then some in order to be in a mindset of being remotely happy for us, then they don't sound like the kinds of people we would want to include to celebrate the start of our lives together.

So again, putting beside the toxic, entitled opinions of this thread's responses, I didn't create this forum to be ridiculed over our wedding decisions. I was looking to brainstorm signage ideas.

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Lol this is being grossly misinterpreted and over exaggerated. Regardless of your opinions, there is no taboo nature to any bars or any wedding planning choices for that matter because they're all implemented by and for the newly-wedded couple!

There are no "crazy" signage or complications. Here's some examples of signs for open, partially open, and I guess just a menu - answers I was hoping that would've been politely brainstormed. I'll just make a menu highlighting what we recommend.

View Quoted Comment I think you’re misinterpreting everybody’s responses and spinning them in a negative light, simply because people aren’t saying what you want to hear. You went onto a public form and asked a question about verbiage on a sign to indicate to your guests that they will have to open their wallets and help fund part of your event. The commenters here are letting you know that there should be no sign that states such things- so yes, everybody is answering your question about sign verbiage. The answers I am seeing here appear to be quite helpful in nature- people are indicating to you that you may want to reconsider a portion of your wedding, as guests may find it rude, tacky, in poor taste, etc. Responders are trying to point out something that maybe you hadn’t considered in the past. Personally, I would be quite grateful if this many people indicated that something I was doing may not be considered gracious hosting, so that I could reconsider it.
But, since you do not appear to be interested in that, I will answer your (rudely stated) demand for specific sign verbiage for your bar. The sign at your bar should simply list drinks available and the prices for each. That is all. Any further information regarding your guests having to open their wallets and pay for their drinks should be communicated to them through a details card that accompanies your invitations.

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I'm not looking for feedback on how the wedding is being executed, just signs/decor. Thank you!

You should make it clear on the signage that it is cash only. Maybe put "Cash only bar - no credit or debit cards".