Cocktail Hour Alternatives?

As someone who rarely drinks, I think mocktails would be fun. Since we are planning for an event in the fall we are going to have a hot cider bar with some mix-ins (think cinnamon sticks etc). I love the idea of a hot chocolate bar, but it might be a little heavy before dinner.

Maybe have a “mocktail hour” instead with cute non-alcoholic mixed drinks as options and appetizers 😉

Thank you all so much. I think I'll leaning towards mocktails and some comfort food apps. I've already found some great mocktail recipes on Pinterest!

I don't see anything wrong with serving hot chocolate before dinner, or do you want to serve it after dinner with cake instead? Are your other beverages self serve? How are you controlling portions so you don't run out? A cocktail hour is nice to have because it gives guests a chance to mingle while they are waiting for you to arrive from taking pictures but it is 100% optional and does not mandate that alcohol must be served at any point if it goes against your religious beliefs or budget. If you are serving a full dinner, you can go right into that if you wish.

I would suggest non alcoholic coctails with finger food and candy bar

I think there's a lot of fun drink options that you could mix and match to suit a small selection of finger foods.

Standard soda selection (Coke, Sprite, etc). Fancy soda selection (Izzie, Dry Soda, Reed's Ginger Ale) Lemonade. Iced Tea. Shirley Temple. Roy Rogers. Sparkling Water. Canned/bottled cold brew coffee. Hot chocolate and whip cream.

I think food is important, but you could do a mocktail set up, lemonade, sweet/unsweet tea, boba tea, or a bunch of other unique things to make it entertaining even without alcohol.