Here's the dilemma...We are only offering alcohol to our guests during the cocktail hour...thoughts?

Full open bar all night, baby. No offense, but I would think it's super weird to be cut off after cocktail hour.

Ewwww.... Yea...... Bad idea. Plus your bartender should know when to cut people off.

I third what WinterWonderland said... She was right on the money.

We're doing a full open bar all night. honestly I think that you could have a last call at some point earlier than the end of the night, but I wouldn't have it be the entire reception. You could do an open bar cocktail hour then wine and beer during the reception and cut that off an hour before the reception ends? I think that if people want alcohol, they will get it. I went to a wedding with only beer and wine and everyone brought their own liquor in flasks.

I've seen open bars during cocktail hour then wines at the table, but mostly it's open bar all night.

I don't agree with you reasonings behind this as I think you should treat your guests like the adults they are and let them decide when to cut themselves off. However, I don't see an issue with only serving drinks during cocktail hour.

I think cocktail hr plus champagne toast is fine. Maybe carry drinking into the dinner hour and then cut it off after dinner, if you're worried about cutting it off too early. Yes some people will grumble but I would brush it off. Its your wedding and your paying for it, so do what you are comfortable with.

I would hate it. I would think it was boring/wierd, sorry. Alcohol is just part of the celebration.

To answer your question, I'd rather have a cash bar than no bar. I feel like we would leave after dinner if there was no bar.

I feel like it would be rude to cut it off completely. Do you have the option of only having wine and beer at the bar after cocktail hour? I am doing full open bar, all night. Yes, I have some friends that like to get wild and crazy, but I'm assuming they are adult enough to know when they need to stop. I'm not the alcohol police.

Your guests are adults and it's not your place to tell them how much they can or should drink. I kind of take offense to your reasoning. It's one thing to say you can't afford something, but this is totally different. I don't see how other people drinking a lot would impact your ability to relax and have fun at your own wedding. If you don't want to offer alcohol, fine, but this is a weird compromise to me.

Bartenders are licensed because they know when to cut people off. Instruct your bartenders to liberally cut people off and be done with it.

It's also sort of offensive to the guests who can regulate themselves. If you don't want people getting wasted at your wedding, I'd suggest open bar for cocktail hour and then wine on the tables for dinner, but communicate to the venue to keep an eye on the amount being consumed and limit it behind the scenes (like, 3 bottles per table), or have it served instead of on the table. That way after cocktail hour people would have at most three glasses of wine. For heavy/frequent drinkers, that's not enough to get wasted on.

I was at a wedding once where two of the guests at my table were sloppy drunk before dinner. The servers assumed we knew them, and were downright rude to us the rest of the night. They took the wine off our table and we had to flag them down to serve us. Every time they filled one of our glasses, they gave us a lecture about how we would be thrown out if we shared with the sloppy drunks. It was really offensive and irritating being treated like a child because of a couple guests.

Yea, that isn't really a good plan. Think about it this way, your guests will likely hear that there is only alcohol for that hour and get totally wasted if that is their MO to begin with, but this way it will all be at once in an hour (it is very possible to get smashed in 1 hour with an open bar) and they will probs leave once it is closed. Consider a limited bar all night, wine and beer...yes people will get drunk again if that is how they typically operate, but the only way to really prevent that is to not have alcohol. assuming your guests are 21 and over your bar tender should be the one making sure everyone is served appropriately.

Where I live it is pretty normal for their to be a limited amount of drinks bought by the couple and once that is consumed then people need to buy their own.

We made the rule of no shots at the wedding so the bartender would not serve shots (because we didn't want people being sloppy drunk).

If I had gotten married in my mid 20's I would have been way more concerned about our loved ones drinking way way way to much (and drinking way way way to much on our tab)...now with most of our guests being older and having 2 kids that they needed to put to bed that night (DW) I was a lot less worried.

But before I would have considered doing a ticket system where everyone gets 2 drink tickets (not sure that stops the real drinkers from using the non drinkers tickets, or a limited drink like beer and wine until a certain amount runs out etc.

My cousin had a card that was given out to specific aunts and uncles so they could have free bar drinks and it ended up in the hands of my 20 year old cousins who did shots and all got pukey drunk during the reception...all to the tune of almost 1000 extra dollars that the couple didn't plan on. So be careful how you regulate as some of them can backfire.

We did passed beer/champagne/hard cider and then a wine station during the cocktail hour with a bar that guests could buy whatever they wanted. Whatever was left of the red/white wine and beer was served the rest of the night for free and the rest was cash bar. We had plenty of wine and beer for the whole night (though we did run out of 1 of the types of beer we bought).

As WinterWonderlandBride said...your paying for it...you control it...

As @JSarge said:

It will not necessarily keep people from getting drunk. Once word gets out that there is only open bar for one hour, anyone who would get drunk from full open bar will find a way to get drunk during that hour. Possibly it will be worse than it would have been otherwise. Just something to consider.

Most of your guest will be adults. Let them choose how much they can tolerate. Also like one of PP mentioned, your bartender will also know when to cut people off.

I went to a wedding with no alcohol and it was the main thing people complained about. Even though it is your wedding and your paying for it, either have it or don't. Having it just for the cocktail hour makes it weird. Maybe just do beer and wine? Especially if it's a night time wedding people tend to want to drink.

I am having an open bar for 90 minutes and once dinner is served it is cash bar! I would not consider having no bar at all.

I'd keep it open all night. An open cocktail hour will signal your guests that alcohol is available at your wedding. Responsible and social drinkers will have a drink or two during cocktail hour, but they will pace themselves and expect that the next four hours will include more cocktails. I'd leave it open, but I would have a clause in my contract that the bartender is responsible for cutting off those who have too much to drink. I have never subscribed to punishing the majority for the deeds of the minority.

I liked Celia's idea best - have wine at the table after. I understand about not wanting alcoholics to over do it - I have a ton of them coming to the wedding. But I am just rolling with it. Cross your fingers and pray for the best.

As long as they dont puke on your dress. Then they shouldnt be invited in the first place.

I also would leave it open all night

1. How are you going to inform guests it's only cocktail hour alcohol? People are going to probably assume it'll be there all night.

2. If they DO know it's only an hour, I promise you people will get more drunk (and faster) knowing they have to binge drink. I may only have 2 or 3 glasses of wine spread out at a wedding, but if I knew I'd have no access to it later (at dinner, dancing) and I didn't know how long everything would take, I could easily finish off a bottle.