How to calculate non-alcoholic drinks

To answer your question, if people are hot, which it sounds like they will be, you’ll need twice as much water tea and lemonade as you think. Hot people drink faster, especially if it’s not alcohol, which people tend to nurse, rather than chug like they would lemonade or tea.

I would be really disappointed with just water,tea and lemonade. I hate tea, I'm diabetic so no lemonade, that leaves water, boring. I don't drink so no alcohol doesn't really matter to me but at least give me a diet Coke instead of water.

Whats the bathroom situation?

View Quoted Comment All I picture when I read these types of replies are adults stomping their feet and flailing their arms in the air, "We deserve alcohol! How dare they!" Be sure to throw yourselves to the ground and kick your legs about for good measure.

If not having alcohol at a wedding entices that kind of response, you either have a small dependency on it to relax and have fun, or you weren't particularly close to the couple to begin with and are looking for tradeoffs for your time to attend.

View Quoted Comment Omg that's like exactly what I do. How did you know?!?

Your reasoning on drinks is that you don't 'like' alcohol... betting a large percentage of your huge guest list does like it. So I don't like meat. Hate the texture and the smell, I literally think all meat is gross and refer to it as 'roadkill' (jokingly of course). However, at the last party I hosted? You bet I served meat entrees too. At my wedding? Yep multiple meat choices. Just because I don't like it doesn't mean that I can force my restrictions on others who do eat meat.

Just saying. Be a good host. And make sure the water is PLENTIFUL. I wouldn't stay long In the heat that's for sure.

View Quoted Comment That's actually pretty funny. 😏

View Quoted Comment It's just a fact that at adult parties and events, most people expect alcohol to be provided. It goes hand in hand with food and water. It's not about being drunk, it's about expectations at a celebratory occasion and properly hosting, and this has been the norm for thousands of years. Also, with regard to alcohol and having fun, I'm too lazy to download the meme right now but the old standby is "I hate when people say that you don't need alcohol to have fun. You don't need running shoes to run but it f'in helps!"

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If that's what you're picturing, then I'm picturing all you dry wedding proponents doing the same thing, but whining "waahhhhh it's MY day, so I'm going to make my guests suffer for MY vision, and if they don't like it, well I don't need them!"

Gotta love the "well you must have a dependency problem" response.

Just a heads up - usually when it is a dry wedding people will bring their own in flasks and end up even more belligerent than if you provided alcohol yourself. Also, a bartender won't allow people to get drunk out of their minds. They know when to cut people off.

I would really really really strongly suggest changing at least the time of your wedding to be in the evening so the sun has set and it starts to cool off.

Really think about it - a tent- PACKED with people - all dressed up - in the middle of the day - during one of the hottest months of the year... Unless you were my sibling, or a very very very close friend, I would leave pretty shortly after the ceremony. Can you see if you can move it to an event hall? It doesn't have to be fancy - but having your guests at a comfortable temperature should be a priority for your reception.

View Quoted Comment Sure it helps, but not having it is NOT the end of the world, shouldn't automatically deem the wedding a failure and does not call for the level of negative vehemence in the arguments for alcohol towards OP.

As you clearly stated, it has to do with guest expectations. As long as those are properly managed, there is no issue with not providing alcohol.

I personally don’t care if there would be alcohol or not, but considering the number of guests who may or may not have different tastes than you, I would recommend adding some alcoholic options. If the wedding was more intimate and you knew for sure that a majority of your guests didn’t drink alcohol, in that case it would make more sense. But in this case, it seems more proper to offer alcohol and let your guests make their own decision. That all being said, you know your guests better than anyone on this forum and therefore are the most qualified to make this decision. I actually think the heat and weather issues are more concerning than the alcohol. You might want to consider an indoor venue especially if you have a significant number of older folks coming to your wedding. Best of luck!

WW is so weird. People get so off topic. I'd say 8 drinks per person.

View Quoted Comment Our tent vendor is able to provide side walls on the tent and air conditioning if it turns out to be a hot weekend.

I'd also like to say, thank you to everyone who actually tried to help me out with the question I was asking in the first place. I know most of you don't agree with our decision to host a dry reception, and that's okay, I can agree to disagree with most of you on that.

I appreciate the general concern about the heat, though, and if it helps you feel any less concerned, I will be getting side walls and air conditioning for the tent if the weather proves to be terrible that weekend.

View Quoted Comment The reply I needed to hear… it is so sad to see how instead of helping her they went straight to criticism.

Hi Chloe, I know you posted this in 2018 and I really hope you had an amazing wedding with the 400 people!
I am in a similar situation, I am getting married this upcoming august and I am trying to calculate how much water, tea, and lemonade, I should get for my 180 guests.
Any tips? Thank you!