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Holly
Devoted August 2021

How to serve water at a barn wedding?

Holly, on January 11, 2019 at 3:41 PM Posted in Wedding Reception 1 10

Hi! Our venue is a barn with no access to running water and a question I keep coming back to is how we're going to provide water for our guests. We are planning on doing a buffet style dinner, most likely with BBQ. Since it's buffet, the place settings will be pretty paired down at the table - napkins and flatware on the table, dinner plates stacked at the buffet table. Not sure what to do about glasses/water. Ideally, there would be large glass bottles of chilled water available on every table for guests to fill/refill their own cups, but since we're not hiring any waitstaff, there is no one and no water hookup to refill the bottles once they're empty. I figure my only options are the large self-serve tabletop dispensers, or coolers/basins of water bottles in ice. I see downsides to both - so I'm wondering what other brides in this situation did/are doing. Thanks!

10 Comments

Latest activity by Jake, on August 3, 2019 at 5:22 PM
  • Kayley
    Dedicated November 2019
    Kayley ·
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    I’m in the same exact situation. We are doing bottles of water on ice throughout the barn. I used an online calculator to see how much I would need, keeping in mind other beverages you might be serving such as soda or alcohol. I didn’t love the idea of guests having to reuse bottles or wait in line to refill them. I also didn’t want to worry about refilling the giant jugs of water through the night.
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  • Sandy
    Dedicated October 2019
    Sandy ·
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    I wonder if you can rent those water bottle/water dispensers you see in offices? There are companies that rent them to businesses. Just an idea, that way you wouldn’t have all the plastic bottle waste. You could even use cute water bottles for favors.
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  • Candace
    Dedicated October 2021
    Candace ·
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    As said above ^ maybe even if the tables are big enough, small ice buckets with bottles at each table? (I'm imagining an alternative to a pitcher you'd get at a restaurant). This particular one is like centerpiece sized but I'm sure you could find one a bit bigger

    How to serve water at a barn wedding? 1
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  • Justine
    Super July 2019
    Justine ·
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    We are doing buffet and we are providing water and pop since our venue only provides alcohol. We are filling large plastic tubs with ice for the water bottles and pop cans.
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  • Holly
    Devoted August 2021
    Holly ·
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    I think this will be the best option for us as well. As long as you provide multiple beverage spots so it's not a pain for guests to keep crossing the length of the space each time they're thirsty, I see no problems with it. Thanks for sharing what you're doing!

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  • Holly
    Devoted August 2021
    Holly ·
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    I think we'll do this too! It just makes more sense, especially because we don't have anyone to refill the large dispensers

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  • Destiny
    VIP May 2020
    Destiny ·
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    We're getting a fill n chill table for our water bottles also doing this

    How to serve water at a barn wedding? 2
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  • Cara
    Expert July 2019
    Cara ·
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    You could get simple custom labels (tons on Etsy) for the water bottles in large tubs! I think that’ll be the easiest way to give guests easy access to water without anyone having to worry about filling up containers too frequently.
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  • MrsD
    Legend July 2019
    MrsD ·
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    I would get dispensers with ice! Then you could do flavored water if you wanted.

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  • Jake
    Just Said Yes June 2020
    Jake ·
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    Seems wasteful for all those bottles but we are in the same boat. I think we are going to serve liquor and beer out of something like this: https://greenpaperproducts.com/biodegradable-cold-cups.aspx

    But we haven't figured out the water situation yet.

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