No Alcohol Reception

Oh, you've been flagged.

If you hate this site so much, why do you keep coming here, Delany?

If I'm going to drive out to bfe for your wedding, ill be expecting alcohol.

Now that I know what BFE means:

OP, I am also getting married in BFE. My venue also has no bartender and requires us to hire 100% outside vendors. We found a caterer that has a licensed bar tender for $25/hr

All we do is provide the booze.

A simple selection of wine, a few kegs, and a table (with proper tablecloths & crap to look good) to place cups on and we're good to go.

"To clarify, our venue requires we hire a bartender that will come out to be about $400, without the alcohol." That's a bullshit excuse for poor hosting.

Are you sending STD's?

Don't. That's an unnecessary expense.

Cut your guest list to close family & friends.

Don't go overboard on decorations

DIY the shit out of what you can. I found a veil I love at my bridal boutique, it was over $200. So I'm making one that looks pretty damn close (for less than $40)

It's doable. Properly hosts your guests

(Seriously, my parents STILL bitch about my uncles wedding from over 20 years ago, dry wedding, not enough food to go around)

I attended a Mormon wedding and reception and no alcohol drinks were served so yes I would completely understand.

There are lots of fun non-alcoholic beverages. You can get flavored sparking water with fresh berries is an example. Just google for other recipes.

Ivy, but OP never said she was Mormon. She just said she doesn't want to spend the money on alcohol. Wayyyy different.

Honestly, "fun" drinks just seem like you're trying to mask the fact that you don't have alcohol. And it will be seen through immediately.

I don't see all the comments involved due to being flagged and hidden? But I think I have the jist of it..

To answer your question, a lemonade stand with assorted flavors sounds good, you can also do a punch+sprite drink. Just Google non-alcoholic drink mixes.

As for not bringing in a solo bartender for the cost.. I was in the same boat, my venue requires a licensed bartender to serve like most, the only ones I found was $350 cheapest! Just to be there, my catering company does not mention alcohol or bartending anywhere but someone I know told me to ask.. They replied with yes "they have the means and requirements to do it although they don't normally serve alcohol" so.. I will be providing a few cases of beer and wine, possibly a keg, for just the slight cost of alcohol. I'm also NOT doing save the dates, flowers or a ton decorating either. So check your caterer! They might be able to and save you the extra $400.

I think maybe @Delany has a chip on her shoulder with this site since she's having a cash bar and a honeyfund.

A welsh grape juice fountain? FFS.

now I've heard it all.

BFE stands for Big F***king Error having a dry wedding.

Whyyyyyy. Open that bar girl. It can be really cheap. I keg is only $100 bucks or so and has 160 servings. It can be done.

OK...Now as I've said in another thread my FH is in the program as well as some of our guests and I'm still having alcohol.

The suggestion to ask your caterer is a good one, if you can see about adding alcohol you should try.

Now in saying that. I think she's well aware that everyone is telling her her wedding will not be much of a party without it and it's poor hosting to not have alcohol.

But that's not what she asked. She asked for ideas for alternative drinks. You guys made your point..Geez. I don't see the reason to keep harping about it unless you're actually gonna have ideas for other drinks.

And people please read who comments what. I see people comment joke responses and next thing you know everyone is responding like the OP made the comment. Or picking a part sentences like OP not having time to scroll for the answers she's looking for. That was in response for someone asking her why didn't she search the forums first.

Wow! Liquor before family? That's interesting. While I think a cash bar is not a good idea, if you don't want/can't provide liquor then don't. Those who truly love you will understand. The others you don't need to worry about. None of them pay the bills in your household.

Yeah Leslie.

No.

IslandGirl: Not everyone lives in California, and I would assume Stanford covered that laws are different in different places. I mean, shit, we did that in 1L at my comparatively garbage school. If you google "social host liability" there a gazillion resources and law review articles analyzing the wheres, whys, and wherefores of the issue, including lists of states that apply liability to hosts and the permutations of that application. If you have questions about things like that, it is really on you to take at least the briefest of tours through the interwebs before assuming that the whole country operates off of laws you are familiar with.

Yeah Christine.

No.

If you can't afford wine, you have too many guests. And most of the people here are paying for all or part of their wedding.

If you truly has loved ones, you'll supply them with drinks. And sparkling cider does not fall into that category.

I'm glad I came back after 4 days to find this.

I didn't read through to see what BFE stands for - but can you just do beer and wine? You can honestly host an open bar for not too much if you buy it yourself and hire a bartender. I am in Boston and doing a full bar for 15$ a person and $28 an hour for a bartender. If you just did beer and wine and say 75 people, you could get away with 1 bartender and 10$ a person for 6 hours thats $168 for the bartender and then $750 for the alcohol. That's a full bar for 6 hours for under $1000. You could even buy alcohol over the next few months to split up the cost. Seriously, you can do this!

I can't believe people can't go a couple hours without alcohol. It's not that serious, is it?

@Dorta - Do you not host people in your own home? And doing so, do you not at least offer beer, wine, variety of non-alcoholic beverages? This is called "proper hosting". This is all that we are asking people to do. Bare minimum. There are extenuating circumstances where alcohol may not be served but being cheap is not one of them.