Open Bar at Rehearsal Dinner?

You should be hosting dinner for people. It can be pizza & beer, but you shouldn't make them pay for anything.

And I agree with Julia, bunch or lunch without alcohol is fine too. It doesn't have to be a big deal.

I have been to a RD where each guest was limited to 1 or 2 drinks, then we could purchase ourselves. Meh.

I hope you are able to swing the limited bar.

I like the idea of just putting out a few bottles for everyone to share and that's it.

I think we're doing a consumption bar for ours. It's at a brewery, so we couldn't just not serve alcohol. :-) Hoping people won't drink too much with the wedding the next day though.

@Emily--serving alcohol is kind of mandatory for you haha! I really don't want people drinking a whole bunch either, but I think ,at most people, will drink maybe 2 drinks each.

At the rehearsal dinner, i say it's fine to have people pay for their drinks. DH's brother and his wife had their rehearsal dinner and a very nice restaurant and there were probably about 40 people in attendance. FIL paid for the food for the dinner, but everyone was responsible for their own alcohol tabs and nobody complained. i would never expect to have our alcohol covered at a rehearsal dinner. if it was, that would be very generous.

we had an open limited bar at ours. the restaurant that did our catering for the wedding gave us a killer deal on our rehearsal dinner. we did open beer and margarita bar. it was very affordable and our guests were really impressed and happy about it. but i definitely don't think it's necessary at all.

As a guest I wouldn't expect to have a full open bar at the RD.

We had beer and wine. But I agree with the other ladies, if you can afford alcohol have it at a cheaper venue. You could even have it at your home if you wanted to - as long as your guests aren't paying for anything.

I think it is a little weird to invite someone to a dinner party then expect them to pay for part of it. We did our rehearsal dinner at a restaurant, guests could order whatever they wanted: drinks, appetizers, dinner, dessert and we paid the bill.

We are doing beer & wine for 2 hours- if everyone wants to stay at the venue longer they can pay for their own drinks. It's a lot in addtion to the wedding- but at least the RD is a much smaller crowd.

Maybe host at a BYOB place and get bigger bottles of wine and some beer. Should cut down on the cost a little at least.

I'm so confused, wasn't there just another thread like this where the consensus was "no need to provide open bar at RD"? Am I making that up?

Honestly, I see no problem with it. I would not expect there to be open bar at the RD, especially since I know there will be open bar at the wedding the next day.

I cannot imagine attending a RD - or any dinner that I was invited to - and being handed a bill at the end of the night for alcohol because the hosts weren't covering it. It is just so distasteful and would never happen among my friends or family. There are plenty of ways to limit the cost as provided in this post. The RD is a special dinner to thank the wedding party. They should not be handed bills at the end of the night.

@Emily, I agree, being handed a bill is no good, but there are other ways to handle it.

At the last RD I went to, we were in a private room at the restaurant. The groom's father (politely) came around to each table and said they were providing a glass of wine for everyone with dinner, but if we wanted other alcoholic drinks, we could get them at the bar in the adjoining room. It wasn't an issue.

I never expect an open bar at any wedding or function that I go to. I always go assuming cash bar so that when it is open, it is a pleasant surprise

Why not have a RD at a restaurant that you can afford? I don't think RD are mandatory to be fancy, but you shouldn't have your guests paying for anything. We are doing a BBQ at my moms vacation rental and providing beer and wine. My parents don't drink so most of our RD guests know this and wont even drink around them. I am sure there will be an after party some where else though.

I had mellow mushroom pizza and beer since we were expecting about 60-80 people. Not one complaint, in fact it was the most fun I've had at a RD (but I'll admit i was obviously biased). But if you can't afford it and you know your guests will want alcohol, have it somewhere else! I saw a really nice RD at Chilie's one Friday I was eating there.

I agree with JCC to JCB and BookcaseHat, yes an open bar is nice but if they offered some wine at dinner and the rest of the time i had to go to the bar and get a drink i wouldn't have an issue with it. its definitely not an expectation of mine that there should be an open bar. ( because this came up i asked FH what his mom is doing and we are actually having an open bar for our RD so my opinion isnt even based on that we arent having one, because we actually are)

We're not having "open bar" (cuz that could get out of hand cost-wise quickly with our group - not that they'd get hammered on a Thursday, but our friends/family have expensive taste lol). We're buying a few bottles of red and white wine so that everyone has a few glasses of wine with dinner. If people want anything other than wine, they can buy it themselves at the restaurant. And we live nearby, so if people want to come by for some additional drinks afterwards we're happy to host them.

I firmly believe that guests who are invited to an event should never open their wallets for anything. We had ours at a pizza restaurant, and unlimited pizza, pasta, and salad with a consumption bar came to $800 for 35 people, including tip. Totally reasonable. We were originally going to limit it just to beer and wine but we had saved enough elsewhere that it didn't matter.

And @e=mc, mellow mushroom? Yuuuum