Reception: Part Alcohol, Part Dry

Since you said all your other guests drink or have no problem with it, definitely have alcohol. It's not inherently wrong to have a dry wedding, but for an evening reception at an aquarium, it would be expected from all your other guests.

Definitely have alcohol. I think what you do depends on how your family would react. Would they actually walk out? If so, I think @Anna's solution is a good one. Could you provide bottles of wine on the tables for the drinkers, and leave it off the tables of those who don't drink? And then open up the full bar after dinner?

I agree with the others that if your family has a big problem with alcohol even being present, they won't care whether it's one hour or three.

@punkin beer

There's some scripture as well that speaks about use in excess which the church has interpreted to be (alcohol, sex, & drugs) but it all mainly falls back to what @cresant treating the body as your temple and not defiling it with impure things. I want to say the scripture was Romans but I'm not positive about that.

Sorry, I haven't read through the comments, so I apologize if this point has been beaten to death.

I would say, based on your reasoning, have the bar open for the full time. Even if it's only open for a portion of the time, your Baptist family will still have to deal with it.

I went to a wedding where the couple had the bar open until they reached a certain dollar amount, and then it went to a cash bar. The open bar didn't last very long, but I think they're guests understood they were on a budget, and it ended up not being a big deal. In a situation like this, I would understand only having the bar open for a certain amount of time, but in yours I don't think I see the advantage.

I have family memebers that won't be attending my wedding because there will be alcohol. It is unfortunate but I will be properly hosting my guests. Maybe you could just do beer and wine? That would be the only compromise I would make. Eta: words are hard

@gymrat what would your mother say?

@erika my best friend is boycotting my vow renewal because we're having alcohol

Serve all night.

@Beatrice It sucks, doesn't it?

@Beatrice - Mama would go to a dry/cash bar only wedding. Have wine purse, will travel.

@erika yes. She thinks that anyone who drinks is evil and is going to hell.

@gymrat what about the wine "rack" or is that not upscale enough

Nope! LOL

I'm more of a fan of the beer belly for DH and the wine rack for myself

Something to keep in mind: I have been to a few weddings that were dry and many guests got incredibly wasted anyway from alcohol they snuck in themselves. Hosting alcohol under the control of a trained bartender is always a better idea. Properly trained bartenders are taught to recognize when people have had enough and will refuse to serve. At our wedding (with open bar) we only had a couple people get to that point and the bartenders and the guests' dates took care of the situation. There was no drama and no one knew otherwise.

In my opinion if you cut off the open bar early in the night, you are asking for trouble you may not want!

I would serve alcohol since it's only one small section of your guests that don't approve. People will not get out of hand wasted because of the bartenders liability. Do not have a dry wedding.

Properly host your guests and serve alcohol the entire time. Period.

I dont think you can possi ly make everyone happy. Make yourselves happy.

Doesn't matter what they want, if YOU both want it, do it. You don't want to look back and regret not having an open bar during the reception just because some point of views on your side of the family! It's a wedding, and you want people to enjoy themselves, and more times than not a few drinks can help start up a good time. We decided against hard alcohol/liquor cause we don't want it turning in to a circus, but beer & wine are fine! I think you should, so you and everyone else can enjoy themselves! Don't feel like your in a position to please everyone, that of course never works! Good luck!!

Both sides will be offended either way. So just serve it imo