Rehearsal Dinner and Alcohol

How many people are you planning to have? Really no one other than the bridal party & parents are required to attend, which theoretically would keep the cost down. The dinner could be as simple as having it at your favorite pizzeria. We are using Buca di Beppi but got gift cards at SAMs Club that were $80 for a $100 card, but to answer your question, I would use word of mouth. Have your parents (or FILs or MOH) say something like "x number of drinks are included" or "they're hosting the bar until the appetizers are served." That way it's not a surprise to anyone.

Just tell them flat out. We did. Dinner will be paid for by the parents of the Groom but any alcohol consumption is on you. They weren't even mad about it because they know they are heavy drinkers and they shouldn't impose that on someone's tab. They can catch up and drink on our dime at the wedding. If they can't go to the dinner without drinking for one night or at least paying for it themselves then they have issues.

We are having our rehearsal dinner in a private room at a pizza place. The bar is in another room entirely but we told the person we signed the contract with that it would be a cash bar. I also plan to inform our waitress this the day of so she can inform people when they order. Soft drinks, tea and coffee are included but anything else, guests would have to pay for.

You could host a dinner with the immediate family/bridal party with a limited bar (beer/wine) then let everyone know that after the dinner you are going to X location to hang out and have a few drinks. This way you are only hosting the dinner, but also off the hook for hosting the whole nights hangout and bar tab. That is what we're doing

I thought this was normal. anytime i've ever been to something like a rehearsal dinner, dinner was covered and if you ordered drinks or anything extra it was on us to pay for it.

i think most people would understand that.

I've actually wondered the same thing. I think it's probably best to let people know before hand, maybe even make sure the restaurant understands how the bills will be handled.

We thought we were going to have a large number of OOT guests but in the end we didn't. However, while we were planning, our idea was to have the Rehearsal dinner just wedding party and family and afterwards invite anyone who was in town already to meet up with us for drinks after the dinner.

Also if you have a place in mind for the rehearsal dinner, ask them about your options. We could have pre-bought drink tickets or only given a beer and wine option. In the end we just opened it up to whatever people wanted, we figured that in the two hours that we had the dinner, most people would only have 1 or 2 drinks, and my family isn't drinkers at all, so it didn't end up being an issue for us.

I like jillandbill's idea. Have your rehearsal dinner for just wedding party and immediate family and then have a social hour afterwards where OOT guests are invited (I use "hour" loosely as it will most likely be several hours).

I agree with the others that this is fairly normal. Any event whether it be work dinners, rehearsal dinners, etc has been that way where the dinner is covered but alcohol is not. If you send out rehearsal dinner invites you could put it on those "Dinner will be paid for by blah blah blah excluding any alcoholic beverages".

Thank you for all the suggestions!