Self Serve Bar?

Not trashy! I've been to a few where they had cute metal buckets/troughs filled with ice and the bottled alcohol sitting in it and it was super fun! Do make sure that wherever you're having it, that they don't require a bartender to be present. If they do, then that could put a damper on your self-serve plans!

It's 100% not trashy to do this, and I do agree with Marabeth's post; it depends on where your wedding is being held. If you're having it at someone's home, then it should be fine. But, if you're having your wedding/reception at a venue, the venue will most likely require a license and a licensed bartender to be at the reception to serve. If it were me doing it, I would hire a bartender just to be safe. If it's a free-for-all for the guests, anyone underage could grab something they shouldn't be drinking and that could turn into a headache and cause a ton of other issues for you if they get caught. I'd say look around and reach out to some people who might know bartenders. Our bartender only charged us $100 and she was at our wedding for 6 hours. She charged us so little b/c we let her put out a tip jar and she made around $1,300 in tips from our guests (my husband and I also tipped her an additional $200 at the end of the night b/c she was amazing!).

I hate to use the word trashy, but it is definitely not ideal. The main reason is you become liable for all of your guests. That is not a stress you want. I would hire a professional bar tender to make sure your guest do not over consume. This takes the liability off of you and puts it on them.

Outside of the safety aspect, as a guest, I don't want to stick my hand in a cold wet cooler or worry about mixing my own drinks.

Not at all!

I wouldn't just because people can over-drink very easily and it can be very costly. Maybe buy a few bottles and then hire a bartender? Or maybe only serve beer and wine? That could help keep the cost down.

I don’t think it would be trashy if it was just beer maaaybe wine but mixing your own drinks runs into frat party territory

We're doing the exact same thing following our elopement. Nothing super fancy, which is exactly our style. We're doing BYOB, but will also have a bar available. We have tons of bartender friends/connections so we'll have someone to serve drinks but I got the vibe that most people will utilize the BYOB option and bring their own coolers.

I just got married in September if this year and we had a serve yourself bar. We only had beer and wine though. I would recommend doing beer and wine and premixed drinks in large containers as mentions before. Everyone loved having the self serve bar at my wedding.

Not trashy, but would be mindful of licenses and venue rules. Every venue I’ve looked at, including ranches, have required a licensed bartender to serve hard liquor. I think the idea of keeping alcohol options limited like placing red and white wine and champagne on each table would work and also having kegs and premixed drinks in dispensers would work okay as well.

We are also doing a backyard wedding at my parents house and are having self serve. We are doing beer and wine only though - no liquor.I don't drink and several of my guests don't drink and its a day time wedding. Trying to keep it low key. I don't think its trashy, however if I was having liquor I would want a bartender to keep the drinks in check and not have guests over pour.