Self serve open bar ....

Our wedding will be similar. We're filling a giant canoe with beers, wines, and a couple of liquors and it will be self serve for 93 guests. All guests are over the age of 21 minus the 4 year old ring bearer who certainly won't be drinking alcohol.

The thing is that we have insurance, that our venue requires, which also covers what it called "host liquor liability." Our venue also has a team of people who are coordinators for the event (making sure bathrooms are clean and stocked, lighting candles, handling heat/AC, etc) and part of their job is watching the crowd. The venue owners explained that if they see certain people too intoxicated, they are required to call them a cab.

The majority of weddings at my venue are self-serve and they've never had an issue. This is also nothing new for my family of 68 people, as we always have family parties with tons of alcohol.

I definitely wouldn't have done it without the insurance, however, since we have fiance's family and friends involved as well.

I did a backyard self serve wedding. It worked out great. We had all the beer in a boat ( 7 different kinds) wine in buckets and vodka with different mixes. We had no issues at all. However, we did hire a bus so no one was allowed to drive.

The liability issue is odd to me. I wasn't even worried about that part, just running out. Which we didn't at all. I guess I knew all the people at the wedding so I wasn't to concerned,

That's an awful idea. That means no one will be monitoring those drinking. I would recommend not hanging around there for too long. Sounds like it could potentially turn into a dangerous situation when people become belligerent and the liability, as others mentioned, is not worth the risk. I had neighbors when I was younger who threw a backyard party like that and there were four people who died after they left early in one car and the driver went right into a tree around the block. The cops showed up to the party, found that the alcohol was not being monitored by anyone legally, and the people who owned the house were arrested, sued by the families of those who died, and lost their home. It's an extreme situation obviously, but it's just an awful idea to have such a party especially for a wedding.

I see this being no different than a regular house party.... it would be hard to prove a liability issue as individuals are not being handed or served alcohol, so the responsibility is the individual's. I've done this for several of our corporate events and never worried about liability, and everyone was of legal age.

If you could sue a bar because of driving under the influence, every bar would be out of business. I don't see this as a serious concern.

If you're worried about them not buying enough alcohol, bring a flask.

My concern would be underage drinking and then the couple is responsible for it. And a whole other host of issues but I see that being a big one! Honestly though it shouldn't affect you as a guest or your experience too much...but I'd be worried for the couple/responsibility & safety of other guests

I went to a wedding like this once for a friend of FH. It really wasn't too bad, all they had was beer though so choices were obviously limited. It was just kind of like a big house party. It's not something I would've personally done but to each their own I guess.

I've been to a wedding like this. It was fine. Except when they had a buffet they made their friends/family make food lol. And a money dance. Hahah other than those things..the self serve open bar was fine.

I had a relative that had something like this at his wedding at a family campsite...it was a cheap kiddie pool filled with cheap beer and ice (I remember the cuckoo bride sharing the idea on Facebook and saying "OMG this idea's soooooo cute!" And I DO mean "cuckoo...").

This was a full blown redneck wedding too. Girls and bride wire cowgirl boots (which is fine if you like that ) and guys wore (somewhat decent) jeans and plaid flannel shirts.

I'm so glad I didn't go to that wedding...not suitable for a town girl like me!

What morons. Self service means over serving and that would be a bigger waste of money than any bartender would cost them. I'm face palming so hard.

ETA: I am calling them morons based on your assumption that they are doing this to save money. They obviously have not factored in how heavy handed people can be with booze they didn't pay for.

We are considering this idea, but, like @kelsey (the other one), we are required to get insurance. Also, our wedding is on a sunday (of a holiday weekend but some still have to work the next day) so we are hoping that alcohol consumption will be less. Of course, we are still planning on buying more than enough to go around!

I think this works for small weddings more than large. As I stated before we had a self serve bar and it worked fine. We also had a small wedding with 60 people, a bus to transport everyone, and was a 21 plus wedding. Honestly my wedding was beautiful and didn't seem like just a backyard wedding. We worked it out so 10 beers per person, 6 bottle of vodka, and red and white wine that was barely touched. We ended up with only provably 50 beers left some vodka and wine. So if you plan it works out.

Sounds like id poor myself a nice drink and be happy about my filled to the top wine glass lol

150???? Good luck to them with that!!! It will be a zoo! You could get away with it if it's like less than 20 people, which I still don't think it's a good idea.