Welcome Party/rehearsal Dinner

99% of our guests will be coming out of town from different states and even countries. Like, literally only 3 are even living in the same state and only 2 of those are in the same zip code haha! So, I was thinking of making the rehearsal dinner and welcome party be the same. It’s going to be a super casual BBQ and Brews. My question is on alcohol. Should we still provide an open bar? It will only serve beer and wine or should I make it a cash bar? Our reception will be an open bar with liquor included. My fiancé seems to think that we need to provide the alcohol as well. The cost literally jumps from like $1250 to $3750 (estimated). We don’t really have a set budget to be honest. We basically wrote a blank check for the whole thing, but I just personally don’t want to spend more than like $35K total for everything. He also wants to hire live musicians and I’m just like, “Dude… let’s just put on a country wedding playlist on Spotify…”