Who is paying (or paid) for the alcohol at your wedding?

DO NOT DO A CASH BAR. With that being said my FH's parents are paying for the alcohol but that isn't the norm anymore. Typically the bride and groom pay for the wedding themselves and that includes the alcohol. Parents are not obligated to contribute anything.

FH and I are paying for the alcohol at our wedding. We aren't having anyone pay for any portion of our wedding. It's rude and tacky to have guests pay for their own alcohol (although some will say that cash bars are socially acceptable in their social circles- I just think that's gross). If the alcohol at your venue is too expensive either downgrade to just beer and wine or don't offer any alcohol at all.

Aw shit. i should probably start stocking up on wine and champagne.

A couple of you said don't do cash bar, and that's actually the option we were thinking. May i ask why cash bar is not a good idea?

If you are worried about cost, you can do beer/wine/signature drinks only - but I would not do a cash bar.

My FH and I received a set amount from both our parents (covered a little less than one third of the total) and are paying the remainder ourselves, but nothing has been "divvied up" to show who is paying for what - it is all just part of the wedding fund.

Because you need to properly host your guests and asking them to pay for their drinks is rude. Would you invite them to your home for dinner and ask them to pay for a glass of wine? No.

Lois, a cash bar isn't a good idea because if you invite guests to come celebrate your wedding, you should provide the food and drinks, including the alcohol.

Guests will most likely incur other expenses such as buying you a gift, travel, accommodations, etc. and asking them to pay for their own drinks too is rude.

You and your fiance are the hosts, so you provide everything and pay for it all.

Would you invite people to your home for a dinner party and then charge them for a glass of wine? This is the same thing on a bigger scale. Budget for booze.

ETA - Damn, MrsC, great minds and all that

While I know the popular opinion on here is that cash bars are rude/tacky (and I agree), as a guest I would probably prefer a cash bar to no bar...

ETA - but i would never have a cash bar at my own wedding - we are having a full bar, with extreme amounts of booze haha

It's distasteful to have people come to your wedding and have to pay for any part of their meals or drinks. Personally, I would think the couple was cheap if they made me pay for my own drinks. FH and I went to a cocktail hour that was a cash bar, so we left and came back an hour later for the reception (which was full open bar). Like I said before, offer only beer and wine if it's a cheaper package.

Edited: I bring minimal cash to weddings. I would be inclined to eat and then leave if it was a cash bar.

We are doing a full open bar. My parents offered to pay for it, which is really generous. If they hadn't offered, we would be paying for it because it's an absolute must for a wedding.

A cash bar is a bad idea because, to answer one of the questions in your original post, YES, it is rude and looks bad to have people pay for their own alcohol.

I second what Raelyn said -- if you need to limit the selection of alcohol to fit your budget, then do so, but anything other than open bar (whether it be full or just wine) would never be acceptable to me, as a bride. As a guest, you deal with it...but you certainly do it begrudgingly. It's one of those things where I feel like if you can't afford it, you need to work an extra job and save up for it, not cut it out altogether.

We are paying for it ourselves. A cash bar is usually not a good idea because, first, why host a party only to make your guests have to buy their drinks?, and second, I never come to a wedding readily with cash or hardly ever even with my purse. I try to bring as less as possible so I don't have to worry about leaving stuff around while dancing. So if I wasn't prepared I wouldn't be able to purchase my drinks.

As a guest, I never bring cash to a wedding. So if I found out it was a cash bar, I'd be very disappointed.

We are doing an open bar. His parents have offered to pay (although I think they are paying for 2 hours). But if that's the case, I'm budgeting to make sure that we can pay they rest of the time to keep the bar open. I want everyone to have a good time.

I just saw we had the same response JP + AP. Yep great minds lol.

I don't know what the norm is. My mom is paying for a majority of the wedding. Prior to my dad passing he offered to pay for the bar. Upon his passing my step mom wrote me a check for the approximate amount and told me to use it for the bar.

I would not do a cash bar. I went to one this weekend and it was very boring. Not so much in that I was upset about not having alcohol but a lot of people left before 8. I would say half the guests left and combined with the ipod music it didn't make for that fun of a wedding. I did get a lot of kiddie cocktails out of the deal though. They did offer pop, water and coffee for free.

We are paying for the bar ourselves, we would never do a cash bar.

Every wedding I have ever been to or heard about has been a toonie bar. Pretty customary around where I'm from! I did go to one wedding where drinks were full price and it was disappointing! I had 1 drink at 6.50$ and stayed with water after that ! ETA my FH's parents have been ever so nice and offered to pay for all the alcohol to stock the bar

We are paying for our bar, like the rest of the wedding, ourselves. To save some money, we opted for beer and wine only (our venue won't allow a signature drink without the full liquor cost).

I went to a wedding recently that I assumed might have a cash bar. If that had been the case, I was going to have a friend pick me up right after dinner.

Ahahaha reminds me of an ex who invited friends over for dinner and then charged them $5 each.

They're already spending a lot of money and time to attend your wedding. Pay for their drinks.