How to Serve Alcohol?
September 7th, 2006 @ 10:26 am by Mrs. Bluebell
We are having a fairly informal buffet at my family’s summer house, so one easy-to-cut-corner we thought we had was serving the alcohol ourselves. Not in the sense that Mr. Bluebell and I will be back behind the bar mixing drinks ;), but rather that we would only have beer and wine (and maybe a signature cocktail?).
Anyway, couldn’t our guests just pour their own glasses of wine? I understand that at a more formal occasion this would hinder the general atmosphere, but at a New Year’s Eve party at a friend’s house for example, no one is really put out by having to look through the ice for which brand of beer they want, are they?
At my brother’s wedding (because, yes, everything will always be compared to that), they had servers pouring the beer and wine and I guess it was nice, but mainly because they could give you advice on which wine you might like better. So it’s a pleasant addition, but not necessary for the style of wedding we’re hoping to have. It seems a little silly to pay servers X amount extra to perform a simple task that guests could easily do on their own. That said, one of our two main caterer options (no, we still haven’t picked one!!!), requires that they provide/serve alcohol for you, so we would have to pay that cost there.
I realize I’m just rambling a bit at this point, but this is yet another one of those issues I keep going back and forth and back and forth over!
I hope that covers most of the options! Please let us know how you decided what to do, as well, and how much the style of your wedding affected your decision.
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20 Responses to “How to Serve Alcohol?”
we had an open bar with servers but offered 2 signature cocktails - a red fruity one for the ladies and a green crisp one for the gents (to match our color scheme as well). I must say that most people drank the sig cocktails and we had a ton of other alcohol left over. Serving beer/wine, maybe just a champagne toast… and one or two signature cocktails is a great way to cut back on expenses.
That being said… while it’s easy for guests to serve themselves beer or alcohol (i would have no problem with that), it would be harder for them to make a signature cocktail?
Katie - we will only have ~5 kids under 12, and then ~5 college age who I’m guessing will find a way to get alcohol either way, so I’m not too concerned about that. If their parents really don’t want them to drink, then THEY can look out for that! 
Mrs Bee - hehe, yeah, I thought of that! So if we have a signature cocktail, the idea is to pick something that can be mixed in advance and just have a bunch of pitchers of it or something. No idea what exactly that would be though… I like your idea of having one more fruity and one less sweet, since most of the ideas I’ve had so far seemed to be primarily girl or boy drinks, which didn’t seem fair to everyone else!
I went to a nice outdoor wedding this summer where we served ourselves. There was a lady manning the bar (making sure everything was stocked), preventing underage drinking, etc. It was fine. They served beer, wine, sangria and a lot of non-alcoholic beverages (lemonade, ice-tea, sodas, etc.). Overall it was peftect for the outdoor-y casual theme they were going for.
I’m having an outdoor reception in October. My food theme is Cajun (since I grew up in south Louisiana) so my signature drink is going to be Hurricanes a la Pat O’Briens In addition, I’m just having beer (which will be served out of an ice filled pirogue - a cajun canoe) and wine - along with the standard non-alcoholic drinks. I’m just going to let everyone serve themselves. Anyone that is underage will be there with their parents…so I don’t feel the need to “police” that.
We’re doing a *gasp* cash bar. And I KNOW it’s SO horrible. It was my fiance’s choice, not mine. It’s a morning wedding, so we’ll see what happens. The other items are free, I think- sodas and all that. This is the one thing I’m worrying about, but we’ve been to a few other weddings recently (formal affairs) that have had cash bars, so we’re not alone. One of my wedding planning books said that although a cash bar really has no place in a wedding, if you’ve been to others in your social group/family, it’s okay. This kind of advice is maddening. I saw go for what YOU want, Bluebell! Good luck!
I went to a wedding recently where they put a bottle of white and a bottle of red wine on every table. I think it worked OK, but the only thing was that at the end of the night they had a ton of half drunk bottles… (beer was just out on a table in metal buckets) –they sort of wished they had hired a college kid to pour the drinks because they thought they spent more on the booze this way.
We went to a wonderful wedding this weekend where they had pour your own champage, red and white wine. They had someone managing the table so there were always enough open bottles of each. They also served bottles of water, soda and beer out of large tubs filled with ice.
No one minded that set up at all and I personally much preferred it to a cash bar.
Our venue only allows us to do an open bar with beer and wine, any other options require a liquor license and the insurance that goes along with that. So, we are providing our own beer and wine as an open bar, and having someone that we know do the honors of acting as bartender rather than paying someone 25 bucks an hour to pour drinks.
We are doing (as copied from some other friends) wine and beer only. It will be served at an open table by the DH/SO’s of my bridesmaids (since they need something to do!) And self-serve after the banquet begins.
We’re having beer & signature drinks, and (wait for it)
the beer is being served in keg-form. It’s not a formal wedding, and no one in our families (and certainly not our friends) will think anything badly about it. It’s all about knowing your audience.
We do have a little side room that serves as the bar area, so it won’t be an eyesore. We’re also having our signature drinks available for self-service in punchbowls in the same side room.
For our reception, there will be a fully stocked open bar with bartenders. But our welcome party the night before our wedding will be much more casual. We’re going to limit the alcohol at the welcome party by paying for the first round only. That way, we prevent nasty hangovers during our wedding and stay within budget!
Fizzy–if you want to make the keg a little less noticeable, you could always hide it behind or under the bar and let the bartender serve from that (if you are having one). A friend did this at her wedding and it was pretty cool.
I’m going to a wedding next weekend and they’re having every kind of alcohol with NO servers. However, their alcohol isn’t costing them anything either. Thursday they’re having a liquor shower. Everyone is invited to bring their favorite liquor to the shower and it will be served at the wedding. They’re also providing cocktails at the shower, so you end up with 2 nights of drinking for the price of one bottle of liquor.
We are having an open bar with top shelf liquor, beer and wine as well as signature drinks - with servers. In addition, we may have some drinks butlered as the guests arrive and may have some bottled beer in metal tubs as the guests enter the reception.
Why are we thinking of doing this? We went to a wedding a month ago and the service was so super slow we wished we could have served ourselves. So, this will hopefully prevent a jam up at the bar - although we will have three bars.
Can you tell we’re both Irish? Not to sterotype ourselves but man we’ve had the liquor plan in place even before we had the church in place. Off to reexamine my priorities in life…
We haven’t decided yet - and I can tell it’s going to be a big point of contention - but I did just recently learn about the liability of having alcohol at your function. So, for what it’s worth…
If you have a cash bar, the responsibility falls on the vendor selling the alcohol. Thus, if an accident or DUI occurs they are responsible, not you. Their bartender is responsible for cutting people off.
If you have an open or beer/wine bar, it is YOUR responsibility. You are liable if an accident or DUI occurs for serving them. Yes, bartenders are given limits to serving guests if it is an open bar, but the legal responsibility falls completely on you.
From a liquor liability standpoint you MUST have someone serving alcohol (servers, caterers, etc) that have the proper insurance. In the event that something horrible happens, you don’t want to be liable….
We’re not having alcohol. It’s just not at all a part of who we are. Neither of us drink, and people on his side of the family tend to drink a little more than they should. We’d like people to have fun at our wedding for what it is, and not because of what they drink. We’ll probably come up with some fun non-alcoholic drinks, though, since we will be saving a lot of money by not having alcohol.
we’re having a soft bar with added drinks. this way it keeps the price down and we only pay for the alcohol that we want to serve. whether it be a bottle of wine on a table, passed champagne, or specialty drink.s
I am wondering if you can ask your caterer to supply mostly well liquor, and JUST top shelf vodka? Our caterer has given us a great proposal for beer, wine and well liqour, but she did not include champagne and…our family favorite…high-end vodka.
Has anyone heard of a compromise/ or an option to bring just some of your own for the caterer to serve?
Mrs. Bluebell, New York
Age and Occupation in 07: 26, Finance Manager
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Playing with the cat and/or Consulting
Engagement Date: December 25, 2005
Wedding Date: June 2007
Venue: Bride's family summer home in the Adirondacks
About Me: Trying to find the perfect balance between family tradition (marrying at the house everyone else in my family gets married at), making our's modern, interesting and different from everyone else in my family's, and incorporating some Chinese tradition for my Chinese fiance. I really have no idea what it's going to end up looking like!
Also, I picked Miss Bluebell for my name because I have blue eyes and I'm a loser like that.
We’re having a server but only because my dad’s rather anal about underage drinking at anything he’s hosting (though yes, I know people will still get drinks. And I *DON’T* mind, w/in reason), so he wants to make sure everyone gets carded who should be carded. Is this something that you or your wedding’s hosts might require? I think it’s sort of a pain in the you-know-what, but whatever–no biggie.