No Alcohol at reception

Hi my FH and I also do not drink and most of our friends and family do as well, and we are also not having alcohol at our wedding cause its to much money and since we dont why buy it and also we dont want every drunk/drinking at our reception so I agree with you but we are not stating or anything that we are not having alcohol wasnt sure if we should to me people should be going for us and not the wrong reasons and I guess if they dont like it then they will leave so I do not find it necessary to say anything if so state on your invitation No alcohol at reception. Just a idea.

I have never been to a wedding reception that served alcohol. Ever. I guess it is because there are a lot of children and most of the people are religious.

But for you, I think you could put in a small line at the bottom of the reception card you will be sending out: "No alcohol will be served at the reception." or "Our reception will be an alcohol-free event." I would just use a smaller font on the reception card and put it at the very bottom. That should suffice.

I personally don't think it is necessary to put anything at all because the point in a reception is not to drink. It is to celebrate the wedding that just occurred. So if you have family who gets angry that no alcohol will be served, you probably don't want them there anyway to cause drama.

Just my two cents.

Even though MOST weddings involve alcohol, even if just the champagne toast, I don't think there's any need to tell your guests ahead of time that you will be having a dry reception. It's not like they won't come if there's no alcohol or bring their own! So why would they need the head's up where it won't affect their plans? I have been to weddings that had full bar, only beer and wine, or no alcohol at all and it doesn't matter. It's a personal preference. If you have a website you can mention it on there if you want, but I don't see any need to put it on invites or anything.

I would not say that MOST weddings have alcohol. I have been to plenty of weddings without it. I did not have alcohol at my first wedding, because the reception was held in the church hall. I still haven't decided for sure if I will have any alcohol at this wedding. At most we will have a champagne toast. It's a daytime wedding (ceremony 11 AM, reception at noon) so I don't think people really need to be drinking a lot then.

I do not think it is necessary to say anything in the invitation about it. People will not be making their choice to come or not based on whether they will get free booze.

Since you aren't the first bride to be concerned with this issues I thought I'd post this interesting article about it with pointers on how to handle it with your guests who do drink

http://www.ehow.com/how_2063643_not-serve-alcohol-wedding.html

I also came found interesting facts relating to the tradition of alcohol at weddings:

"Drinking alcohol at a wedding is a 2000 year old tradition. Greeks and Romans toasted to fertility (for their crops and families). Wine and champagne are the usual wedding drinks.Alcohol is usually a part of every wedding reception and there are a few ways to serve it."

We are all picking and choosing which traditions to our honor at our weddings, so don't let anyone make you feel bad about not doing this one! Have fun!

Of course I've heard of a champagne toast... I said I was considering one for my wedding. But I have been to a lot of CHURCH weddings where there is no alcohol served. (Unless you count a Catholic wedding MASS that I went to, where there was wine in the communion!) Perhaps it's a matter of what kind of people we know and what kind of weddings they have, but I'd say maybe HALF the weddings I've been to in my life (and I'm WAY older than you!) have involved alcohol... and I wouldn't call that MOST.

I don't really want to argue about this, but the way you said that MOST weddings involve alcohol made it sound like perhaps the original poster was doing something abnormal by not serving any alcohol. I wanted to make the point that it's OKAY to not serve alcohol... and that you don't need to inform guests of that decision in advance.

It's best not to say anything at all.

Making a lot of assumptions, aren't you? I neither live in the midwest, nor in a small town. And I don't think you know what the term "scientific fact" means. You don't have to attack me just because I disagree with you.

I don't think it's necessary to let people know ahead of time that the wedding is sans alcohol. I too plan to have no bar or cocktails, but we are serving a champagne toast. my fh and I rarely drink, but both used to frequently and many of our friends do as well. i figured, the champagne gets alcohol out there for those that feel they really need something to relax. we aren't stating it on the invitations, but now that you mention it, I'll probably run a blog post about it closer to time. but, we have let our friends and family members with whom we speak reguarly know that there will be no flowing of alcohol. i figure the word will spread. this also lets us tell the specific people we think would choose to bring a flask if they knew of the situ ahead of time.

My fh and i are not having alcohol at our reception either, we both don't drink alot, his dad is a recovering alchoholic and to be honest i just don't want to have drunk people there. I don't think it is nesscary to state that its a dry reception...unless you don't want some people to come, because some people might not if they know. The only reason i would put something is if you might think that someone will try to bring something in.

I am also not serving alcohol at my wedding. I find no need to tell people in advance that there won't be any. Most people will be perfectly fine with it. If that is the reason that they are showing up, best not to have them there.

Some receptions have alcohol, some do not. completely your choice and it sounds like you are making the right one for you however, i think it should NOT be mentioned in the invitation. it is just unnecessary.

We're serving champagne at the reception, mostly to keep costs down but also out of respect for my FH's parents & grandparents. On our RSVP cards we states, "Dinner & Champage Reception Immediately Following Ceremony". You don't have to state it, if you do, you might have guests bringing there own alcohol..I've seen it happen! I would just assume not to say anything about it. It's not going to make or break the reception! Good luck & congrats!

P.S. THE PURPOSE OF THESE FORUMS & POSTS ARE TO HELP EACH OTHER! YOU SHOULDN'T BE ARGUING ABOUT THINGS. I definitely believe it's true that MOST wedding receptions involve alcohol. It's also proven that receptions without alcohol involved are less likely to last as long, people start dipping out after dinner.

I don't think it's necessary to mention anything on the invitation either. Word of mouth works wonderfully though if you are concerned that some of your guests may get miffed ( but why should they?).

And I have been to 2 dry weddings in my life (& I am shall we say up there in age) 1 was a born again christian couple at their church, another was an AA couple & for obvious reasons both receptions were dry & they both were over rather early. All of the other probably 100+ weddings I've been too (remember I'm old LOL) all had alcohol, champagne toast plus open bar, cash bar, wine & beer. IMO dry receptions are not the norm BUT who cares?! This is your day do what you want, how you want & just have tons of fun Best of Luck

Thank you everyone for your comments, suggestions and experiences. Yes, I believe that word of mouth will work just fine as I have already told those who would or may have thoughts on it. We will be using sparkling cider for our toast. The ceremony will be at 11 with a reception afterward. We are having fun planning this and are a bit out of the norm for things. We are also taking our Honeymoon here in about 20 days to Belize. The wedding is in August. We figure that we have asked many people to travel here for our wedding the least we can do is stay in town and enoy their company. Thanks again.

Wow Katie that sounds like an amazing plan. I'm doing sparkling cider for toast as well. I really think you guests will be so happy to share this time with you. I wish you both a happy wedding. And BELIZE!! Yowza~ good for you!!!

Every single wedding I have been to had alcohol, whether it is an open bar or just beer and wine. However, it doesn't mean you HAVE to serve booze and I don't think you're guest will think twice about it. It is much better to serve no alcohol than to have a cash bar.

We drink and so do our friends and family, so having an open bar was a must for me.

My FH and I are also thinking of not having hard liquor, we were thinking of just champagne and wine. For those that do drink we might have the bar opened for an hour or two the most and they buy their own if they wish to drink.

My wedding is at 11am as well, with the reception immediately to follow. I don't think its necessary for a lunch type reception to serve booze. We may do a sparkling cider toast, we may just use the mock Champaign that the caterer is supplying. I put a snippet about no alcohol on our wedding website. But this is due to the location and their policies. Other than that there is no need to mention anything to your guests.-- However I have a girlfriend who is a booze-hound and I gave her a heads up out of courtesy. lol

Speaking of courtesy, this thread has gotten childish and out of control. Attacking pple because of their different views is so not necessary. And just so I get my 2cents. I've been to PLENTY of weddings and they DIDNT have booze and it was a blast just the same.

We're just having beer and champagne at ours, no hard liquor. I don't feel like putting up with drunken idiots!

I was going to ask though, are you allowing alcohol AT your reception and just not providing it, or are you set AGAINST having it at the reception? Because if you're worried about what to tell people, you can always say BYOB. That way they can either bring their own or deal with it.