Rehearsal dinner: is cash bar tacky?

I just wouldn't have alcohol. We didn't alcohol at ours and everyone survived. Our reason was because my dad is a recovering alcohol and we wanted to limit his exposure to alcohol. Our thoughts were if anyone wanted alcohol after they were free to go get some on their own. I also didn't want to be supplying a bunch of alcohol the night before the wedding because I wanted to avoid a hungover bridal party.

Either skip alcohol entirely or scale back the entire meal to be able to pay for alcohol yourselves. Because you are hosting this event to thank your families and friends, you need to cover all costs.

It’s such a hard situation and I totally relate. We are having a welcome dinner for everyone instead of a rehearsal dinner (so 3 times the amount of people). I obviously want to provide alcohol at our welcome dinner, but it adds over $1k just for the alcohol. We are providing a top shelf open bar at our reception the following evening (and paying for entertainment for everyone after the welcome dinner), so part of me thinks that’s enough and we should just not offer alcohol at the welcome dinner. BUT it’s at a restaurant, there’s a bar there, alcoholic beverages are on the menu… so I don’t see a tactful way of telling people that they can order drinks, but we won’t be paying for them. It just feels very uncomfortable and awkward and kinda tacky. So ultimately we decided to just foot the bill on the alcohol too.

You could definitely have a dry rehearsal dinner, that way you're still hosting everything. Another option would be to host beer and wine only, that might be cheaper. I'd stay away from having your guests pay for anything.

Does your venue allow you to customize the alcohol offering? Like Jacks said, you could do beer and wine only, and if they allow you to set the quantity yourselves, you could limit to buying a certain number of bottles.

Majority of people (esp on WW) find cash bars extremely tacky. It's not fair to ask your guests to come out and have them pay for drinks. IMO, dry weddings are an even worse option. I would look into consumption or beer/wine only.

View Quoted Comment Leave ot to the wait staff to say alochol is purchased at the bar. Alochol isnt mandatory

You're going to end up on one of two sides of wedding wire with this one lol. I asked the same question once and got bombarded with people telling me It was rude and I would be looked down on, and then posted about the situation again and people were so kind telling me it was fine.

My FH's parents offerred to host our rehearsal and opted for the Cash Bar. I personally think it's fine, if the wedding is an open bar you're not required to get people loaded twice on your dime.

Do what makes sense for you!

I'm of 2 minds. If many of your guests are traveling far, serve drinks. If you are doing speeches, serve drinks. If local and just wedding crew and family, OK to be just soft drinks. The night is short anyway, and there is a bar onsite if requested. Instead, aim to serve your crew mimosas, whiskey etc while you get ready on the big day (with breakfast of course). If you need a reason, tell your people you have it set for tomorrow.

Another option if you can swing it is to have beer and wine free only, and everything else a cash bar. It will cut way down on the cost!

If you're not comfortable with telling people it's a cash bar, opting for a dry rehearsal dinner is fine. Most people won't be racking up huge bar bills the night before a big event, especially when those in attendance are (usually) going to have a bigger role than just attending as a guest. The people in attendance at the rehearsal dinner are also typically your closest friends & family who would be way more interested in celebrating you and your spouse-to-be than anything.

See if you can do just wine. If not I see not problem with a dry rehearsal dinner so long as there’s an open bar at the reception.