Closed Bar during dinner?

MrsMarende

We are planning to service wine and champagne during the dinner service which is a plated meal. I am toying with the idea of not opening the bar until after the dinner service. Do you think this is a bad idea?

hlvonb

If you plan on serving the wine and champagne during dinner then that should be fine but if not, then have it open during dinner.

BlueBirdMB

It was a law that we had to close for a half hour to get a 5 hour bar stretch.  It's silly since they still allow wine and beer that isn't served directly at the bar… sooooo weirdddd.  We had wine service during dinner.  I am pretty sure no one noticed that it had to close for a half hour during dinner.  They did it during a time when everyone was already sitting to eat.  It worked out well.

Ven&Radio

Not everyone likes wine or champagne.  I drink wine, but I much prefer a mixed drink.  H hates wine/champagne.  If you did wine/beer only, I wouldn't think twice about it.  If I had the choice of wine only for dinner then saw the bar open afterwards I'd be bitchy about it.

Maggie0829

We closed our bar during dinner.  We served wine during dinner at the tables.  We made sure that everyone knew the bar was being closed during dinner.  We had signs at the bar and we also had the bartenders tell people as the time got closer to close the bar.  This way people knew what was going to happen so if they didn't want wine with dinner they were able to grab an extra drink to take to their seats once cocktail hour was done.

If you do close the bar please make sure that it is widely known so that your guests don't get up to grab another drink only to be surprised that the bar is shut down.

lc07

Will soft drinks still be available? My husband doesn't drink alcohol and would prefer a soft-drink (or two) during dinner over water.

lc07

Also, in case you want more opinions (this board tends to be slower) this topic came up on E recently: http://forums.theknot.com/discussion/1014190/wine-service-during-dinner/p1

While your scenario is a little bit different since you are not citing concerns about drunken-ness, I still think you'll get a lot of additional opinions from reading this post.