RD Drinks Etiquette

angelsong21

Quick question - at your RD, did you host all of the alcoholic beverages or did each individual person pay for their booze?

My parents have thrown 2 RDs for my older brothers in the past and told me it got VERY expensive when alcohol was included.  I think they said they paid for the food and non-alcoholic drinks but everyone else paid for their own alcohol... and that alone ran the bill to $1500 without the booze.  I don't want FIs parents to pay anything near that much.

So what have you all done in the past?

crash2729

We aren't paying for alcohol. That could get pretty expensive.

fallbride1109

We didn't have alcohol at the RD. If people wanted alcohol, they had to pay for it. But I don't think anyone did, at least not that I can remember.

angelsong21

Whew, thank goodness!  Thank you, ladies!

professorscience

We did, but ours was at a wine bar, so it was kind of the whole point of having our RD there.  They let us bring in our own beer and we bought a fixed number of bottles of wine.

FWIW, Amy, if you're still doing it at Jorg's, you MIGHT be able to make a deal with them to buy wine and beer from the little shop across the street (A Toast to Texas) and serve that.  Since it's a restaurant I don't know if they would go for that, but I know that Toast to Texas has sort of unspoken partnerships with lots of the restaurants down there.

MarieSD

I have a Special Snowflake situation. My ILs rented out a DIY venue and brought in the catering and alcohol. They got beer from Costco and rented a margarita machine and therefore it wasn't really that expensive. But they also had a band and invited our whole wedding guest list, sooooo it wasn't a typical RD anyway.

I kind of wish the drink tickets concept was more acceptable. (But then I've been to a wedding with them and wasn't bothered by it.) To me, just hosting 1 or 2 drinks pp at a RD would be more than generous, and I probably would only drink 1 anyway.

angelsong21

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_texas-dallas-ft-worth_rd-drinks-etiquette?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:102Discussion:be110236-7d36-4bf3-af73-09a89f865b83Post:7242cc7a-5a6f-4889-affb-a59bcaee90ec">Re: RD Drinks Etiquette</a>:
[QUOTE]We did, but ours was at a wine bar, so it was kind of the whole point of having our RD there.  They let us bring in our own beer and we bought a fixed number of bottles of wine. <strong>FWIW, Amy, if you're still doing it at Jorg's, you MIGHT be able to make a deal with them to buy wine and beer from the little shop across the street (A Toast to Texas) and serve that.  Since it's a restaurant I don't know if they would go for that, but I know that Toast to Texas has sort of unspoken partnerships with lots of the restaurants down there.</strong>
Posted by professorscience[/QUOTE]

Good to know!  I had no idea.  Yes, we are definitely still doing Jorg's... we were there yesterday.  One of the waiter's just graduated from TTU last year, so we chatted with him about.  I love this place more and more.

bobbileighb

We apid for alcohol but we had a very small RD with only 9 people at it.  Our minimum for the venue (Dave and busters) was $500 and we would not have met it without alcohol.

winechic25

We also paid for alcohol, and I've never been to one where it wasn't paid for. That said, I know how expensive it gets, and that a big consideration in our selection of RD venues.

jenbob2012

I'm having the same dilemma.  I was wondering if it would be acceptable to tell the waitstaff we'll pay for the first two alcoholic drinks and after that they need to set up a tab.  I dunno, I don't want to be tacky but at the same time I know my people will want to drink and I'm not sure if we can afford all that!

Jen6862

We paid for alcohol (wine, beer, sangria and margaritas), but not premium drinks. My family is in the restaurant business so this was my mom's suggestion.

How to do this:
Work with the restaurant on which drinks you will pay for (sodas, coffee, wine, beer)... but if a person ask for a premium cocktail, etc. the waiter simply ask the person if they would like to open a tab. This is great for people drinking shots or expensive liqueurs.

Another idea:
Just do wine and beer + one specialty drink!

Those should help you keep cost down. Not sure how many people you are having?