My fiance and I are getting married in about 4 weeks. Our budget is strechted pretty thin at this point so to be able to afford the rehearsal dinner we have to choose between including SOs or covering the cost of drinks (alcholic). Obvioulsy we will be covering soda, juice or whatever nonalcholic beverage people want. I was not going to include SOs the decision was pretty easy.
The RD is at an italian restaurant. The restaurant had us choose three options and ask everyone what they want and we just have to call a few days before with a count and meal count. Great- that made it easy and we chose options within our budget. The bar will be open if people want to go to the bar and get a drink, I can't stop this from happening because they won't shut the bar down on a Friday night. I tried making it so we could reserve the back room away from the bar but they won't do it because our party isn't big enough. They require 50 people to reserve the back room. So my question is - how do I let people know we won't be covering drinks at the RD. Obviously the meals are preordered but waitresses will still be coming around to ask people what they want to drink.
I may be overthinking this or maybe there is just a solution I haven't thought of yet. Any advice is appreciated.