Hi all! I'm running into an interesting dilemma that I can't seem to find anyone else asking about. My fiance and I both enjoy drinking socially (and so do most of our friends), however not very many people on either of our families drink at all. Both families are Christian and not opposed to alcohol, but they just in general don't drink (neither of us have ever been to a wedding that served alcohol).
Additionally, we both hate beer and strongly prefer mixed drinks over any type of wine. In order to offer mixed drinks we would pretty much need to pay for a full bar or possibly several signature cocktails. This wouldn't be a crazy problem, except the majority of those attending our wedding don't actually drink, and so I feel like it would be a HUGE waste of money to pay for an open bar/wine, beer, and signature cocktails for a 250 person event, when most people will choose not to partake.
The bar-tending service we've been looking at has you purchase the alcohol (for licensing reasons) and they purchase the mixers etc, if we went with them what number of guests should I pay for/how much of each kind of alcohol (wine, beer, liquor) should we buy? We're having a roughly 250 person wedding, however I can guarantee that AT LEAST 150, but likely more, will not be drinking. I don't want under-purchase, but I also don't want to pay for 100 extra people who won't be drinking.
We have also considered offering ONLY a selection of signature cocktails (since it's what we like anyway and that would cut down on the speculation), but we're unsure about how that would come across. We're having an evening wedding (so more drinking friendly), and we're not sure if people would but upset/disappointed that they couldn't order beer/wine (since usually they are the more guaranteed "standard" beverages offered at bars).
Any thoughts or advice, particularly on whether or not only offering 2-4 signature cocktails would seem strange/would be unpopular, will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!