How does this wedding sound?

[Firstty]

Wedding for around 180 guests. Barn venue (ceremony and evening spent here). April so may be inside all day. Food- canapés (4 each), starter = sharing platter of local meats, cheeses and chutneys. Main- hog roast served with 3 salads and a potato dish (goats cheese and red pepper tarts for veggies), dessert brownie (or possibly more sweet canapés), evening- a fajita bar. Drink all free- we will have fizz handed out with canapés and toast. Large buckets of ice with beers, wine and soft fizzy drinks. A few bottles of spirits too. Wine and water served with meal. Will then have a makeshift bar that guests(and us!) take it in turns to man for 30 mins.

How does this sound to you? What would you/wouldn't you like about it? If you got an invitation which asked you to name your favourite tipple on the rsvp would you be annoyed? (just so we don't end up with loads of red wine but run out of white, and can make sure we have any specially requested spirits etc)

Sounds fab. Lovely food and free booze. I’d be delighted to be asked my favourite tipple, and don’t see why that would bother anyone.

Have a wonderful wedding 💐

The food all sounds great.

The drinks - for 180 people all day you will need a LOT of drinks. I wouldn't like to have to say whether i would prefer red or white wine as i would probably decide at the time what i fancied. I also wouldn't drink wine all day at a wedding but would switch to G&Ts later on. I don't think just a few bottles of spirits for that many people would cut it tbh. Then there is all the mixers and all the glasses. And who wants to man a bar at a wedding?

I would either get someone in to run the bar properly or provide wine and fizz ask guests to bring what they want to drink for the evening? I went to an informal wedding where we all took our own drinks and it worked well.

To be honest OP

It sounds like a carbon copy of three weddings I went to last year.

Nice day, quite fun but ultimately forgettable and impersonal for the guests. But I’m sure not so for bride and groom - and that’s important

What’s your drink budget?
Free bar for that amount will be extortionate.

sounds fabulous/delicious. What canapes were you thinking?

Asking people their favourite tipple could back fire, people may expect it to be there.

Well I think it sounds great. Nice and informal and everything being in the one location is always good. Not impersonal at all, there's only so much variety you can have when you're feeding and watering 200 guests. It's always going to be a variation on the same theme.

Asking people to name their favourite drink is a great idea.

Add my name to the guest list

Sounds lovely, congratulations. I’d probably invest in a bar-person though, just to make sure it didn’t get silly 😁

It sounds lovely, but expensive. I would go with free drinks with the dinner but guests to BYO of the rest of the evening. At a wedding recently, I witnessed guests pouring drinks at the gin bar and just leaving it somewhere or downing it and getting another. I know your friends and family may be a little more restrained, but you never know where a free bar is concerned.

I would be iffy about a sharing platter if I didn't know he people on my table.

I wouldn't care about being asked for my favourite tipple.

Drinks for 180 people are going to cost a bomb.

How do you decide who man's the bar? Why does anybody need to man it? 180 people at half an hour each is 90 hours.. even if you needed it manned from midday til midnight, and you decided you wanted 2 people on at all times that's still only 24 people..

Would it not be less of a headache to just get in a manned cash bar? Then you don't have to worry about getting the right amount of each beverage... You just pay the bill at the end of the night.

Thanks for all the feedback!

• Not sure how I could make food and drink more personal? I realise many people have a barn wedding but wanted an exclusive hire venue and were not keen on a marquee - castle is out of budget so we're stuck with a barn!

• drink budget we were thinking around £2000 (trip to france with a van for the wine!)

• hadn't thought of people expecting their favorite tipple if we ask! An uncle or cousin is bound to ask for some expensive whisky

-Already have offers of bar manning! or we had thought of a sort of help yourself type thing but that could get messy with spirits.

• the canape list has got me very excited! my top 4 are fillet of beef yorkie, tomato, mozzarella and basil bruschetta, lamb kofta on pitta, king prawn skewer. Although I suspect we shall go for a slightly more veggie friendly selection.

Point taken about bar person! So generous amounts of wine and beer
and fizz throughout the day and in ice buckets at night and then maybe speak to a local pub about setting up a cash bar for any other drinks people may want?

Forgot to mention a there are going to be quite a few kids there (we have 2 of our own) so a lot of the guests won't be drinking.

I’d personally make sure the veggies have their own food? Meat eaters tend to want to try some of the veggie one, leaving fuck all for the veggies

Sounds lovely... wondering if it's the same venue as ours was (Cotswolds)!

My other thought was to go for a bbq with plenty of options and get rid of the starter completely. Then could ramp up the canapes to 6 per person

I agree with lastqueen - I've been to many a function where the vegetarian option is scoffed by the meat-eaters. Other than that, it sounds great although you may need to check if any of your veggies are dairy-intolerant (rather than vegan).

This is what we did that worked well:

• Told guests we would provide wine, beer and soft drinks and that they were welcome to bring their own spirits if they wanted.
• Had the booze delivered by a supermarket that accepted returns and intentionally over-ordered, then had the leftovers collected for a refund the next day.
• The bar was self-service, but we hired 2 minimum wage service staff to keep the venue tidy, wash wine glasses, etc

Good points about veggies. I have 2 close friends who are veggies so I'll consult them on the menu and strategy for making sure they get enough to eat.

Food sounds lovely!
I'd still ask people for their favourite tipple but just add "we will accommodate as much as possible".
I would echo pps and say get a bar person, it sounds great to take it in turns but when it comes to it people may not be so forthcoming. You could hire a student or two if you're near a uni town, or ask in the local bar if anyone would like to help out.

Eep! hadn't even thought about where the glasses were going to magically appear from.

Sounds great!!
My only worry is the taking turns to man the bar. What if one is blotto on their 'shift'?

It sounds lovely and relaxing. Can I come? 🙏

Sounds fab, put me on the list!

I haven’t been to many weddingswith a free bar (one in fact) so you don’t have to do this. And I agree about meat eaters eating all the veggie food. I even remember a thread about it on here and a few selfish meat eating people saying they didn’t care (I eat meat btw).

Firstty

You used to be able to rent glasses from Tesco

You can all come but must BYO glasses and spirits

You’d need one helluva BBQ for 180 people.