Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Smuggling alcohol into a wedding reception?

315 replies

jessie777 · 29/07/2017 00:58

Would you? Have you?! Did you get caught?! Wine

OP posts:
AreWeThereYet000 · 29/07/2017 02:02

I have done, went to a wedding plus reception that was £8 a pint so dread to think what the wine list prices were! Took a bottle of rum each (me and DP) and still spent £120 on sodas and the odd 'proper' drink

CatThiefKeith · 29/07/2017 02:07

Had I known that sils wedding venue in the middle of fecking nowhere charged £6.50 a pint and £9 for a glass of wine (6 years ago)
I would probably have smuggled some in!

As an ex raver, ex publican and ex festival goer here are my top tips:

Vodka in a fruit shoot bottle

A watermelon full of your favourite spirit.. drill a small hole in to top, drop the juice over night, refill with alcohol and place a sticker over the hole.

Bottle of wine concealed by wrap over your arm (classy venues only - festivals will search you)

Nobody ever searches a changing bag - especially not one with a soiled nappy inside. Wink

Fleshmechanic · 29/07/2017 02:17

I've done it before. I've also smuggled it into pubs. I just take the bottle out of my bag and pour the JD under the table when no ones looking or just go into the toilet and do it. If you just don't act suspicious then it's fine. I'm not friends or related to anyone snobby or anything so if anyone caught us (even the bride and groom) they wouldn't have given a fuck anyway. We just had to hide it because of the staff. Drinks are expensive. I don't do it all the time anyway, only when I'm particularly skint.

coursedarlin · 29/07/2017 02:20

A large group of us went to a colleagues wedding reception. We each bought a bottle and arrived with them in bottle bags. They stayed under the table with us all topping our glasses up through the night

Slimthistime · 29/07/2017 02:32

Cat, im not sure about carrying a watermelon into any event, least of all a wedding. Grin

Beeziekn33ze · 29/07/2017 03:04

Friend was determined to give her DD a good 18th party, they'd had several family problems and didn't have a lot of money. Lovely party in a hired room at a club, bar prices reasonable too.
A few teenage boys smuggled in their own drinks, staff noticed and my poor friend lost her substantial deposit.
No, I wouldn't. It's selfish.,

DeliciouslyHella · 29/07/2017 03:09

Yes, I once went to a wedding with such extortionate prices that someone nipped out and got a bottle of vodka from an offie. As we were all staying overnight at the venue, we topped up our drinks upstairs away from the party.

A couple of people did it at our wedding. We got married in a Wetherspoons pub, but they didn't stock the (highly unusual) drinks these guests drunk, so they brought hip flasks with them.

PhDPepper · 29/07/2017 03:16

www.firebox.com/Wine-Handbags/p5868

Tada!!

purplesippycup · 29/07/2017 03:19

I have only a few weeks ago.

It cost an absolute fortune in petrol to get to the wedding venue.

2 nights bed and breakfast £350. Too far to travel the morning of the wedding or after the reception so had to stay over for it to be worth going at all.

Outfits, shameless couple asked us to pay for DH and DS outfits (even though they were in the wedding party)

It was the wedding of a close relative so couldn't just not go.

The hotel was in the middle of nowhere so no choice to go off for food elsewhere night before the wedding unless we wanted to drive 45 minutes, so had to have an evening meal there which cost a lot.

There, we discovered that a pint of lager was £5, a small glass of the cheapest wine was £6. Soft drinks were about £3 each. They even charged £1.50 for a splash of a mixer!

One round for a family of 3 was costing roughly £15 depending on what we had.

It was ridiculous considering we were there for 2 days.

My friend and I warned a relative who was traveling up on the morning of the wedding about the prices. God love her she turned up with several bottles of wine and some vodka, all cleverly wrapped up so the lids were still removable, and put them inside bottle gift bags. She also brought a couple of packs of fruit shoots for the kids.

We kept them under the table posing as gifts, and poured under there discreetly, then took them all away with us at the end of the night.

We paid for soft drinks/mixers and lagers so we didn't completely dodge paying for drinks. It just allowed us to relax and not worry about how much it was all costing.

Felt no shame as we spent a fortune at the hotel anyway, room, food and we did pay for some drinks, and we felt their prices were really unfair considering the drinks were only average supermarket type wines and beers, nothing special. I wouldn't have done it if they were more reasonable.

AlpacaLypse · 29/07/2017 03:23

Having recently gone up that London for a 50th birthday and been rendered speechless at the bill for two glasses of wine and a pint of bitter when I went to the bar I have given up sympathy for licensees at venues. £8 for a small glass of cheap plonk is not on.

For festivals - you can get at least three bottles down the middle of the average tent. And two down the middle of a packed folding chair.

If you empty out a Capri Sun pouch, then refill it with vodka (and a bit of the original Capri Sun to sweeten it) you should be able to get two pouches into each bra. And probably one or two into knickers as well.

This theory has been tested very recently by teenage dds who listened carefully to mummy's advice about Very Important Things and have come home from a Festival and can confirm it worked.

TheFifthKey · 29/07/2017 03:24

I think if a venue has a problem with habitual drink-smuggling it's up to them to have a good hard look at their pricing policy. I know I'd never book a function at a place with a stupidly pricey bar.

BadLad · 29/07/2017 03:30

Pinkkahori

Thanks for posting that link. One Christmas present for DW bought.

She'll love it.

crazywriter · 29/07/2017 03:36

My DHs family does this but takes the kids with it. I've taken spirits in small water bottles and ordered the mixers at the bar. Bars charge extortionate prices and you often have no choice but to pay them. I'm going to a wedding next month and planning on flasking it up

Pallisers · 29/07/2017 04:05

I think if you were that bothered about the bride and groom's hospitality you wouldn't have picked an argument at their wedding reception.

Do you? fascinating. Thanks for your input on a wedding reception that is 10 years old now. Why on earth would you get so so engaged/critical about this? I posted as an aside on a thread. I didn't actually post and say AIBU? Do you bring wine to dinner parties/receptions yourself in case the wine served isn't up to your standard? Is that why my anecdote seems to have engaged you so much?

OutComeTheWolves · 29/07/2017 04:46

Everyone I know does it. Wedding venues charge an absolute fortune.

JackTwist · 29/07/2017 04:56

No one checks your bag at a wedding but you could only take a swig in the loo, I guess

We all had our bags checked on the way in to a wedding reception last year

SelfObsessionHoney · 29/07/2017 05:16

I went to a day festival last year. I'm cheap. Bought two bottles of value suncream, washed out with hot water and filled with gin. I just looked very sun sensible. But I'd put my long lasting factor 50 on before I left the house to get drunk on my contrabsnd gin.

ifigoup · 29/07/2017 05:28

I went to a dry wedding a couple of years ago. The bride's and groom's families were both teetotal for religious reasons (though the bride and groom did drink) and the reception venue didn't allow any alcohol on the premises (also because of its religious foundation). People did smuggle hip flasks into that one, but I didn't because I thought it was disrespectful.

NashvilleQueen · 29/07/2017 05:50

Pmsl at the wedding watermelon 🍉

luckylucky24 · 29/07/2017 06:01

If you want wine, take a couple of those miniatures in your handbag. Buy one drink and then pour yours into the glass. Spirits are easy to sneak in with either a hip flask or food colouring bottles. I have been known to wedge a few colouring bottles into a garter hidden under a long dress! (prom).

Mintylizzy9 · 29/07/2017 06:36

Box of wine in a gift bag with some of that shredded tissue paper on top and dangling down the side to hide it. Cut a small trapdoor at side of bag where the box tap is.....I've never done it of course no one suspected a thing

butternutsquashtime · 29/07/2017 06:50

Every wedding I've been to I've taken some
Form of alcohol.

Buy your first drink at the bar and then go to your room to top it up.

If you've been to the venue before you'll know what bottles beer they sell so you can take that.

Hotel prices are a rip off.

Bluepansies · 29/07/2017 06:51

Pallisers people are allowed to disagree with you - you're being really excessively arsey and rude. The point made by pp that starting an argument at a wedding being more rude than someone bringing their own drink is a valid one. You being sarcastic about someone having an opinion on that makes as much sense as you having an opinion on it. It works both ways Confused

CatThiefKeith · 29/07/2017 06:57

Watermelon isn't brilliant for weddings, admittedly, but works brilliantly for any kind of day festival

seastargirl · 29/07/2017 07:00

If you're doing it, please make sure you take your empties home as some places will charge the bride and groom corkage for anything they find.

Swipe left for the next trending thread