Wedding BYO - how does that work?

[DrinksAnxiety]

Been invited to a wedding, and it’s BYO booze.

I’m not being tight or anything, but how does this work? Do I bring beers, wine and soft drinks (children) and put it into the pot? Or do I carry a Tescos bag snd mind it with my dear life?

Seriously though, I only drink certain things and so don’t really want to pot luck and/ or end up with nothing to drink as surely some people will forget.

Also, AIBU to think that the B&G at a posh venue, with an expensive wedding, shouldn’t expect guests to bring their own.

I'm nit sure @DrinksAnxiety , but we are going to a wedding soon that is BYOB and bring a dish. It's 300 miles away! Still thinking about the bring a dish bit.

Box of beers and bottle of wine for the communal table if there is one. Bottle of good wine for me beers for DH. Prosecco for laters when I'm feeling festive. Sort cool box to kee it chiled

Sounds amazing actually! I'd rather bring my own proscecco for £8 than pay £40+ a bottle at the bar! Take cans/fruit shoots for kids and I'd probably bring enough so they could share them. Do you reaaaally want to be that saddo counting cans and holding them back?

I assume most guests would confirm with one another on what they are taking so you can plan drinks that way.

Both myself and my sister had this at our weddings, both in local halls rather than hotels. We provided some wine and whisky for the tables, along with ice buckets full of ice.
Everyone just drank their own alcohol and helped themselves to the extra wine.
All of our friends loved it as it's a cheaper night.

We've been to them and you just drank what you brought - works out so much cheaper but people got very drunk. Plenty of sharing going on I should add but not a free for all

To all these people who had or attended BYOB weddings, what sort of venues were these at? This sounds ideal!

I'd bring a white for daytime and a prosecco for night time and put them in a wedding gift bag that I'd keep by me all night. Dh would share the white and bring a hip flask of whiskey for later.

I'd not bring anything for a communal table.

Keep it in your room, the car boot, or place it on your table. If you put it on the main table, people will help themselves especially to coke.

When we went to a wedding like this some friends were also camping so had coolers, etc - we put the table booze in a big cool box and added a couple of bottles of wine to the 'bar' table.

Couple provided ice, softs, mixers and fizz for toasts.

You put your drinks on your table

Seems an entirely sensible thing to do booze is the most expensive part and it makes it cheaper for guests too

I'd clarify it's Def BRING not BUY your own
Hey Jess, just wanted to clarify, will there be glasses provided for drinks or do we need to bring these too? Do you know if there access to ice? Just deciding what we should bring

We had this at a wedding, everyone turned up with cool boxes etc and put them under their tables, it was great. Personally I love it, so much cheaper and you get to drink exactly what you want!

@Nodancingshoes - your friend sounds like my kind of friend too, definitely better than paying wedding venue bar prices!

@Iwishmymumwouldbemymum - if you think that's "delightful" you'll love me, I once took a bottle of vodka into a wedding and hid it under the table - alert the church elders!

This could save everyone a fortune but is tricky if you’re away from home to
keep things cool
What about corkage charges?
For the bring a dish wedding miles from
home - sounds like you’ll be taking crisps!

We sort of did this - laid on wine, beer and cider but anything fancy BYO. It was brilliant. Lots of fancy gins, the older relatives who drink brandy and whisky were super pleased not to be forking out a fortune on tiny measures, no arguments about rounds.

Just bring your own it’s not that hard 🫠

Oh and the venue had a big fridge, plus we did massive ice buckets. No problem.

I’m surprised a wedding venue allows this but it’s a big saving for couple I guess. Take whatever you want to drink plus a few extras-no idea how they’ll administer this but assume you can keep it on your table

Ask the bride or groom what the plan is

We did this at our wedding 12 years ago.

We had many guests come to us afterwards who said they often turned down wedding invites as the cost of drinks for a family for the evening crippled them and how lovely it was to be able to attend.

We had a very family orientated wedding though so many guests enjoyed being able to let their kids drink copious amounts of fruit shoots without worrying whole drinking their Smirnoff and cokes.

Ask them. You'll likely be doing then a favour in prompting then to think about the logistics, of they haven't already.
No way would I be drinking warm booze from the back of my car or under my seat.

After attending lots of weddings where the bar prices were eye watering so the guests spent most of the time outside at a 'car boot bar' we knew we wanted to have a BYOB.

It was in a village hall with a BBQ and band. We provided Pimm's/beers for a welcome drink, a bottle of red and white for each table and a bottle of prosecco for each table for the toast.

We also had a pay as you feel bar (donations to charity) for anyone that didn't want to bring their own and did cans of beer/fruit cider/wine. We bought it on offer at the supermarkets!

People were happy to bring their own, I remember walking around with a tray of shots!

We danced all night and still had booze left over a year later!

To me this sounds like a terrible idea, too many memories of house parties gone wrong with your nice drinks stolen and some horrible spirit and weird mixer the only option! If done right I can see it could work out a better/cheaper option for b&g and guests as people can actually have the drinks they want (instead of the usually very limited selection of horrendously overpriced drinks bars offer) and pay much less for them.

However I personally would prefer to have a bar as it's a pain having to work out what you'd want and buy stuff in advance, bring it with you, find somewhere to store it safely and keep it appropriately chilled etc. Before I had children I would have preferred BYO to a cash bar, now I just want a simple option where I don't have to invest any mental energy!

I'd ask B&G what the set up will be so you can plan accordingly. Sounds from this thread like there's a variety of options which may affect what you want to bring!

I am surprised a posh venue is agreeable to this, the mark up on drink is where they make a huge amount of profit from weddings and other events. I do hope the OP doesn’t turn up at the venue to find suited heavies removing the booze and putting it in a skip. Brings back painful memories of the meanies at the O2 who even remove packets of very nice m and s sweeties from people who have paid hundreds for an uncomfortable seat .

I went to one, it was great and we saved a fortune. Brought a cool box with 3 bottles of wine and left it in the car until dinner, at which point we just kept it under the table.