To want a dry wake for my sister?

[Welshyma]

My sister passed away 2 weeks ago. Her funeral is in 3 weeks and we haven’t organised her wake yet as we can’t find a venue without a bar serving alcohol.
Some of the people attending are recovering alcoholics and us close family don’t want to see people drinking at her wake.
We can’t find any caterers who would cater tea, coffee and soft drinks or any venue without a bar. Any ideas?

Ask the funeral directors. They often have a list.

If that doesn’t work, phone around a few local churches and ask - they’ll almost certainly know of caterers that use their venues.

If that doesn’t work, look up your local WI - they’re pretty much a version of the mafia and will be well clued up on funeral arrangements and catering options.

Also search office lunch catering in your area. That’s basically a funeral tea menu and no booze is standard for working lunches.

We held the wake for DH's mum in the local village hall. We just had a few nibbles and sandwiches, cakes and cups of tea and coffee.

Sorry for your loss. If you can't find caterers but can find a church hall or village hall they should have a hot water urn and you could get disposable cups to make clearing up easier. At my brother's wake we had tea and cake, it wasn't a whole meal or anything.

We recently used a local cafe for a family members wake, so no alcohol, no one mentioned the fact there wasn’t any.

We have had wakes in the church hall where the funeral was held, and one in a cafe at the crematorian. They didn’t serve alcohol.

The undertaker was able to suggest a couple of catering companies that they called on regularly.They sorted it for us and we returned to the church hall after both DM and DF's funerals to a decent spread of sandwiches, cakes,tea and coffee.

PS.My condolences.

I'm sorry for your loss. Have you considered hiring a posh food van? They often have add ons such as soft drinks bars/iced tea or coffee bars etc. You could hire a village hall or similar and book a food van plus drinks options.

If you can give the general area you're in OP, people may have venue recommendations?