But Why Is the Rum Gone?

Now that we had the beach, the venue, and the guests, it was time to crack down on the drinks. I know that dry weddings are a touchy subject for a lot of people, but I also knew having one was a major part of my wedding vision. Yes, even as a little girl, I just knew I was not going to have alcohol at my wedding. I had seen the negative side of it too many times, and I didn’t want to pay and contribute to something I am against. I am NOT putting down any brides who chose to incorporate alcohol, it just isn’t for us and our wedding vision.

I also realize that the guests are a pretty important part of the wedding day, and I didn’t want to put them out or bore them because we chose to have a dry wedding. Honestly, we chose to have a destination wedding to get away from some of the people that I know use these events as an excuse to get trashed. Out of the guests that we are inviting, only a few drink occasionally, but I still want them to have a great time. These people are, after all, traveling pretty far, and I don’t want them to feel like we are being cheap and don’t appreciate them coming to our wedding. Although it isn’t the ONLY reason, I will admit that prices are a small factor for us having a dry wedding. We originally thought about having some champagne just for the toast, but it was almost $200 just to have someone pour it and only a couple of people would be partaking in it. It just wasn’t worth it in the end.

After we both agreed to the dry wedding, we had to actually tell our guests about this major decision. I was very nervous, because I had been told that people will find the wedding lame and will leave early. I didn’t want to have a lame wedding, but I really also didn’t want to have alcohol there. I pictured angry people running at me with pitchforks and torches, demanding alcohol.

Surprisingly, everyone took it really well. A lot of people knew my reasoning for not liking alcohol, and they also said it was smart financially. One of the guests actually asked me if I would take offense to them getting a cocktail at the nearby bar (of course it wouldn’t), and I thought that was awesome that they respected my decision that much.

Now that we got the hard part over with, it was time to plan how to go about this. I looked into many different “bar” ideas, because I still wanted everyone to enjoy being there. Some of the things we looked at were:

A soda bar. I had seen several pictures of these, and I love how pretty the colors look in the photos. Mix this with colored candy, and it’s the perfect thing to add a unique touch. I was even thinking of coordinating the colors to our wedding colors to make it more fun.

Image via lovewedbliss / Photographer: Iliana Morton

Mocktails. There are so many different recipes out there, and they look just like the cocktails everyone loves. They look so delicious, and everyone wins in this case. You get the mixed drinks, minus alcohol.

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Image via Offbeat Bride / Recipe via chow.com

A sundae/float bar. Cold ice cream would be such a treat on the hot beach. The guests would also be able to customize them to their liking. Unfortunately, ice cream and the hot sun would also probably be a disaster mixed with nice clothes.

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Image via The Little Umbrella / Photographer: Kayla Northrop

In the end, we talked to the party specialist and she suggested having a “mocktail” hour before the reception. They still get delicious mixed drinks, they just taste a lot better (to me) because they are minus the alcohol (even when I DID drink, the one thing I loathed was the taste of the alcohol in them). This was perfect for my vision, because we can still feel like grownups, drinking mixed drinks. Oh, and the kiddos can feel awesome too. (I remember drinking a few virgin drinks in the day and thinking I was so cool.)

So don’t let anyone tell you that dry weddings are lame. I think that our day will still be just as special without the alcohol as it would have been if we were serving it. In the end, we’ll be with the ones we love and will still have a great time. Oh, and at the end of the night, we’ll pop a bottle…of sparkling lemonade. Yum.

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