<p>
I recently posted about this on another board. My cousin and his (now-ex) wife did this at their midwest Catholic wedding when they got married in 1987. They didn’t drink, there had been some alcohol issues on his side of the family, and they didn’t want to give the appearance of condoning drinking by paying for it at the reception. (Talk about sanctimonious!) They gave no notice of this beforehand. My family was appalled. IMHO, if they didn’t want drinking at the reception, they should have taken a stand and made it dry. My (now) DH was with me and to this day, when I’m talking about my family and he needs clarification, all I have to do is say “Cash Bar” and he knows exactly who I’m talking about.
And while we’re on the subject - why are people giving such frou-frou weddings nowadays that they have to stress about the cost of every single guest on the list? In our area, a “big” wedding reception consists of heavy hors d’ouvres (sp?), the cake, beer and wine, if not an open bar, and a DJ for music. Cut your suit to fit your cloth, people! If all you can afford is cake and punch, go for it. At the end of the day, you’re just as married as you would be if you’d had a blowout worthy of a feature on TLC. And, as Dr. Suess says, “Those who mind won’t matter and those who matter won’t mind.”</p>