substitute drink at a wedding?

I gave up drinking when I was 19 years old after watching many horrible things happen to friends in college and having family members go to prison for DUI (my cousin went to prison 1 week after his 22nd birthday) and other family members die because of their drinking habits. My husband was raised in a family of alcoholics, so he will never drink. We both see alcohol consumption as a pathetic scapegoat to cover actions that insecure people would not do unless they had that scapegoat. We also feel it is PATHETIC to depend on a substance to have fun.

We decided to have a "dry" wedding. We had our wedding begin at 11am so nobody would expect to drink because we had to be out of the hall before 5pm. We also had unlimited non-alcoholic beverages (sodas, juices, coffees & teas). At our wedding, everyone was respectful because they know our feelings about alcohol consumption.

We skipped the whole toast thing, but had talked about sparkling apple cider for a toast. It's apple cider with carbonation in it; no alcohol in it at all. You can also get a sparkling white grape juice. Both drinks give you the pretty bubbly color of champagne, but have no alcohol, and come in a champagne style bottle. Buy a bottle of each and try it at home, I know around here they carry both drinks in major supermarkets. Besides, not having alcohol will save you a HUGE amount of money!

Weddings can be more fun without alcohol. You just need the right band or DJ to keep the party going! We had nothing but compliments about our wedding!

If you live an alcohol-free lifestyle then it's not inappropriate to not serve it at your wedding, and the people close to you should understand that. However, people do expect that beer/wine will be served at a dinner reception. You could have an afternoon reception so that not having alcohol wouldn't be too "weird".

As for toasting with a substitute beverage, sparkling grape juice is always great.

You can buy grape juice from a winery. I recently went on a day vacation and visited a winery for a tour. The grape juice they made there, they said tasted EXACTLY like the Red Wine they made. Except the Red Wine you will feel the alcohol in a few glasses. But they tasted the EXACT same. A bottle of the Red Wine (before quantity discounts): $8.33 . A bottle of Red Grape Juice (before quantity discounts): $3. HUGE cost saver. Plus, it came in a wine bottle. They even deliver to Ohio for free if you'd like the name of it, I can send you the info. I don't know if you want Red Grape Juice. They also had the White Grape Juice (made from green grapes, forget what it was called, exactly) if you want that option too. I just remember they were sold out of that one so I couldn't taste it. I really don't like grape juice, but I liked that red grade juice from them.

So if you're in Ohio, send me a message and I could give you some info on it. I'm sure you can find one closer if you're out of that state, though. But you could also buy Sparkling Grape Juice from any grocery store. I think that would be the best option, and save you guys a lot! Good for him for not drinking!!!!!

And you can have absolutely no drinking, but then you will quickly find out who's there for you and who is there just for the free alcohol. If they complain, that's their problem. Alcohol makes the party a lot less fun, coming from a person who doesn't drink. It only seems fun when they're drunk because they are losing brain cells, but it really just is them looking like an idiot and everyone laughing at how pathetic they are. Your friends and family should understand. As I said, anyone who isn't okay with it, isn't your friend!

I also don't drink alcohol at all, but that is no reason to keep everyone else from drinking at the reception. At my wedding I was actually given milk for the toasts but I drink an excessive amount of milk to the tune of 4-6 gallons a week on my own, so that was sort of funny. You can work with a caterer to make sure that he is provided with non-alcoholic beverages for everything like we did. It sucks to pay for alcohol that you will have no part of but it does keep everyone else having a good time and it is only once.

It is not a necessity to serve alcohol at your wedding reception, no. However, there will be people who complain so brace yourselves. I feel it is polite to offer things for everyone, just as one would offer vegetarian meal options one should offer both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drink choices.

You can toast with anything from water to ginger ale to punch.

my fiance and i (and our families) are LDS, so of course, we live an alcohol-free lifestyle. a good portion of our guests drink, but we're most definitely having dry reception.

there's no reason you can't have a dry reception, especially if your groom does not and will not drink. for the toast, you can get non-alcoholic champagne, or just a light sparkling beverage. whatever tastes great, honestly. you can even add color to it and have it coordinate with your wedding colors.

besides, holy cost-cutting. seriously.

sparkling apple cider is the best choice instead of Champagne. it look similar in color. if you do not want booze at your wedding don't have any. our wedding will only have wine andChampagnee and soft drinks, not beer or hard booze. if people NEED booze to enjoy your wedding maybe theyshouldn't be there

sparkleing grape wine. Its almost looks like Champagne buts its almost like a soda. So any kind of Sparklieing soda types. There is grape, red grape, apple cider and I think that is all.

Sounds great yet fairly while will you have time to make those and top off them? try sparkling grapte juice or if there's a bar have virgin daquories. or only water w/ lemon. sturdy success.

How about punch? Like they serve at a cocktail reception? They have alcoholic punch and non-alcoholic. It's tasty too.