As some know - my son's getting married this fall. As father of the groom, I'm on the hook for the rehearsal dinner, bar tab, transportation and honeymoon.

Fine, I get it and I'd rather spend the $ than him going into debt.

That said - one huge positive is their venue is BYOB so I'm not paying retail for beer.

It's a country wedding so I am renting a beer trailer, has 3 exterior taps and plugs in to keep the reefer running. What I need help with -

What beers would you guys get?
How much - for 200 guests.

Much like being a DJ, it's not about what I want to drink but what a group of 200 cheese heads/Yoopers/veterans who all vary in age from 21-75 would drink.

Initial thoughts is 6 1/2 barrels.

3 of Miller Lite (most would drink that)
2 of "something not lite but mass produced that people know"
1 of craft beer. Probably an Oktoberfest or fest beer as the wedding is in September.

Doesn't include the cocktail bar - that's easy. Whiskey sweet, whiskey sour and rum/cokes.

PBR

Aside from the libations, you will be expected to give a speech. Don't wing it. Write a good speech and rehearse it. Be memorable.

It a beer drinker at all. But if I’m at a party and the beer is cold , it’s gotta be Miller light!

What's the ages of the guests?

Old crowd or young crowd?

Pay for the honeymoon?


That's the silliest thing I have ever heard.

+1 on PBR. You mention cheeseheads, then Spotted Cow for the craft brew!

LHS

100 gallons seems like a bunch for 200 people.

You know your crowd better than me, but Miller Lite? (Yuck) other than that you have a good thought on the beer styles. For #2 I would suggest a dark beer, and then a good local craft beer for #3. Don’t know your local beers, but we have a local beer “Calapooia Brewing Co.” that puts out good beer.

As far as the whiskey bar, might I suggest a good scotch, Dalwhinne, is a real smooth whisky.

My thoughts as well.

After a couple , lite draft beer is lite draft beer.

200 ppl?

Figure half won’t drink. Too young. Too old. Have to drive, angainst their religion, etc…

100 ppl. Avg 4 beer a person? Some will nurse on 1. Some may get 10…

Uncle Carl gonna get slammed on free beer…
😂😂

Huh?

Is it gonna go bad in that referigidated trailer?

When Teal sees the bill for the honeymoon he may want to keep the leftovers for himself.

Bud Light with a huge barrel of Doritos for snacks. Can't go wrong with that.

L.W.

I hate weddings more than I hate funerals!

Who the hell pays for the honeymoon? That is on the groom.

Miller Lite? Is 1985 on the phone? My goodness a real Phillistine wedding! If you’re gonna serve swill Lager then at least serve a traditional Lager or maybe even a Pilsner. I suggest Paulaner in keeping with Oktoberfest since it is a true Pilsner, available in keg, and damned fine. Or maybe YingLing. Just don’t be a ding a ling and serve Miller Lite.

Get the most consumed beer in kegs buy cases of the other stuff.

Coors Light in kegs.

PBR and Craft in cases.

21-50 mostly.


My parents paid for mine. Considered part of the deal.



Both mine and my son's politics would not allow us to spend money with Deb the communist at New Glarus.


Brother had 300 at his wedding, figure same demographics. He did 8 1/2 barrels over the bar.

I need to appeal to the masses - Paulaner is the idea for Oktobervest, maybe Spaten.

Miller Lite - they're in-state and popular in WI.

Ask a bar owner. There are plenty of experienced Yoopers who can give advice on large scale massive drinking.

If it were me, I would hire a company to do the serving and take the liability off of me for serving. Yes, might be more but what is worth all your assets? Somebody drives home and kills somebody, and now that’s on you. If you take on the responsibility of serving, better have good insurance. Just a thought.

Side note:

I better get an invite. 😎

But don’t worry, I don’t drink.

200 total adults? How many are women? They as a rule are fewer beer drinkers, and those that do, drink less than men on average.

50-60 gallons of beer total, other liquors on top of that.

Osky

Then again, it is Wisconsin.

I think you haves good plan. You know your AO.

Probably the most important thing is to not run out.

Venue serves - we just buy the beer.

I like Miller high life

2 kegs and a couple in reserve just in case.

And talk to your homeowners insurance and buy one day of "event insurance". Relatively cheap for peace of mind.

I will admit to not consulting Vogue magazine for anything over the last 41 years!

Haha!


Are you guys not big liquor drinkers up there?

You couldn't hardly give beer away at my wedding.

lol, I'd drink a couple of gallons.

Lite for most will be fine IMHO

I wanted soooo badly to be able to do the beer truck deal at our sons wedding.
But seeing that he was marrying a PH preachers daughter and said PH preacher was conducting the service on PHP's farm I had no say.
They were married on a ramp into a 100 year old barn with a pasture[kept cows off for 5-6 months] and that beer truck would have been .......
I did have a cooler full in my truck!

But hey, the rehearsal dinner was relatively cheap as it was held at a no-alcohol restaurant, think it ran me about $1,200

I gave a very brief[like two lines] send off as I'm not a public speaker in the least[son, DIL and I discussed and they were fine and knew].

Hope yours goes off without a hitch like ours did Teal.

So would I.

Grandma is only gonna have a glass and a half though.

WI consumes more brandy than most. Last I saw, WI alone consumed 1/2 of Korbel's brandy sales world wide. (2019)

Old Fashioneds are our blood type - we're just not doing it for the wedding because of expediency. I won't have a 1/2 assed OF and to ask the venue to stack people up to make em? meh, not fair.

200 guests? 300 guests? For a wedding?

As protocol demands each guest brings a nice wedding gift, sounds like inviting large numbers of guests is a good way for the bride and groom to accumulate a lot of free loot. You know; lots of blenders, toasters, Corning wear, coffee pots, etc., etc.

Just my thoughts. (Don't blame me: I'm just an old, jaded curmudgeon.

L.W.

If this is a Yoop/Wisco reception you might want to have the ability to make an Old Fashioned or 100. I like the Spotted Cow idea for a craft beer.

That's considered a small wedding here. Small towns, everyone knows everyone. Easy to hit 200 these days with divorce families. You got step-families on both sides.

Biggest wedding I ever went to - 900 invites went out, 1200 rsvp'd as coming back. It's more common these days to also invite those to the reception, not the meal/ceremony. Reception invites - no gift expectation.

My son has me/my family. His mom and her family and his military friends. Daughter-in-law has 2 parent families as well and their combined mutual friends.

200 isn't hard to hit.


IIRC - I had 260 at my wedding, I cleared 600 in cash and a bunch of chit I've not seen since. House crap.

All three of my sons are now married off, three rehearsal dinners and miscellaneous expenses covered thankfully, can't imagine if I had a daughter and had to pay for a wedding. My niece is getting married in Park City UT this month and it's costing me over a grand just to participate and there's three more to go!!!

As for beer, when I drink it, it's always a Lager. In a brewery or place I don't typically frequent, when in doubt, a Lager fills the bill.

A keg of beer that did not go woke. Yuenglang

The last wedding I went to had a open bar🤯

It only tastes good compared to mass market beers tho.

I don't mind, they're good for one another and I can - so I am. He didn't ask, I offered once he told me he was getting married.

Yuenglang light does a good job. served it at a college graduation.

I was at a wedding recently in WI and they had Bells two hearted ale on tap and we finished the keg. That's my recommendation.

Spotted cow, New Glarus is a good option but it's sort of sweet. My best man had his family get a keg of it and bring it to his wedding in Utah (yeah, I know, that's illegal). Anyway, after a pitcher of spotted cow it becomes a bit too sweet.

Good deal Dad. I like this.

What, a person can't bring their own beer into Utah or out of WI???

We had a sit down dinner at our wedding and I was shocked when the planner told us to plan on 1 bottle of wine per person, in addition to cocktails and beer. She wasn't far off.

Bells - good idea. Hadn't thought of that.

Teal…. I don’t have anything to add about alcohol but I do want to congratulate you and your son and future daughter in law! I wish them all the happiness, friendship and love that a good marriage delivers!

A honeymoon for them is a damn fine wedding gift. 👍🏼

I hear the troopers like to run down people making runs back from Colorado with trunks full of booze. Is that true?

I appreciate that. He's a great kid, she's good for him.

Actually just shared this sentiment with others today -


The old saying "the older I get, the smarter my dad gets" is very true but I've learned so much from him too.

Where are they going for the honeymoon? I might’ve missed it in the previous posts which isn’t uncommon for me. 😀

Our wedding 27 years ago consisted of my mom and dad, my wife’s mom and dad and the pastor. We stayed at a beautiful cottage on the water and had our ceremony on the beach. We weren’t going to ask our parents to pay and we didn’t want a big expensive affair since we were just beginning our life together….plus we were closing on our first home on Lake Chelan 3 days later.

I have a big (loving) family and my wife has a medium sized loving family and knew that the wedding size and costs would grow out of control with spouses, friends and relatives who we would have to invite, if we invited 1 we’d have to invite all. A couple weeks later we held a small party at my parents home and invited all our family and friends.

My wife made her wedding dress and I paid a coworker who was just beginning his photography business. Looking back at it we still wouldn’t change a thing even if we could.

A picture of a picture 27 years ago before digital cameras…

If you are close to WI, Spotted Cow would be my choice. Great beer.

Oops, sorry, didn't see your earlier comment on Spotted Cow.

Sending them on an Alaskan Cruise.

Great beer as is all of New Glarus's. Dan is an AMAZING brewer but his wife, who actually owns the brewery is farther to the left than Hillary Clinton and AOC combined. She donated more money to BHO than the CEO of Apple did back in the day. I will not, under no circumstances, give them money. Son feels the same way.

No Spotted Cow at this wedding.

Can they prove it's for sale and not for personal use?

Perhaps UT is one of those states with a State Liquor Store setup? Can't be eating into the State's profit now, can we.

It sounds like you as his dad have given him a great example to live up to and that is something that no amount of money can buy. Love and respect for others but especially respect for the closest people in one’s life are invaluable whether you’re 10 years old or 100 years old. Being a husband and father are the greatest privileges I’ll ever have and I’ve not for 1 second regretted either!

As a parent our job is never finished, even when they have their own families, it just changes as to the role we play in their lives. I know that I’m not telling you anything that you don’t know already because you’ve obviously done it right!

ETA….An Alaska cruise sounds like a great honeymoon! 👍🏼

Not in WI or northern MN it ain't.


Any leftovers will be lapped up the next day or in the coming week, for sure.

1/2 gallon per person is only 4 pints. That's like 1 an hour which in our area, pace is probably closer to 2.5 an hour.

Figure about 120 pints a keg.

I’d go with something similar to what you proffered.
3 or 4 kegs of American lager. Lite or whatever.

I’d do one lighter fest style beer, an helles or similar, and a keg of ipa.

Some places will provide cups when you buy kegs. If not, sleeves of 16oz plastic is pretty cheap.

Make sure you have power to run the trailer. Make sure you have a gas bottle and a spare. 2 5#’s should do it.

Check the equipment in the trailer. Rental schit gets abused and it sucks to find out you have broken or leaking equipment when it’s time to pour.

If you get a European beer for some reason, they often take different couplers.

A few 5 gallon buckets for tray drains and foam buckets.

Make sure the beer stays cold. Biggest reason beer pours schitty at the tap is if it starts to warm.

I’d get some metal troffs fill them with ice and kegs make it festive 😉

Congratulations to your son and his bride to be. And to you, proud father. I remember you being a good father over the years when you would mention life's ups and downs occasionally on here. Hope the wedding goes well and no weather or something interferes.

I dispute this. I bought a 100 off brand red solo cups the other day, just ran into dollar store, grabbed em and ran to cash register. It was almost $17. I stopped for a second amd almost vomited.

Beer drinkers I guess.

Not as popular here.

$45 for a 1000

https://www.webstaurantstore.com/ch..._grzjhAMVSXV_AB03QgB_EAQYAiABEgJf2vD_BwE

that’s only 2 gallons/20 beers apiece. At least there’s a liquor bar too or people would be going home half sober.

What?

🤪😂😂😂😂

What’s that ? Four tall boys?

Well, he's right you know, depending on how long the reception lasts. At least when I was a drinkin' man. What time you starting?

Jack, I don't remember what's worser, going home half sober or all the way sober. I seem to remember if I was half sober I'd have to stop on the way home to finish the job. I said seem to remember as I don't recall it happening much with the friends I had.

2 gallons apiece eh?

As I said earlier....couldn't give beer away at my wedding.

Which kinda doesn't make sense as we gave everything away anyhow.

I love to drink beer especially in a place where it's quick and easy to go take a whiz.

Can ya get a White Claw in a keg?

Asking for a friend…

I drank a few beers at a Chris Ledoux concert in Billings once.


That was a mistake.


No place to piss.

Not "minding" just new to me. My two sons spent their honeymoon in north Idaho so I guess I paid.

Beat me to it . . . .

BMT

Just had a nephew get married and was amazed at the new wave web-based process. In the invitation, one is encouraged to log into their online "wants page" where he is invited to fund every imaginable honeymoon/marriage aspect like flowers, plane tickets, jet ski sessions, ziplining, 5-star dinners, tickets to entertainment, dinner seats at the captain's table, reef diving sessions, $250 place settings, king sized bed, new camera and lens, dove flights, limo service, nights at the hotel, etc. Do the purchase and the item drops off the list.

All that on top of doing the deed at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs when he's from Pennsylvania and she's from Florida. No idea who paid for that. Travel and lodging alone would have run us about 4 grand. We mailed a check.

Sh-t! We were born 50 years too early and were happy for items like blankets, towels, can openers, sheets, frying pans, toasters, etc, and were married around the corner in the local church with Cookie making her own dress. I don't think we spent a total of $200 on our entire 4-day honeymoon in Gatlinburg, Tenn, and except for $20, that honeymoon came out of my pocket.

Have a hunting buddy that spent about $35K on the only daughter's wedding about 10 years back, and the marriage lasted almost 6 weeks. Really only about 3 weeks, but the divorce paperwork took 6. Such would have paid for our first home with money left over.

Make sure nobody’s stealing bottles from the open bar. GF volunteered to pay for the bar at her nephew's reception. Both guests and help were caught stealing bottles. Word to the wise.

Daughter is getting married next month,
in our little church.

The reception is in the basement.



Guys at work can't fathom a wedding that's not a drunkfest.

I can't fathom the need to get drunk to be present and celebrate the marriage of
these two kids.

Teal, I’m late into this one, but back to your original question, I agree on the Miller Lite, but as a Wisconsin guy Spotted Cow, a Wisconsin only beer out of New Glarus, has become my own and a lot of people’s favorite. Heineken goes over pretty well at my house too, but I like Spotted Cow the best.

Do your son and his close buddies have a go to beer? Get that for sure if so. I'd also ask the place your buying kegs from, they can give you good solid info. Buy 1 more of the main and one more of the full flavor than you think you'll need. Also, can likely return untapped as long as they are kept cold

yep

my same thoughts

It’s his money, he can do whatever he wants with it.

And he offered. It wasn’t expected.




P

That’s an appetizer down here

Oh fugg off captain obvious.

You know your crowd better than we do so flavor of the day is up to you - never going to hit everyones favorite. Folks get 6 in em and Coors Light vs. Miller Light vs. Whatever doesn't matter too much.

When does the reception start/end? Start at 5:30, over at 10 kinda deal 6 1/2 barrels probably nails it. Midnight will require more...Sons got a decent size group of 20 something buds that get after it might need more yet...a dozen young guys at a party are going to put a hurting on one 1/2 barrel by themselves.



FIL is a beer salesman and took care of the order for our wedding - little bigger crowd ~300 or so, no children. Open bar first 2 hours, free beer all night deal. Believe we went through 13 1/2 barrels but was a stay til you're done reception, didn't kick people out.