How to attend a wedding without drinking

We’re now in Dry January, and there’s a new survey that unveils a noteworthy shift in drinking habits at weddings, with almost a quarter (24 per cent) of Brits opting to forgo alcohol at these celebrations. The impact is evident on social media where the #drywedding hashtag has amassed over 6 million views on TikTok.

Samantha Gilchrist, CEO of the UK’s largest wedding venue collection, The Gilchrist Collection, carried out a survey of 2,000 UK adults and found that almost half (47 per cent) of those who had attended a wedding in the last five years refrained from consuming alcohol during at least one of the events they had been to.

According to the survey, the dry wedding trend is driven by 18-34-year-olds, with 28 per cent choosing to stay sober at big events. This reflects the broader shift among younger generations drinking less than the ones that came before them.

However, sober attendees said they were often left feeling uncomfortable at weddings sipping an un-festive soft drink, with more than a third of respondents (35 per cent) reported being questioned about their choice of not drinking. Sadly, a quarter admitted to consuming alcohol at a wedding solely to avoid awkward questions or having to divulge personal or medical information.

Despite this, venues seem to lag in providing adequate alcohol-free offerings with 81 per cent of those surveyed expressing the need for wedding organisers to offer more options for non-drinking guests.

Surprisingly, only 18 per cent of UK adults can recall seeing any non-alcoholic cocktails offered at the weddings they had been to, with even fewer seeing non-alcoholic beers or wines on the menu (16 per cent and 15 per cent respectively).

Addressing this shortage of non-alcoholic options at venues, The Gilchrist Collection collaborated with star barman Merlin Griffiths from Channel 4’s First Dates to add to the venue’s existing non-alcoholic menu, introducing three new grown-up and celebration-worthy drink options. 

Each recipe is perfectly suited for different key moments during the celebrations including:

The Gilchrist Collection can also reveal that Belfast takes the lead in the sobriety trend, with 31 per cent of Belfastians surveyed choosing to ditch the booze completely at weddings. While 44 per cent mentioned they’ve never consumed alcohol, a notable 22 per cent cited cost savings as a reason for abstaining amid concerns raised by a recent study unveiling Belfast residents are spending the most on alcohol per week—despite not being the UK’s biggest drinkers.

Sharing the second spot are Brighton, Bristol and Birmingham, each with 30 per cent of respondents opting to forgo alcohol entirely at such events. Among those who went “dry”, Bristolians ranked second in favour of finding sober weddings more enjoyable (42 per cent), slightly behind Manchester at 44 per cent. Brummies, on the other hand, felt obliged (41 per cent) to come up with an excuse for not taking booze, while a significant 32 per cent resorted to drinking to sidestep awkward questions.

London secures third spot with the most sober wedding guests as 29 per cent eschewed alcohol completely. Among them, a troubled 33 per cent find themselves in situations where they had to reveal personal information to justify why they weren’t drinking.

Samantha Gilchrist, co-founder and CEO of The Gilchrist Collection said: 

“We’ve seen a flurry of enquiries across our 12 venues in the UK and USA from couples keen to embrace the no- or low-alcohol wedding trend in the last 12 months and have hosted multiple dry weddings in that time.

“As a non-drinker myself I’ve often been at a wedding or event with limited or even no drink options other than water or a soft drink, which is no fun! Worse still, these drinks are often presented in a boring tumbler that highlights the fact I'm not drinking. I really wanted to put something together for my venues that caters for non-drinking guests, whatever their reasons might be.

“Young people in particular are choosing not to drink for all sorts of reasons, which is why we wanted to team up with the incredibly talented Merlin to enhance our alcohol-free drinks offering for our couples and their guests. Make no mistake, there’s nothing ‘mock’ about these drinks!”