Alcohol is a very expensive part of the wedding arrangements and it can use up a lot of your available cash very quickly.
Having an open bar can be very dangerous for your wallet particularly if your guests prefer spirits or other expensive beverages.
You can limit the time that the bar is open or the type of beverages that are available. The time of the day or night that you have your wedding can also affect the type of alcohol that is preferred and the quantity that is drunk with most people less likely to drink as much if the wedding is earlier in the day.
Many people are having alcohol free weddings these days and that is an alternative that you might like to consider or even just offering the cheaper beverages such as beer and wine rather than champagne and spirits.
It might also be well worth considering just having specific amounts of alcohol on each table to maintain a level of consumption that your wallet can handle.
Often people will have an arrangement where everybody gets one glass of champagne when they arrive at the reception area and this can be a nice touch where you can have some control over the amount of consumption.
From there you can offer a choice of red and white wines on the table and possibly have beer on tap for a certain time at the reception.
You are free to mix and match your plans to suit your guests, your wallet, and the way that you would like to see your wedding run.
At the end of the day no one specific aspect of the wedding should have so much emphasis as to affect the overall enjoyment of the event.
If there are wedding guests that you know will consume too much alcohol then you will need to take this into consideration when planning your beverages.