Want to end your wedding on a (now completely legal) high note? Newlyweds John Elledge and Whitney Alexander featured Oregon’s first-ever cannabis bar at their summer 2015 wedding at Whitney’s mother’s farm in West Linn.
“We came up with the idea after noticing throughout the years that a small group of us would always sneak away from a wedding and get stoned,” says John, who has been a licensed grower for more than 20 years. “I thought, how cool would it be to actually have a weed bar at the wedding?”
Couples who want to feature a cannabis bar at their wedding must be sure not to have any marijuana sales occurring at the event and also ensure that the bar is on private property, which means traditional venues are off-limits. “Anyone in Oregon can have a weed bar as long as you have under eight ounces and no alcohol is being sold at the wedding,” John says.
For the evening’s pot offerings, John purchased 13 varieties from Portland’s Nectar PDX and displayed them in custom jars during the wedding reception. A “budtender”—the marijuana equivalent to a bartender—assisted guests throughout the evening who ranged to first-timers to more seasoned users.
“Because the weed bar was made readily available, it did not become a scene or take away from the wedding at all,” wedding coordinator Nora Sheils of Bridal Bliss says. “Guests had a fun time and ended up dancing the night away, just like any other wedding.”
Considering your own cannabis bar? Our legal friends at Avvo are sharing what you need to know.