As a Canadian, I have to disagree. I’ve been to many weddings in Canada; all but two have been open bars. Of those two, one was dry for religious reasons, the other was a cash bar because the couple couldn’t afford an open one but wanted their guests to be able to have a drink anyway if they chose.
I should add that AFAIK, there is no “per head” charge; from what I’ve seen, every drink served is written down (in basic terms, a tally under headings like “shot” or “beer” instead of writing out “rum and Coke” or “Molson Ex” each time), added up later, and billed accordingly. I remember my own wedding, and the bar tab that arrived in the mail a week or so later–it was itemized as liquor, beer, and wine; each with the number of drinks, or bottles of wine, served. I do recall the venue estimating what an open bar would run to per head when we arranged things, but they also stressed that they would bill per drink, and would not charge an “all-you-can-drink” per head charge. I believe such a thing would be illegal under provincial liquor laws.
I had the Southern Baptist type wedding, but three other considerations in being dry were:
cost–my parents and I were paying for the wedding, and the budget was not large
the venue was a lovely park–which didn’t allow alcohol
the wedding was at 3 p.m. and the whole shooting match was over by 5–a little early for the booze, anyway
And some folks might nix alcohol because of certain family members who can’t behave themselves when there’s booze around, though that was not a concern for us.
I wonder if in the Northeast its the heavy Italian influence on the culture that makes the idea of a cash bar sound so horrible. Not in the sense that families of Italian descent are drunks, but more in the sense that a wedding is an incredibly large and ostentatious event designed to show off to/one up everyone else.