Setting up jockey box the day before

[ScoobyDude]

I have been planning on having 2-3 kegs at my wedding but had not thought much about dispensing it. I have two questions:

(1) Is using a jockey box worth the rental expense ($125) or purchase expense ($550 total) compared to having kegs sitting in ice buckets and going with a C02 party tap? I do homebrew and throw/attend a lot of parties so it would see use at least a couple times a year if i bought one.

(2) If I'm going with the jockey box - which I've never tried - can I set it up the night before so I don't have to deal with it on my wedding day? When I say "set it up" I mean get the iced kegs in location, rigged to the JB and beer-dispensable with C02 kept at 10-15PSI (going on research knowledge here) and just focus on the replenishing ice on the wedding day. Is that a sound strategy?

For background info: we'll have 150 attending. this is an outdoor wedding and weather will be around 80 degrees. drinking for guests starts around 3pm. we're leaning kegs because we have to pack out our trash from the venue so bottles/cans would be a pain and our gifts are metal pints glasses that we want people to use.

Thanks in advance!

Tldr: how long can a jockey box be operational and still work properly? What should I be prepared for?

 

[IslandLizard]

1) Not much is cooler than taps
2) Build a jockey box
3) Put someone else in charge of setting it up the day of, and keeping an eye on and maintaining it during the event. You'll be busy enough...

 

[milldoggy]

You can set it up, but it is best to have the kegs cold as they will not off gas as much. Just make sure to run beer through the lines prior to icing it. Beer will not freeze at ice temp, water might.