It can be cost effective if the wedding drinks are included in the price per head charged by your wedding caterer or by the wedding venue. This is particularly helpful and can save you time, effort and money than bringing your own wine and having to pay extra for the corkage charge.
Providing Your Own Drinks
If you are providing your own wine then most off-licences and wine merchants will give you advice as well as sale-or-return, bulk discounts, glass hire and free delivery too.
A Toast To The Bride And Groom
Traditionally Champagne is the drink that would be served throughout the day but this will be rather expensive. Nowadays it’s quite popular to serve a well chosen sparkling wine, usually you can’t tell the difference. The sparkling white wine is then used as a ‘toast’ to the Bride and Groom and it’s also drunk in salute of ‘cutting the cake’.
The Welcoming Drink
Bucks Fizz, Pimms or Sangria are excellent choices to serve as a welcome to all the guests as they arrive at the wedding venue. Not forgetting plenty of non alcoholic drinks such as mineral water and orange juice. A good suggestion for a hot summer wedding welcoming drink is a delicious fruit punch, likewise a mulled wine can be very welcoming for a winter wedding as is especially suited around the Christmas period.
Wines In General
It is not so important nowadays to drink white wine while eating fish or chicken dishes and red wine for beef, lamb or pork dishes. It’s really better to have a mixture of red and white wines to suit each person’s palette. Your Wedding Planner or Wedding Organizer can advise you. If you are supplying your own alcohol, then your off-licence or wine merchants will give you good advice too. It’s best to try and stick to your budget allowance so you don’t overspend and don’t buy too many choices of wines…keep the choice simple and straightforward, it will save you money too.
A General Wine Guide
Doux is a sweet wine
Demi-sec is a medium-dry wine
Sec is a dry wine
Brut is a very dry wine
Generally allow 6 glasses per 70cl bottle. You would need two glasses per head of Champagne or sparkling white wine for the ‘toasts’.
For the table wine allow about half a bottle per head.
All non-alcoholic drinks, soft drinks, mineral water including tea and coffee should be on tap throughout the day.
A Pay Bar
Think about when you would like to have a pay bar. You could either set a ‘drinks limit’ in advance so the bar staff are aware when your guests have to purchase their own drinks. Alternately your invitations could state ‘Pay bar after 7pm’ this can save a lot of confusion later.
Hints And Tips About Wedding Drinks
Buy wines you can afford and keep the choice simple.
Think about how much your budget will allow or the free ‘drinks limit’.
Wedding guests can be annoyed if the drinks are overpriced so check the prices well in advance of your wedding reception bar drinks.
Find out if there are any corkage charges.
If you are using non-licenced premises, why not have a mobile bar?
Check what the last orders and bar closure times are, it’s not worth booking a live band or DJ to play until 1am if the bar loses at 11pm!
A excellent recommended book to help you plan your wedding day is:
Wise Wedding Planning:
Making The Perfect Theme Wedding Possible At Any Price
By Brenda Westwood.