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So ladies....
What types of alcohol are you serving at your wedding?
This is the list I am currently considering plus mixers:
What are your thoughts on no wine? I am not a wine drinker- If I have wine what is a cost effective choice? Do I need to have both red and white?
Is there something missing that I need to add? HELP!!
Wine or Champagne should be a must in my opinion. But we are having absolutely no alcohol at our reception because if we do have JUST wine or champagne half of his family won't show.
You could have one or two of each of the red or white wines.
If you're having other kinds of alcohol, I really think you need to have wine. It's such a staple, especially with a nice meal. I understand no wine when a couple's not serving any alcohol, but to serve vodka, rum, etc, and no wine seems odd to me. Not everyone is a beer drinker, and while I like beer I probably wouldn't want it in that situation. Plus, I'd want an option of something I could drink, and of your options I'd only want a vodka based martini, or a Manhattan, but both require Vermouth which you don't have listed, so I think the mixed drink options are very limited.
I think often signature drinks work better in situations like this - like if you had beer, a red wine, a white wine, champagne, and agreed on a signature cocktail with your FI.
I think you should have a red and white wine. Like you, I don't drink wine either but I know there are guests who only drink wine and not liquor. Wine isn't that expensive either. It's probably cheaper than your liquor. Even a box wine will do because I heard people don't really know the difference between box wine and bottle wine.
You know your guests better, but I would be hesitant to skip the wine and just have beer & hard liquor (screams frat party to me, haha). If you're limiting what alcohol you need to buy, it's more common to skip the hard liquor and just have beer & wine. As far as red and/or white, it depends on the situation. If you're having a daytime or outdoor wedding white will be a MUCH more frequent choice, so you could probably skip red all together. You could always offer a sangria as your wine option, too.
Personally, I don't drink at all, except for wine! So if I were a guest, I might feel a little left out, but would be fine drinking water. It just seems to me that you have some great liquor up there that can be rather expensive, yet, left out wine, which can be rather cheap.
I voted "who cares", because if there is at least SOMETHING to drink then that's perfect for me:) You can't make everyone happy so just focus on making yourself happy~!
I'm a fancy beer kind of gal. Give me a Stella Artois over a glass of wine any day.
Also, if you do decide on one white and one red, I recommend a chardonny or reisling for your white and a cabernet or pinot noir as your red. Those will appeal to most of the masses.
If you can only choose one wine, I suggest serving just a white. More people drink white wine.
As mentioned before, it depends on your guests.
For mine, we are just doing wine and beer. I wanted to do the mixers, but then found out that we would need an extra bartender if we wanted that and that means extra money (plus the cost of the alcohol), so .. that's something else to consider if you're having a bartender. (I'm not sure if that's just a rule of the place we're getting a bartender from or if it's normal.. 1 for wine/beer, 2 for wine/beer/mixers).
If you are trying to limit the amount of alcohol that you are trying to purchase, I would definitely recommend sticking to beer, wine, and perhaps a signature mixed drink. I would be very surprised if I went to a wedding where other alcohol was served but not a red and white wine.
I'd prefer to have beer and wine and if there is other alcohol available, that'd be great. I think a signature drink or two is a great way to add some hard alcohol in. Other that, I'd stick with classic hard alcohols: vodka, rum, whiskey, gin. I'd leave the schnapps and amaretto out--their appeal isn't likely wide enough and they're just less classic than the other alcohol you'd be serving.
As for wine, you should definitely have red and white, and if your wedding is in the summer you might consider also a rose.
if you are having alcohol you really should offer wine. my bartender only offers white zimphendale (sp? i dont drink) which kind of sucks but its the only bartender we can have at our venue.
good luck!
I honestly think, its your wedding, offer what you think is best. Guests will be pleased to have alcohol options at all. But I have an unique perspective - we are having a dry brunch reception out of respect for the religious beliefs of my family, and an after party with hosted wine and a cash bar for beer and mixed drinks. We chose to host wine because we can bring in our own, so its the most economical, but I also liked the idea hosting the wine compared to other drinks because it is such a wedding staple and, in my opinion, is more elegant than beer or liquor.
If you want to look into having wine, and you can bring your own, look into Trader Joe's. They have very affordable wines ($2-$4) that are crowd pleasing and actually really popular. I heard about "Two Buck Chuck" on WB!
i would much rather have wine as an option rather than peach schnapps (whats with the peach schnapps, anyways?)
you should reall add champagne as well.
I don't think that champagne is a must, but I think if you're doing beer, you should have wine. Liquor is optional. It would really probably be cheaper for you to do beer/wine than beer/liquor anyways
We're doing beer/wine/soda only... no champagne, no hard alcohol. We figure most everybody will drink one of those, and they'll toast with what they're drinking. Much cheaper, too!
I think you should cut out some of those other liquours if you are trying to cut costs instead of cutting out wine.
I agree that I think you should have wine as an option, but don't think it has to be expensive wine. I've seen on these threads that Trader Joe's makes a pretty decent wine for $2 (!) and I think it would be a nice gesture for some of the older guests who would prefer wine. There's also a little winery in Maryland called Solomon's Island Winery (they sell wine in MD and online if your state allows it) that makes AMAZING wine (I'm talking, my favorite wine ever and a staple at my apartment -- literally like juice) and I believe online it's only $12/bottle. I've also heard of online retailers that you can buy alcohol from (not sure about wine) that you can return bottles if they don't get opened. This might be the best option for you if you both aren't wine drinkers.
You know your guests best, so if you know they won't miss the wine but will miss specialty liquors, then go with that. However, it's more common for people to drink one of beer/wine/basic liquor than to drink the specialty ones. Unless you were planning on signature drinks?
If you are allowed, you can always make your own wine. We made 60 bottles of our own wine for our reception because it was way cheaper.
i am able to bring my own alcohol to our venue and i am doing beer/wine/liquor.
for the wine specifically, i am buying the brand woodbridge from sam's club (where my mom's a member). it's $5 for a regular sized bottle, and $10 for jumbo sized. although not my favorites, i think merlot would be the most popular choice for red and chardonay for white, but i am also providing reisling and cabernay. sorry my spelling is off...
i am buying my beer and wine at sam's b/c what ever isn't opened can be returned- so i can over buy a bit to be positive we don't run out! my plan is to have 200 bottles of beer/48 bottles of wine for a 3-hr reception with around 100 adults. it's the liquor part i'm clueless about- i should probably start my own post with that question :)
good luck, and if it's an option, i'd add the wine. i would actually do just beer/wine before adding liquor to the mix b/c that is what most guests would expect, but of course it's all up to you! hope this helped :)
In what states do Costco and Sam's have wine and beer? I live in Maryland and our BJ's doesn't stock alcohol?
I am hearing that most everyone agrees that we should have a wine option. Does anyone have a wine they enjoy that is cost effective for a large (270+) reception? If I do drink any wine I like Riunite Lambrusco what do you think of having that as one of the options?
Personally, I don't really care for wine much, but still- it would seem strange not to have it when you're having other types of liquor.
I would much rather have only beer and wine as options and leave out the mixers.
Like the others said, it would seem strange not to have wine. You could go with a simple chardonnay and a simple merlot to provide the option.
I think it would definitely be better to just have wine and beer than no wine. Just thinking of my relatives, especially the women, they don't really drink hard alcohol and they don't really like beer. But if your guests would be okay with it, then I think it's fine. You just really have to know their tastes.
Maemejo - you can get wine from the Costco and BJ's in Virginia. I know the BJ's in Alexandria sells wine.
We're just doing beer/wine, I'm getting my beer at Costco in VA, I got the wine at Total Wine because they have a 10% case discount, which beats the Costco price. They will also take back unopened bottles (so long as the bottles/labels are not damaged). I think they have Total Wine stores in MD (at least DC metro area).
I recommend Yellow Tail wine, I've been drinking it for a long time, its pretty good wine for a low price ($9.49 in VA for 1.5L bottle), and I've also taken it to plenty of parties and such and never get complaints. I got Chardonnay and Shiraz (their two most popular).
I had a really hard time figuring out how much to get, as I'm having an afternoon wedding, and on top of that, a lot of my family does not drink. I ended up getting a case (6 1.5L bottles) of each white and red--for 150. Maybe get two cases of each for 270 if you think they are few/moderate wine drinkers, three each if you think a lot of people might drink wine?
If you're cost-cutting, just do beer/wne only...no open bar. I've gone to several weddings like this and they were great.
I don’t know anyone who drinks schnapps of any kind, or armaretto, but if your guests do, then I can understand having it. I’m a wine drinker, but if wine wasn’t available, I would drink a good beer (i.e., not Bud/Miller/PBR, etc.).
I love cocktails, but I wouldn’t drink hard liquor as a drink with dinner. I’d much rather just see beer/wine available, then hard liquor but no wine.
We only did wine and beer but definitely do more white than red, even if you are having beef. We had brisket, 12 bottles each of white and red. Only about half of one red bottle was drank and the white ran out half way through the reception.
Yeah I agree with a lot of the other bees. Wine is pretty important and common at weddings..people usually "expect" that ya know? I understand you not drinking wine but a lot of people would prefer wine over hard alcohol in a wedding setting. Although you know your guests better than I do. Since our wedding is a very romantic, intimate small wedding we're only having wine and beer. Wine is sooo much cheaper than liqour too, so keep that in mind.
I think you should do wine and just choose one or 2 signature drinks. If you're going to stick with beer and liquor ditch the Schnapps and Amaretto and go with the basics - vodka, rum, gin, whiskey, scotch and mixers. You can make pretty much any drink with those.
Three Buck Chuck from Trader Joes is always a cheap red option for me!
But I would go with Barefoot as a good, inexpensive wine brand. You can get a pinot grigio and a merlot. Yellow Tail is a good one too (I saw suggested above). But everything I've had from Barefoot is great!
Since you are having that much alcohol at your wedding i would nix one and get some wine. Although im sure it truly wouldn't matter in the long run.. More people would enjoy the wine i think. But once again it's what you think your guests would enjoy. We are doing champagne toast, and then a few types of beer. Then people can order there own liquor or wine.
I don't know what your crowd is, but if you're worried about costs i'd take out the peach schnapps and amaretto and add a wine (white or red) and a signature drink...
like PP's said chardonnay and reisling always go over well as white's...
and are you in the DMV? I got mine from the Costco's in Arlington, VA...(I mixed up Yellow Tail chardonnay/Reisling)
i voted who cares before reading the post oops. but honestly after reading your post, i would just order whatever.
no one will be disapointed if you offer them something. seriously.
@maemejo, the problem is that Maryland has "state stores" for alcohol, and places like Costco and Sam's Club aren't legally allowed to carry beer or wine. If you go over the border to DC or Virginia, you'll find a lot more places where you can buy alcohol.
We are only having beer, wine (red & white), and champagne.
My fiance and I are paying for everything: We opted for the following:
Beer (Bud & Corona) Wine (Red & White)- We will be tasting the house brands, and if they are ok, will go with them.
We are also giving a glass of champagne as our guests enter the reception patio and a champagne toast with the cake cutting. We will also have a champ and non alcohol punch along with the other basics: tea, water & coffee..
Its an afternoon reception so we decided that no hard liquor was needed. However, this was also based on knowing our guests and their basic likes.
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