Weddingbee boards

Well one of my fave mixed drinks is just the malibu and pineapple.  very simple to make since it only requires two things....malibu rum and pineapple juice.  Then garnished with a wedge of pineapple.

We're serving mimosas at mine,which is reltatively inexpensive and easy!

I love sangria! You could mix things up and make a white wine sangria.

A spiked lemonade/limeade?

We're doing sangria - it actually was one of the first things I decided about the wedding because its DELICIOUS, and I also thought it'd add a great splash of color to our decor, especially with floating fruit slices in it.

I haven't figured out the perfect recipe for our sangria yet, but I'll definitely share once we do settle on it. You can make it as elaborately or as simply as you want to, and its pretty hard to mess up. Here's my basic recipe that you can play with (it calls for liquor, but you can leave that out if you want a drink that is less potent and/or less expensive. You also will obviously multiply this by however many batches you'll need for your party!)

1 bottle dry red wine

1 lemon, 1 lime, 1 orange, all cut into wedges

2 tbsp sugar

Splash of orange juice

2 shots bourbon (optional)

4 cups ginger ale or lemon-lime soda

Instructions: Pour wine into pitcher and squeeze juice from fruit wedges. Remove seeds and add wedges along with sugar, juice, and liquor. Let marinate overnight, then add ginger ale and lots of ice just before serving.

Variations: You can experiment with different kinds of fruit based on the look/taste you are after. I've used raspberries and strawberries (shouldn't be added until just before serving, peaches, apples, and pineapple. You can also try different juices (pomegranate juice adds an interesting flavor) or even different kinds of liquor (gin and triple sec work well, and cointreau adds a nice orange-y sweet flavor). For a big party though, I find its best to keep it simple!

Hope that helps...

PS - to make it even simpler if you're making a ton, you can use lemon or lime juice instead of the actual cut up fruit wedges. Its not quite as awesome-looking, but it saves a LOT of time slicing up a bunch of fruit!

How cute would it be if you did a beverage bar with really pretty pre-mixed cocktails.  You could do Sangria, Mimosa, Mojito, Hard Lemonade, Rum Punch, whatever!  And all the colors would look SO pretty.  Here are some inspiration pics I found: