(Closed) Figuring out the drink situation – suggestions?

posted 5 years ago in Food
Post # 1
Member
480 posts
Helper bee

This is gonna be long! I need opinions on my plan and suggestions for the gaps! 🙂 Thanks in advance!

So my Fiance is adament about having an open bar. Our reception site doesn’t have a bar area, so it’s going to be hiring a bartender to man one we make. Obviously, we will be providing our own drinks and alcohol. I love the idea of a beer/wine reception (it’s cheap!), but I hate beer and wine, so I want to have the option of a cocktail. 

Here’s the ideal plan:

– Cocktails: Signature drinks are Washington Apple and a home-made concoction we like to call the Kermit. 

Washington Apple: Crowne Royal, Sour Apple Pucker, cranberry juice

Kermit: vodka, Blue Caracou, Red Bull 

I would love cheaper suggestions for alternatives to the Crowne and Red Bull if you know of any! Also if you felt so inclined, what should I rename these drinks? Our reception is fairy tale themed! I was thinking something like “Poisoned Apple” for the first one? Idk what to do about the blue-green Kermit though. 

– Wine: Cheap wines, possible the Apothic Red and Apothic White from Target at $8/bottle. Any ideas for cheaper wines? I know Trader Joe’s has some fab ones, but again, I’m not a wine drinker so I wouldn’t be able to tell a “good wine.”

– Beer: Do we even need beer? This isn’t a frat party. I don’t even know if my crowd would drink beer… Ideally, though, we would provide two types in two mini kegs, but again, no idea what since I hate beer. Suggestions? 

– Soda: We would provide cans of Coke, Sprite, and Root Beer.  

– Other:  For non-soda and non-alcohol, we would have raspberry lemonade, water, sweet or unsweet iced tea (do we need both? there’s so much already… which is more popular?) 

And I think that’s it… Omg, so much. What do you think I should even budget for all this?

Thoughts?

 

Post # 3
Member
508 posts
Busy bee
  • Wedding: August 2013

We hired an independent bar service that will bring everything – sodas, water, 2 beers, and 6 kinds of wine. We are also making a signature drink that they will serve. It’s only $11 per person which I think is a great price for them to do everything. i think something like that would be easier than having to figure out everything yourself. 

Post # 4
Member
1523 posts
Bumble bee
  • Wedding: October 2013

@Fanciful:  We’re doing wine and beer too! Beer definately does not equate frat party. I am a beer snob (craft and microbrews) and I would say beer is a must. Most men don’t like wine and foo foo cocktails, and I know a lot of women that don’t either. I can only drink about one glass of wine with dinner and then it’s just too sweet for me. Beer is good for once the party kicks in. I’ll be drinking beer at my wedding for sure!

Post # 5
Member
480 posts
Helper bee

@AirForceWife78:  

Could you suggest some on the cheaper side? 

@mtbikelover:  

Thanks for the suggestion, I will deffinitely keep it in mind. I want to budget DIYing it and see what the difference would be first!

Post # 6
Member
1523 posts
Bumble bee
  • Wedding: October 2013

@Fanciful:  Are you looking to get some kegs? I would say cheaper beers that most people will drink would be Coors Light or Michelob Ultra. They’re light, not overly intoxicating and usually crowd pleasing!

Post # 7
Member
1609 posts
Bumble bee
  • Wedding: August 2013

Please do not combine red bull with alchohol, it increases risk of danger. I would just stick with wine and beer.

Post # 8
Member
89 posts
Worker bee
  • Wedding: February 2014

@Fanciful:  I love the signature cocktails idea! 🙂 I can see where it can get expensive, but I’ve also been to weddings where they had less expensive liquor for the guests, should they want a whiskey and coke, or a 7&7, or whatever, then save the good liqour for the bride and groom or the bridal party 🙂 I didn’t mind! I’m more of a beer drinker anyway.

Since the beer will be for the guests since y’all aren’t big beer drinkers, get a couple of kegs. Coors and BudLight, perhaps? I don’t equate kegs with a frat party. I equate them with a real good time! LOL!

I’m not a big wine drinker at all, it gives me a headache, so I couldn’t even begin to give a suggestion there.

For the sodas – What?! No Dr. Pepper?! 😉 LOL!

And as for the tea, are you below the Mason Dixon? If so, sweet tea is an absolute MUST! 😉 Maybe have unsweetened tea with sweeteners available? I know I can’t drink tea without sugar…

I hope this helps! Best of luck! 🙂

Post # 9
Member
480 posts
Helper bee

@AirForceWife78:  

Thanks! Those seem like solid suggestions. 

@juanita.kelly.9:  

Thanks for the concern, but it’s happening. (My Maid/Matron of Honor is like you, though, totally opposed to it and is threatening to crash the bar and eradicate all the Red Bull/equivolent… ) We love the drink, and we are not at all concerned that our guests will over-indulge, which is the concern with people mixing the two. Seriously, we’re all like a two-drink max type crowd. And that’s over four hours! Especially considering we have all the other non-alcoholic options. 

@AmandaJK:  

That’s sort of what I see happening. We will provide the liquors/mixers for the two drinks, but if someone wanted whiskey/Coke or vodka/Sprite, that’s totally available. And it deffinitely won’t be top shelf stuff. It will be like.. middle shelf, as soon as I figure out what that is! Lol.

I would like to offer a light and dark beer, and Coors seems to be the go-to for light. Any idea for dark?

And ugh, I hate wine, too. My brother is a total wine snob and tries to convert me, but I don’t see it ever happening. And I even spent a semester in Italy! I think wine for me is a lost cause. Haha. 

I LOVE DR. PEPPER. It’s my fave. We are still in a toss-up between Dr. P or root beer, don’t worry! 

The wedding will be in southern VA, but we also have people from around the country coming… Oh well, tea is cheap, maybe I will just have to do both. I could provide sweeteners for unsweet tea, but they never dissolve right once the tea is iced!

Thanks for your input!

Post # 10
Member
89 posts
Worker bee
  • Wedding: February 2014

@Fanciful:  I’d hit up a local Spec’s, or equivalent and see what you’re willing to spend. Jameson and Maker’s Mark are really nice, smooth whiskeys. I like Tito’s Vodka. It’s the smoothest, in my opinion. As for a dark beer, I’m a Texas girl, and love my Shiner Bock. 🙂 Guiness is the obvious answer, but they’re proud of their brew. I’m more of a blonde/light beer girl, so I’ve only tried a limited amount of dark beers 😉

Sweet n’ Low mixes pretty well with tea that’s been iced, but I also know that some people can taste the difference between artificial sweeteners and sugar. My dad is one of them. He can’t drink anything sweetened with an artificial sweetener, but in that instance, he’d go for a Coke. 🙂 I think you’ve pretty well got all of your bases covered. Don’t stress! Make sure you’ve got what you and your groom like, and if the guests don’t like it, you’ve got bottled water. LOL! And for heaven’s sake, if you don’t have DP at the wedding for the guests, make sure you put one on ice for yourself if you plan on drinking soda 😉

Post # 11
Member
2573 posts
Sugar bee
  • Wedding: November 2013

@Fanciful:  My ideas are as follows:

1. For the Kermit, maybe rename it “Magic Mirror?” Or “Blue Dragon?”

2. As for cheap wines, do you have any wineries by your area? They usually have good deals on cases of wine, where you can really get more bang for your buck. If I had to make my own bar, I would definitely get the wine from one of the wineries near us. And yes, you are correct – Trader Joes has a two-buck-chuck bottle of wine, but I can’t really vouch for it as I’ve never had it.

Post # 12
Member
182 posts
Blushing bee

I love beer! You could go with Newcastle for a darker beer. It seems to be a great middle ish beer. It’s dark, but not super dark like Guinness. 

Post # 13
Member
666 posts
Busy bee
  • Wedding: August 2013

We’ve liked some of the wines from Aldi’s and they are very inexpensive.  These are the ones that we get most often:

Bridge Road Cabernet Sauvignon

Vina Decana Tempranillo (one of hubbys favs)

One of the Winking Owl reds – I think maybe the Merlot.  Be sure to try these first – there are one or two that are not very good.  I can’t recall which though.

Landshut Reisling

Rivani Moscato

As a guest I wouldn’t like to be served a drink with red bull without knowing it – so I’d suggest being pretty obvious about ingredients for that one if you serve it.

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