Post # 1

Member
1465 posts
Bumble bee
Hi Bee’s –
My Fiance and I are serious about our wines. We fell in love with the wine trails of Virginia and take at least two trips a year wine tasting. We have also been to Napa Valley twice and could seriously see ourselves buying a vacation home out there eventually. I say all of this because we are thinking about having a wine tasting (paired with chocolates) a beer tasting (from FI’s fav local brewery) and a speciality soda tasting (paired with specility candy). By The Way we currently live above the sweetest locally owned candy shop.
We are going to have alocohol avaliable at the reception, but this is so “us”. I also think it would be a fun thing for our guests that are not so much into dancing. If we do this, we are thinking about getting engraved wine glasses as favors.
What are yalls thoughts?
Note: I checked with our venue this is okay, there is a small corkage fee that we can live with.
Post # 3

Member
601 posts
Busy bee
I think if that’s what you guys want then do it sounds like it could be pretty cool.
Post # 4

Member
2759 posts
Sugar bee
That sounds really fun! And I mean, if a guest doesn’t want to participate they don’t have to. But probably most would esp. since there’s candy and chocolate involved 🙂
Post # 5

Hostess
16215 posts
Honey Beekeeper
I think it sound like something fun and unique for your guests that will really add to the overall experience of your reception. 🙂 I say go for it!
Post # 6

Member
3943 posts
Honey bee
I think it sounds fun. I’m not a beer or soda drinker, but I would love a wine tasting.
I would probably skip the engaved wine glass though. Many guests tend to leave behind any favors that have the couples name/date/etc engraved on something. If you want to stick with the wine theme though, you could do a cool wine stopper as a favor?
Post # 7

Member
2059 posts
Buzzing bee
I think it sounds awesome!
I’ve been to two weddings where they had tasting stations. One was in Virginia and they had local wines. The other was in Atlanta and they had a Burboun tasting station. Both were HUGE hits.
Post # 8

Member
3886 posts
Honey bee
I actually think this might be more suitable for a rehearsal dinner or other pre-wedding event than the actual reception. A formal group wine tasting discourages people from mingling and socializing; they are paying attention to the winery master and trying to learn about wine, and while that does give people something to do together, it’s not the same as enjoying good conversation with old friends and making new friends. Wine tasting stations become traffic jams unless you have a lot of them or unless people don’t actually get the whole wine tasting “speech.”
I think it’s a great idea for some event but the logistics make it challenging to pull off for a wedding reception.
Post # 9

Member
3618 posts
Sugar bee
That sounds like an awesome idea! I think your guests will love it, I know I would!
Post # 10

Member
3039 posts
Sugar bee
Sounds like a wonderful idea! I would love that if I were a guest at your wedding. However, I’m not so crazy about the engraved wine glasses. First, I find it annoying when I have one or two “odd” glasses. That’s the type of stuff I would bring out to the cottage. Second, it’s even worse if it’s engraved – then I can’t really use it for anything. Could you instead have your candy shop make little custom chocolates for the guests? From what I read about favours on other threads, people do seem to prefer when they are edible. 🙂
As for my wedding, we’re giving out small bottles of ice wine to our guests, as that’s a well-known product of the region we’re in. Could you give the guests a small bottle of one of the wines they’ve tasted? If you go to a local wine producer it won’t be that expensive.
Post # 11

Member
2335 posts
Buzzing bee
I would skip the engraved glasses, otherwise it sounds fun!
Post # 13

Member
1465 posts
Bumble bee
@Bostongrl25: Thanks for the advice on the wine glasses. They are expensive and it sounds like most people don’t like it.
@eocenia: The candy shop does all sorts of special candies, they can even put words on candy. I think our guest would proabably prefer an edible favor too.
Post # 14

Member
164 posts
Blushing bee
Um, of course!! Can I come??!! 
Post # 15

Member
1846 posts
Buzzing bee
I love this idea! As a guest who loves wine, I’d be thrilled!
Post # 16

Member
1465 posts
Bumble bee
Okay Bee’s ANOTHER QUESTION!
How many different wines should we sample? I was thinking ONE white ONE red and ONE dessert. Thoughts??