Lets talk about booze!

charlieyankee03

So I'm finally making myself do some wedding planning instead of killing time on the forums, and I'm remembering why I started procrastinating in the first place. Weddings are hella expensive and I'm okay with hiding in a corner and hoping someone else will pay all these people. But sadly, FI says that's not an option. 

So we're doing a casual, tented affair in my extremely generous aunt and uncle's backyard outside DC. We're hiring a catering company and will be paying for their bartending service, but are trying to figure out if it's cheaper to provide the alcohol ourselves or pay the $10pp/hr fee for them to provide an open bar. 

We haven't sent out STDs yet, but I've been basing our numbers on about 80 adults just to get an idea. I used THIS guide and tweaked it a bit to suit our group. We're doing beer and wine only and we have a pretty even split of wine vs. beer drinkers. Also, the "1 drink per person per hour" think is unrealistic in my opinion, so I doubled it. So I'm assuming we would need 4 kegs (2 light, 2 dark) and maybe 150-200 bottles of wine (half white, half red). 

Do you ladies have any suggestions on relatively cheap wine that doesn't taste like ass? I only really drink Chardonnay, and not the cheaper stuff, so I'm clueless as to what variety and brand I should be pricing out. Did anyone else buy their own alcohol? 

ETA: I know it's early for the alcohol talk, but hey, it's 5 o'clock somewhere. (Kabul...I looked it up)

JaniV123

i wish I could be more help. Our restaurant venue is providing the alcohol, kinda expensive but bringing our own wasnt an optio just cus it would have been more expensive in the end. We are having a limited open bar (wine, rum, vodka, whiskey) 

redheadbride15

You can almost always save money by buying the booze yourself. I wish this were an option for my venue, but it's not.

Think about your guest list - is everyone a heavy drinker? You may find that 1 drink/person/hour is a reasonable guess. Your grandparents, teatotaler aunts, pregnant friends, and designated drivers may counterbalance your brother's shot line-ups and your fiancee's frat brother's keg-chugging... Of course, I agree that it's better to air on the side of having too much booze - I went to a wedding once where they ran out of alcohol half way through the reception. Whoops. Maybe 1.5 drinks/person/hour?

As for cheap wine - if you have a Costco and/or Trader Joe's nearby then I'd try them out. The workers at TJs are usually really helpful in helping you pick out some options. You can buy a few bottles, take them home, and try them out. Even the "2 buck Chuck" (which is actually more like $4/bottle these days) is quite drinkable. My friend bought 10 cases each of white & red for her wedding and it was just fine. Plan to buy by the case. There are lots of good deals going on right now for the holidays.

charlieyankee03

We have a decent amount of relatively heavy drinkers. We will also be hosting a smaller rehearsal dinner the night before and will use some of the beer and wine then. Good idea to check out Costco! We have one by our house in Atlanta that I can look at to gauge prices and there's one near where we're getting married as well. Thanks!

theartistformerlyknownas

charlieyankee03 said:

We have a decent amount of relatively heavy drinkers. We will also be hosting a smaller rehearsal dinner the night before and will use some of the beer and wine then. Good idea to check out Costco! We have one by our house in Atlanta that I can look at to gauge prices and there's one near where we're getting married as well. Thanks!

Are you planning on using the keg beer for the RD, which I'm assuming will have a hand pump? Hand pumps introduce oxygen into the keg, which is basically like opening a bottle of beer and leaving it in your fridge overnight. So unless you finish a whole keg at the RD, the beer will already be starting to go flat by the time your wedding starts. Plus, you'd need to be sure you could keep it cold all night and all day. Although, serving guests flat beer is one way to keep your bar tab down. ;-)

Fran1985

How many reds and whites do you want? Because its tented and outdoors I am going to assume summer ish so I would do three whites and two reds I think. I would aim for the 10-18 dollar range at regular liquor stores, and then try to get a discount on cases of it. You can get cheaper wine than that's ok, but I tend to think of 10 dollars as the minimum to keep me from getting a bad headache the next day.

For chardonnay, I think Red Tree does a decent cheaper bottle. I'd probably do a pinot grigio and a sauvignon blanc to round out the whites, For pinot grigio I think you get a good value with Ceilo but I am not a huge pinot grigio person. For sauv I would go really any from new zealand- new harbor, oyster bay, momo are all good and all around $12. And for reds I would probably do a cabernet Sauvignon if you are having red meat, and a pinot noir. For pinot we have been getting Leese Finch which you can get at the whole foods in dc. I think that would be a pretty well rounded list. If it were me I'd also add a champagne or sparkling rose for some bubbles I think.

charlieyankee03

@lolo883, I didn't think about the keg going bad. I'm not used to having anything left over in a keg after the first night (yay college). Maybe we'll just do some bottles of beer and wine for that, since it will be a smaller group.

@Fran1985, you're awesome! The wedding is in late June, so I think more whites than reds would be appropriate. We're having it catered by a BBQ company, so we'll have red meat and fish (pulled pork, brisket, and salmon). I'll look into all those brands. I pretty much only drink chardonnay, so I'm pretty clueless about what people like.

LadyMillil

I think a wine tasting is in order. Pick up a couple bottles of red and white in your price point and invite some friends over to pick the wedding wine.

I think some people have mentioned on other threads that some liquor stores will buy back unopened bottles, so this might be something to look in to.

amelisha

I think if I were you I'd also have a case or so of sweeter white (even just off-dry would work) - Riesling, Gewurtztraminer, etc. You'll always have a few people in the crowd that want wine but don't like dry whites (usually those who aren't super experienced with wine) and it is nice to cater to those people too. I'm not in the US so I don't know which brands to recommend that you might get at your local Costco, but I'd strinhly suggest it if you're buying your own because it won't cost you any more to buy a little less chard and sauv blanc and add a few bottles of a sweeter varietal.

Also remember that lots of liquor stores will allow you to return unopened bottles after your event, so that can help you out for sure.

natswild

we've gone to Wine Kitz, making our own (my parents have done this for years).  30 bottles of white (pino grigio), and 30 bottles of red (valpolicello) for $300.  

charlieyankee03

natswild said:

we've gone to Wine Kitz, making our own (my parents have done this for years).  30 bottles of white (pino grigio), and 30 bottles of red (valpolicello) for $300.  

Canada strikes again! I just googled Wine Kitz because this sounds awesome, but it doesn't look like they have them outside of there. 

I'm now seriously considering flying to Canada to make wine.

theartistformerlyknownas

charlieyankee03 said:

natswild said:

we've gone to Wine Kitz, making our own (my parents have done this for years).  30 bottles of white (pino grigio), and 30 bottles of red (valpolicello) for $300.  

Canada strikes again! I just googled Wine Kitz because this sounds awesome, but it doesn't look like they have them outside of there. 

I'm now seriously considering flying to Canada to make wine.

There are other places where you can do that! I've been to Vintner's Cellar in Michigan; I'm sure there are others.

penguin44

Like PPs said, kegs go bad after one day. I definitely wouldn't do 4 kegs. I would do 1-2 kegs, and then bottled beer for the rest. You can then return/drink the bottles later. 

thisismynickname2

I really agree that you need to do a wine tasting at a local store.
Chilean reds are a great value. I also really enjoy Coppola brand from California, which can be around $7-8 a bottle. For a wedding I really think you have to go up a notch from the Chuck and Sutter Home though, sorry.

JaniV123

For Chardonay I really like Frontera and Alamo which are wines from Chile and Argentina and they are really good quality and ~$10 a bottle

For reds we like Cabernet, Malbec and Merlot and there are several good quality economic brands: Frontera for cabernet and merlot, Malbec go with Alamo or Finca Filchman (good cabernet too) same prices. 

theartistformerlyknownas

thisismynickname said:

I really agree that you need to do a wine tasting at a local store. Chilean reds are a great value. I also really enjoy Coppola brand from California, which can be around $7-8 a bottle. For a wedding I really think you have to go up a notch from the Chuck and Sutter Home though, sorry.

I do have to agree with this. Robert Mondavi is a decent step up from those, about $10-12 for a bottle when you buy by the case.

Liatris2010

Do you have an Aldi's near you? Try the owl wines. They are ~$3 a bottle and super good. We've brought them to two blind wine tasting parties and the red (probably the Cab-Sav) was in the top two both times.

Fran1985

thisismynickname said:

I really agree that you need to do a wine tasting at a local store. Chilean reds are a great value. I also really enjoy Coppola brand from California, which can be around $7-8 a bottle. For a wedding I really think you have to go up a notch from the Chuck and Sutter Home though, sorry.

Agree with this and lolo- go a step up from sutter and barefoot for a wedding- those are the headache wines. Also agree with the tastings- have some of your friends who you see drinking wine a lot over and see what they like

Meant to add- when you are in the DC area check out Arrow wine in arlington if its near your aunt and uncles house. they ordered me individual bottles of wine to taste for my wedding even though they knew they wouldn't get the big order because my wedding was out of state. They were really knowledgeable and friendly and went above and beyond for me even though I was only ordering 3 bottles from them.

charlieyankee03

Thanks guys! I definitely want to avoid the cheap, headache-inducing wines so I'll check out a few of these and gather some friends for a wine tasting. You ladies are awesome!

ElcaB

charlieyankee03 said:

So I'm finally making myself do some wedding planning instead of killing time on the forums, and I'm remembering why I started procrastinating in the first place. Weddings are hella expensive and I'm okay with hiding in a corner and hoping someone else will pay all these people. But sadly, FI says that's not an option. 

So we're doing a casual, tented affair in my extremely generous aunt and uncle's backyard outside DC. We're hiring a catering company and will be paying for their bartending service, but are trying to figure out if it's cheaper to provide the alcohol ourselves or pay the $10pp/hr fee for them to provide an open bar. 

We haven't sent out STDs yet, but I've been basing our numbers on about 80 adults just to get an idea. I used THIS guide and tweaked it a bit to suit our group. We're doing beer and wine only and we have a pretty even split of wine vs. beer drinkers. Also, the "1 drink per person per hour" think is unrealistic in my opinion, so I doubled it. So I'm assuming we would need 4 kegs (2 light, 2 dark) and maybe 150-200 bottles of wine (half white, half red). 

Do you ladies have any suggestions on relatively cheap wine that doesn't taste like ass? I only really drink Chardonnay, and not the cheaper stuff, so I'm clueless as to what variety and brand I should be pricing out. Did anyone else buy their own alcohol? 

ETA: I know it's early for the alcohol talk, but hey, it's 5 o'clock somewhere. (Kabul...I looked it up)

We provided our own alcohol for the wedding and saved a boatload. 

I'd suggest getting more white than red instead of splitting it 50/50. I got half red, half white, and I only had two bottles of white vs. a full case of red leftover. 

We bought Chateau St. Michelle chardonnay & everyone loved it. I believe it was on sale for about $11/bottle, then we got the case discount. 

labro

charlieyankee03 said:

Thanks guys! I definitely want to avoid the cheap, headache-inducing wines so I'll check out a few of these and gather some friends for a wine tasting. You ladies are awesome!

Soo I am kind of a big fan of Trader Joe's two buck chuck for parties. It's cheap...but it tastes pretty good, especially for the price. If you're still wanting to do tastings I know the Total Wine in Dunwoody has a tasting counter (another Atlanta native here ). The other Total Wines don't though since they sell hard liquor in addition to beer and wine and GA law prevents them from serving alcohol because of that.

Some of my favorite under $10 a bottle wine brands at Total Wine include - Apothic (red varieties only though, the white is nasty sweet), Cupcake, and Radius. Sometimes Total Wine has their 10% off if you buy 6 bottles or more deal going on so it's worth checking them out too. I'm not sure if they offer case discounts or not.

kat1114

I second the Cupcake wines and Apothic Red. They are always under $10, and if you buy by the case, you can get them even cheaper. 

Also, check out the BevMo 5 cent wine sale. I'm not sure if it's going on right now, but they have them pretty often. You buy one select bottle of wine, and the second is 5 cents. You end up being able to get two $20 bottles of wine for $20.05.

abbyj700

I'm going to second a trip to Trader Joe's for wine. They typically have a few people on staff who are truly knowledgeable about wines and their selection usually includes some truly awesome inexpensive wines! 

teddygirl9

This is based on Canada, not the USA, but my BIL bought all their alcohol for their wedding (beer bottles, wine, hard liquor) and since they had to buy a liquor license from the liquor store, they also got 10% off any alcohol purchased at that store. I think the Liquor license is good for 3-6months, so they bought it well in advance, and kept an eye out for sales. Heiniken on sale? Go buy a pallet. Wine this week? Done. So it took longer, but they saved so much.

 

Funny side note, they were supposed to take it back (any unopened bottles you can return, might be better than a keg), but we just kept it and drank it over the next few months.