PEC Brides!!

KristinAndAlan

PEC BRIDES!! -- Or anyone who is providing all their alcohol with no cash bar..

What are you planning to do (or what did you do) about alcohol at the bars?? How much will you buy, and WHAT will you buy?? Need some advice

jennipea382

As of right now we are planning on beer and wine. I figured we'd get 1 or 2 kegs and 3 types of wine (red, white, blush). The actual amount will depend on how many people come. For a "normal" sized bottle you get about 4-5 servings and I think 1 keg serves like 150 people or so. I'm probably going to get Barefoot wine from Westside Liquor up here in St. Cloud when they do their big wine sales, but I'll probably also call around and see what kinds of deals I can get buying in bulk. If I get them during the sale, the bottles are around $3-4 each!

I'm still throwing around the idea of having some liquor but I haven't decided yet. I just don't want to end up with a half gone bottle of something I won't drink. We could do a signature drink too.

Hope that helps a little!

Sscholfield

If you're providing your own wine, I highly recommend Trader Joe's wine. It's cheap and delicious!

leggwilliams

We went through Value Liquors for ours (PEC's recommended vendor) and we over ordered on everything since they let you return any unopened bottles. George was great at telling us how much of everything we would need based on our selection and number of guests.

We served 4 types of wine (not purchased at Value...was made by my uncle), 2 kinds of beer, a signature cocktail, rum and cokes, and vodka collins. George told us exactly how much of everything to buy and then we ordered a couple more of each to be safe.

For beer, they don't let you return any kegs (untapped or not), so we went a little low on our estimate for kegs (we purchased 2 Miller Lites and 1 Summit) and then bought some bottles of beer as backup since those could be returned. We didn't even finish off our first keg of Miller nor did we finish off the keg of Summit so I would have bought less beer if I were to do it again, but it all depends on your guests.

Cackle6

I put polls on our wedding website to try and get an idea of who prefers what kind of drink. We plan on having 2-3 kegs of beer, 6 different types of wine (2 red, 2 white, 2 blush), and 4 signature drinks (1 whiskey, 1 vodka, 1 tequila and 1 rum). I figure by having 4 signature drinks with 4 different types of liquor, we could appeal to pretty much everyone, as they wouldn't just have to have the signature drink (for instance, the rum is for mojitos, but someone could have a rum and coke instead).

As far as amount, I figure we'll get a case of each type of wine, and 2-3 large bottles of each kind of liquor. We can always return anything that is unopened, so I'd rather have too much than too little.

Steph0871

Oh man, I can't even remember how much wine we had.  We only served wine and beer, but we went through a lot of it.  AND we were on a Sunday afternoon (ceremony was at noon, 'cocktail hour' from 12:30-1:30 and lunch at 2.)

I know we went through almost two full kegs (Spotted Cow was tapped out in like an hour and a half. I barely got some! and Premium GB.)  I think we also went through about 30 bottles of wine?  We had about 150 people, and about 100 guests that actually drank.

ETA: One of H's friends did a border run for us the morning of the wedding to pick up the kegs.  It was cheaper to buy from WI (and you can only get Spotted Cow there anyway) AND pay for his gas, than to buy from MN.  My dad is a wine snob, so he used a connection to buy all the cases of wine direct from the vineyard in CA.

KristinAndAlan

WOW! Thanks everyone!! You guys are so helpful!! I have some thinking to do..

Steph0871

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_minnesota-minneapolis-st-paul_pec-brides-8?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:81Discussion:1b9336f0-9af3-480f-81e3-c63f6d06c117Post:48f5fbfe-26f0-4ca8-a8d0-076b2bb594cb">Re: PEC Brides!!</a>:
[QUOTE]If you're providing your own wine, I highly recommend Trader Joe's wine. It's cheap and delicious!
Posted by Sscholfield[/QUOTE]

<div>Cheap, yes.  Delicious? not so much.  I mean, it's fine for a house party, but I wouldn't serve it to guests at my wedding.  Especially since you can spend a few more  bucks and get a much better bottle.</div>