Wine as favors
FI and I just completed the process of making and bottling wine to use as our favors. The wedding is adults only and we made red and white wines. Originally, we were planning on using a hang tag around the neck of the bottle and listing names and table numbers, kind of a favor and place card in one. Our venue has a beautiful piano that the place cards are displayed and we thought that the wine bottles would look perfect there.
At a meeting with our venue last night, our coordinator highly recommended using regular place cards to display on the piano and then placing the wine bottles at each seat in the reception space. Since both our ceremony and reception are being held there, she was concerned that guests would grab the wine off the piano as soon as they came in, bringing it to the ceremony and carrying it around through the cocktail hour. Placing them on the piano after the ceremony or during the cocktail hour were not an option. There is also no other location to put the place cards other than the piano.
I understand her point, but now this leads me to another concern: How would I go about putting the wine bottles at the dinner tables? It is one bottle per couple or if a person is alone then one for him/her. Although I am assigning tables, I was not planning on assigning seats. I don't want there to be confusion with some couples taking two or a single person taking one. (Sorry- I don't think I am explaining this well).
Can anyone else offer suggestions of how to handle this best? I'd like to keep the place cards around the neck of the bottles, if at all possible. But if not... I definitely need some ideas!
Re: Wine as favors
Just assign seats and have one at each placesetting.
Guests can and will switch seats (and types of wine) as they see fit anyways.
FWIW, DH & I wouldn't take the wine anyways...especially if it's homemade. So just be prepared to gather up the leftovers at the end of the night and not be offended that homemade wine is not everyone's cup of tea.
Thanks so much.
Its actually not 'homemade' in the sense that wasn't done in our kitchen. We made it at a local wine making shop owned by family friends. They provided the 'juice' at the beginning and we went to the shop for all of the different steps in the process. I was much more comfortable bc everything was incredibly sterile and we weren't just guessing at the steps.
I completely see your point about some people not liking or taking the wine, and I just figured that would be the case with any favor! We have lots of edibles available for taking as well, but not the 'official' favor. Hopefully everyone can find something they like.
edit: spelling
It is definitely a nice gesture!
Certainly will be best to have it at the tables. Just a thought...but are guests able to have the wine during the wedding? Or does your venue allow take-home only?
If you have a corkscrew available on each table...that could make things more enjoyable for out of town guests who can't take the wine home with them in their carry-on or for people like DH & I who might try a glass but not want the whole bottle.
Awesome idea. We are thinking about home brewed beer for ours. People who stick their noses up to the idea can give theirs away to other guests. I wouldn't worry about a lot of left overs. About the issue with 1 bottle/couple, maybe write both of their names on it with those metallic sharpies. They can find their bottle at the table and pick a seat.
If you have a recovering alcoholic in the group... you might want to rethink this idea.
Love the bottle opener at the table idea.
Can you clarify this? I don't understand. I am supposed to hand them a favor when they hand me a card or gift? Most likely, cards will be placed in the card box or handed to me/FI throughout the night, when I will not be near favors. Gifts will be placed on a gift table or handed to me/FI throughout the night. What about guests that do not bring gifts? Do they not get a favor? This makes no sense to me.
I trump all the Kitties with cuteness!!! Bhahahahaha!!!
Oh! I'm so glad to hear of someone else doing this!
Our best man makes wine. He has hundreds of bottles of his own wine in a wine cellar in his basement. For our wedding gift, he is providing wine for our wedding. We are estimating one per couple. I am also curious about how to go about setting it all up - how many bottles on each table, and such.
As for people not wanting the wine, that's fine with us!
More for us to take home. Anniversary wine! We're thinking of making bookmarks as another favor.
I was curious about what to do about corkscrews, so I'm glad I read this thread. Hopefully one corkscrew per table will be good. We all have some electric corkscrews as well, but I'm afraid the random electric sounds in the reception would be odd. Maybe we will just bring them as backups.
I like the idea too of writing their names on it - that way people know they can take them home if they want. Didn't think of that before.
My concern is how to keep it cool? I don't like my wine at room-temperature. I'm not sure yet if my venue can keep them cool for us. And I think we need to bring them the night before. I'm afraid if we put them in ice-filled coolers, they will ruin the labels.
I don't really see the big deal in people grabbing their wine/placedcard right when they get into the venue. So what if they have to hold it during the ceremony and by the time cocktail hour happens they will most likely make their way to their table and put their stuff down including the wine.
FWIW, I have never been to a wedding where I grabbed an item prior to the ceremony, unless it was a ceremony program.
I would just have them out on the table and then maybe have a staff member stand in front of the piano and the wine bottles to help direct people to the ceremony location. This would help to stop guests from just grabbing their bottle ahead of time.
I just posted a question similiar to this on my local board, so glad that this is a popular idea!
Homeade wine takes time and effort, most people will appreciate this.
I think I will be using the marker suggestion.
Thanks!