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charlieyankee03
member
Lets talk about booze!
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)
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Re: Lets talk about booze!
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.
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.
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.
There are other places where you can do that! I've been to Vintner's Cellar in Michigan; I'm sure there are others.
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.
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.
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.
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.