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Wedding Cakes & Food Forum
indigo26
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Beer and wine
So for our wedding we've decided to serve beer and wine, along with the lemonade, tea, and soda our caterer is providing. We've got two bartenders lined up to serve since the caterer charges an arm and a leg to provide and serve. I want to start buying the wines we're going to have since they'll be fine to sit in our basement til the wedding (beginning of July). Question is what varieties of wine and beer should we have?
Wine I'm thinking of having a mixed case of fruit wines (apple, blackberry, etc), and three cases each of red and white wines for a total of 7 cases of wine. What white and red wines are popular with you guys?
Beer I'm thinking of two 24pks of three different kinds of beer (total of 144 beers). Corona will be a definite since I know so many of my guests drink that. We're considering Bud Light and/or Coors Light, but not sure what else to pick.
The amounts I listed are based on several online calculators for a five hour reception and 100 people. If we have 100% attendance we will have 80 adults of drinking age at the wedding. My fiance doesn't think this is going to be enough because when his friends party at the lake they burn through alcohol like crazy. My opinion is that this isn't a frat party and that they should be adult enough to behave themselves - and if the beer/wine runs out then there's non alcoholic options for them. Is this being a bad hostess?
Sorry for the long post - but everyone in my circles has either had a dry wedding or done a full open bar so I'm a little lost.
Wine I'm thinking of having a mixed case of fruit wines (apple, blackberry, etc), and three cases each of red and white wines for a total of 7 cases of wine. What white and red wines are popular with you guys?
Beer I'm thinking of two 24pks of three different kinds of beer (total of 144 beers). Corona will be a definite since I know so many of my guests drink that. We're considering Bud Light and/or Coors Light, but not sure what else to pick.
The amounts I listed are based on several online calculators for a five hour reception and 100 people. If we have 100% attendance we will have 80 adults of drinking age at the wedding. My fiance doesn't think this is going to be enough because when his friends party at the lake they burn through alcohol like crazy. My opinion is that this isn't a frat party and that they should be adult enough to behave themselves - and if the beer/wine runs out then there's non alcoholic options for them. Is this being a bad hostess?
Sorry for the long post - but everyone in my circles has either had a dry wedding or done a full open bar so I'm a little lost.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Beer and wine
Additionally I would suggest to add in more red and white that are on the dry side to balance out the fruit wines. They tend to be pretty sweet, which may not go over well.
Finally, it's not really proper hosting to suggest that people will just have to drink whatever non-alcoholic beverages are left if you run out. The point of good hosting is to plan ahead and ensure you half enough of whatever you are choosing to host for the entire time.
I have no problem providing enough beer and wine so our guests can have fun and have a good time. I'll up the beer count - any particular brands that are crowd pleasers? What kinds of white and red wines would you suggest? The only wines I drink are sweet so I don't know what is "good" on the dry side of things.
As for beer I would suggest at least 1 light option (bud light, miller lite, coors light).
I agree with Cab Sauv as your red option.
Chardonnay often seems the white "go-to", but I don't get it! While I will drink Chardonnay, I don't think I know anyone who says that Chardonnay is their favourite.
As for beer, I think Corona with either Bud or Coors is good. How about Sam Adams for the third?
If you need brand recommendations, depending on your budget Clos du Bois are good and relatively inexpensive, as are Robert Mondavi (and come up large bottles). If these are too expensive check out yellow tail, usually a crowd pleaser. With buying wine you'll likely get a case discount so be sure to ask your liquor store if you're buying in bulk, and make sure to ask about returning unopened bottles. Many places will let you if it's something they carry regularly.
I don't drink red wine so I can't help you there.
As for beer, Corona, Miller Lite and maybe something a bit heavier like a Sam Adams.
Talk to your liquor store about buying in cases for both beer and wine (you may even get a better deal if you purchase half kegs of beer instead of bottles, but again you should check with your liquor store) and ask them about their return policy for unopen bottles/cases. If you can return unopen items then it is better to buy way more then you think you need. Just make sure to talk to your bartenders and only have them open a case/bottle when absolutely necessary.
And you can't control people. So if people get trashed and throw up then they will look bad, not you.
I like the suggestions above for Corona, Bud Light or Coors Light and a lager like Sam Adams. Are locally brewed craft beers a thing in your area? If so, consider adding one of those instead - they're huge in Michigan and probably the most drank beer at any wedding I've worked - including ones where the couple insisted they had a bug light crowd. I think people who may not want to pay for the craft beer when they're out are oftentimes the same people who will drink it an open bar.
Also, you can't control what your guests do. If they drink so much they become sick, that's on them, and they're the ones feeling like shit. But truth be told, I'll never understand the "I don't want my guests to get drunk" attitude. I want my guests to have an amazing time, and if that means they imbibe a bit much; more power to them!
Edited to make the picture smaller
So far what I'm hearing is to pick the following:
Moscato (instead of fruit wine)
Pinot Grigio
Reisling
Cabernet
Merlot
Is one case of Moscato and two cases each of the other four is enough? (9 cases total)
Beer -
three 24pks of Corona
three 24pks of Bud Light
two 24pks of Mike's or Seagram's mixed pack
two 24pks of sam adams
That gives us 240 beers of a mixed group.
And yes, I know I can't control my guests - but I guess I can ask the bartenders to not overserve people to the point of guests vomiting. I'm ok with them being drunk and having a good time, but I'm just not big on walking in on people puking their guts up at the end of the night.
Second bolded - yes, your bartenders job is to make sure people aren't overserved. With that said, make sure you're hiring experienced bartenders who know how to cut off an intoxicated person and not just a friend of a friend who may be too timid to speak up. I recommend finding someone with TIPS training.
And yes, I will be hiring a professional bartender, much to my FI's objections (he wanted two of his friends to do it). I don't want my guests to work at my wedding and I want someone who is ok cutting people off when they've had too much.
5 wine options:
2 reds - Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon
2 whites - Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio
1 blush - White Zinfandel
3 beer options:
Bud Light
Shiner
A local beer of FFIL's choosing, probably an IPA . He's taking care of the bar/bartenders, and really wanted to choose one of the beers. He's a beer guy so we figured, why not?
2 signature cocktails... Still working out the details on this one.
Also, I agree with PPs. Your bartenders will know when to cut people off. I wouldn't even worry about that.
ETA spelling!
I think wine tastes are so preferential it's hard to pick something everyone will like.
So I would do
Whites
Pinot Grigo or Reisling
Chardonay
(If you're doing a third option, I would do Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay and Moscato)
Reds
Cabernet Souvignaun
Malbec
For beer I would do coors over miller lite or bud light. According to my husband (a die hard miller lite fan) miller lite drinkers hate bud and bud drinkers hate miller, but everyone will settle on a coors if they have to.
I think as far as the white wines I may buy a bottle of Pinot, Reisling, and unoaked Chardonnay and just do a taste testing with some of our friends. I'm definitely sticking with Moscato because most of my friends and I love it (and every time I bring it to a party it disappears). So we'll just have to figure out which one or two of the other whites are liked by the group.
Pinot
Moscato
Cab Sauv
I'd skip the fruit wines since I think most people would be happy with the regular wines.
For beer I would suggest you could up the amount of beer by getting 1 Keg? If there is someone serving it then it won't look "college-y" and you will get more bang for your buck. Also keg beer tastes better and you could get something a bit more upscale. You could always get a nice wheat beer of some sort since most people like them.
I will add, though, that I am more likely to drink chilled whites on a hot summer day than a room-temp red, so if your wedding is in the heat of summer, I'd probably plan for slightly more white drinkers.
a sweet or semi-sweet Reisling (Washington Hills, Chateau Ste Michelle, Schmitt Sohne are all fairly inexpensive and good)
a Red Zinfandel (Ravenswood or Dancing Bull are both fairly inexpensive and very good - they'll pair very will with the beef)
For a second choice of red and white, I'd go with Pinot Grigio and Pinot Noir (or Cabernet). I'd skip the Chardonnay (too dry) and the fruit wines (usually sweet an more of a specialty thing, unless there's a specific reason you planned to serve them).
A sparkling moscato would be excellent with your pork.
For beer, the Corona sounds fine, as does some sort of Bud/Miller/Coors (because of the popularity), but I'd also go with something darker (maybe Sam Adams Boston Lager if you want something easy to find) or try something that's popular locally (e.g. Shiner in TX or Yuengling in PA).
I also disagree with Moscato and pork... moscato is a very sweet wine and is best on it's own, with some light cheeses, or desserts... I've also read that it goes well with spicy food because it's sweetness can tame the heat a bit... none of those are even remotely close to pork.
Again I wouldn't do moscato and reisling they are both sweet and I wouldn't do pinot grigio with either because you are servicing the same group of people who like sweeter wines.
For whites have a sweet and a dry, for reds have a light and a full bodied.
We had 2 Pinot Grigios left over, 4 Pinot Noirs, the bud light keg was pretty much killed, and the fat tire was only about 1/4 drank.
Had we not had the liquor, I would have done another half case each of the wines, and another bud light keg.
But, this was our crowd. I knew for a fact that most of H's side drinks Bud Light all the time. My side are more wine drinkers, and not as heavy of drinkers either.
We also purchased the wine and liquor at a place that allowed us to return any undrank bottles, so we did that with the leftover liquor. I kept the wine since it was wine I like to drink anyway. That poor fat tire keg just got emptied into our kitchen sink