We are doing wine on the tables and then a selection of beer, for our small casual wedding. We have servers minding all the food and drink, but the bar is essentially self-serve (which is fine with our venue, as it's a campground). I'm fine with limited bar, but I also kind of love cocktails so I was debating offering some that are pre-made friendly (sangria, Caesars, anything without soda really). All of the soda, bottled water, beer, etc is going to be kept cold in tubs of ice, so it wouldn't be that hard to add some cocktail-filled mason jars in there (although my wedding is mason-jar free thus far...). I thought jars would be easier than pitchers because bugs, and also I do a lot of canning so I already own about 5,000 jars.
What do you guys think? Should I bother?
Re: Pre-Mixed Cocktail: Yay or Nay?
Where will extra wine be? Or will you have multiple bottles on each table?
How do I know what's in the mason jar? If it's labeled a drink I don't recognize (Caesar) I'm definitely not going to try it. If it's labeled a drink I do recognize (Sangria) then do I take the whole jar? Is there a cup to pour some in? If the mason jar was half empty and already opened would I still feel comfortable drinking from it? Who all has put their mouths on this jar?
Now if it was a really small wedding (20 people ish) I might not care about any of the questions I listed if I knew everyone and it was my family.
Also I would definitely separate the alcoholic drinks and non alcoholic drinks into separate coolers and make it obvious which is which. Especially if you plan on having children attend.
The mason jars would essentially be small, single-serving. But PP's make a good point, it's probably a hassle.
Yes all of the non-alcohol will be separated. Very few children will be coming. The youngest will be 9 and he can read, so the tubs will all be labeleled.
If you're going to offer pre-mixed, you might consider renting one of those machines that keeps the drinks mixed and has a dispenser. This would solve your bug problem and also ensure the drinks stay mixed instead of the alcohol sinking or floating and the ratios being "off". Also, it would prevent you from having to transport and set up a bunch of glass mason jars filled with booze.
Basically. Except Cesar's use clamato juice instead of regular tomato.
What the heck is clamato - I thought it originally was a typo!
It's a mixture of clam juice and tomato juice. I think it's popular in Canada.
I saw Budweiser Clamato juice at my local Chinese grocery store. I was so tempted to buy it but I figured it was better if it forever remained a mystery.
The Caesar (made with clamato) is very popular in Canada. I think Mott's Clamato is probably the favourite brand.
Weird. Ok cool.
We ended up just going with beer and wine, but according to the RSVPs so far we don't have any vegetarians