Our guide to unforgettable wedding drinks.

When planning a wedding, you quickly realise that there are way more elements and decisions to make than you first thought there might be. For couples planning a more unique, tailored or elevated wedding, this is even more so.

Planning your wedding is an exciting and romantic time, but it can also feel daunting and overwhelming, especially when you are busy with work and life and simultaneously trying to make decisions about things you have never even considered before, such as how to pick a venue, style your wedding, choose a caterer, plan the order of your day, or drinks related questions like knowing how much wine you will need or what drinks to serve, or even how to find an entire bar if your wedding is blank canvas.

What’s more, good suppliers book up 12-18 months in advance, so the pressure is on to make big decisions quickly, then find and secure the providers that can give you the experience you desire.

One element of your wedding day that often gets underestimated is your bar and drinks.

The liquid catering element of your wedding plays a key role in marking each milestone of the day and is pivotal in getting the celebrations started. Without a great bar and drinks, a wedding day can fall flat (pun intended 🥂), so it’s a really important element to get right.

Your bar and drinks is also an often overlooked opportunity to enhance your wedding and elevate your guest experience. It’s all about the detail; a show-stopping bar, smartly dressed, welcoming bartenders and impeccably served, beautifully garnished drinks.

To help you with your drinks, we’ve compiled our wedding drinks top tips from our depth of experience, to help you create an elevated and unforgettable experience for you and your guests.

We’ve organised our wedding drinks top tips in time with your order of the day, let’s jump in!

CONSIDER SERVING A PRE-CEREMONY WELCOME DRINK

The period of time between when guests arrive and the ceremony starting is often overlooked. If you are having a church ceremony then it is slightly different, but if you are having your ceremony at the venue where you will be spending the entire day and night, then you will almost always have guests arrive 45 minutes to an hour before the ceremony start time. This is especially true if you have guests staying on-site.

To start with, you will likely have a slightly awkward crowd, people may not even know each other, and everybody is understandably a little bit rigid having just arrived. One of the simplest ways to break the ice and make this period more comfortable for your guests from the moment they arrive is to offer them a complimentary drink.

Having a drink to hold can make a huge difference to feeling less awkward (even if it’s soft), as it gives people something to do and it makes for a much warmer, impressive welcome if a member of the waiting staff is stood ready with a warm smile and a tray of fizz, or perhaps a mojito!

Plus, if it’s 1.30pm on a hot summer’s day, and your guests have just driven an hour to your venue, then they will definitely be in need of refreshment of some sort.

Any wedding’s we have done where there has been a pre-ceremony welcome drink served has always been a hit! It really does make such a huge difference, and as your guests’ first impression of how the day will go, it creates an immediate sense of luxury and sets the tone that an unforgettable celebration is ahead!

Don’t forget though, alcohol cannot be served or consumed at the actual official ceremony spot, so you’ll want to designate an arrival and welcome area at your venue where the drinks are served before your guests are guided to the ceremony closer to the ceremony start time.

POST CEREMONY WELCOME RECEPTION

Ok, you are now married (congratulations! 🤍) and it is time to officially kick off the celebrations. Your guests will have been sat for 30-45 minutes minimum and will be ready for refreshments and mingling.

We have 6 main tips for your welcome reception drinks.

Timing – when planning the time your welcome drinks should be served, consider what photos you will want to take and how much time that will need so that your welcome drinks are served fresh, cold and fizzy.
Quantity – Whilst one welcome drink per person is a perfectly gracious gesture, if you want your guests to have more of an indulgent experience, we recommend allowing for 2-3 drinks per person during this period. Some couples prefer to go for unlimited/free-flowing drinks during this time, for a more no-expense-spared feel.
Have more than one choice – Not everyone’s tastes are the same, and so we find the most successful welcome drinks are those with at least more than one choice, such as a glass of fizz or a premium bottled beer such as a Peroni, or alternatively a cocktail combination. Pimm’s, Mojito and fizz based cocktails like a French 75 or a Southside Royale are all popular options.
Don’t forget the non-drinkers – Make sure you have an alcohol free option, such as a mocktail or an elderflower pressé. Those drinking will even likely opt for at least one soft drink during this time, so as to not overdo the bubbles, so don’t underestimate how much of these you will need.
Make sure the bar is open – Whether you opt for a cash bar or an open bar (more on this later), be sure that your bar is open and serving from the moment the welcome reception starts, as some people will want to opt for an entirely different drink to those you are serving.
Make sure water is available all day - This is really important, you need to keep guests hydrated, especially on hot days. Make sure water is put out on the tables, and a Kilner dispenser or similar with glasses is situated somewhere convenient for people to help themselves whenever they need to.

THE WEDDING BREAKFAST

During the wedding breakfast, outside of ensuring there is always water on the tables, the main focus is getting the wine right. Here are our top tips for your wedding breakfast wines:

Quantity – Half a bottle allocation per person is usually plenty. There will be many people that drink very little or even no wine, but then others who make up for them! Half a bottle in our experience tends to be the sweet spot. For our Luxe Package, we allow one bottle per person, but that is just to ensure that there is never a chance of running out, as part of our most luxurious experience.
Split – White and rosé are usually far more popular than red. As you tend to be eating during the afternoon, white or rosé tends to feel lighter and be more refreshing to drink than red. Rosé has grown massively in popularity in the last 2-3 years, and in our opinion, you cannot beat a dry Provence rosé on a summer’s afternoon! If you are going for all three (red/white/rosé) then we advise an equal split of each (one-third of each), that way you end up with 2/3 white and rosé, 1/3 red. If you are just going for white and red, then we recommend a minimum of a 50:50 split, but you probably wouldn’t be wrong to go 60:40 (white/red).
Choice – Consider your menu when you choose your wines, to pair your meal with complimentary wines. Your bar provider will be able to advise you on this. If you are planning your own wines, however, then a safe bet is usually a good Shiraz for your red, a dry white wine such as Gavi (or other Italian option), and dry rosé, for which French is usually best.

THE TOAST

The toast is a special moment and one you want to mark with a great drink. For your toast, we advise:

Get the timings right – You want your guests to get to enjoy drinking their fizz whilst it is still fresh, so try not to overextend your speech time. Keep them quick, concise and meaningful, and better still, start with a cheers so everyone can have a quick sip as soon as you start! 🥂
Choose a fizz you love – For a meaningful toast, choose your favourite fizz. We love an English sparkling toast for an English summer wedding, but you can also never go wrong with a glass of great champagne! That said, a great prosecco is often thought of better than a poor champagne, so if you are price conscious for this course, go for the best your budget can afford.
Don’t forget the non-drinkers – this is a tip that runs throughout your day, and the toast is no exception. We find either an elderflower pressé or a posh lemonade, served in a flute, is the best option for this. For children, we also tend to serve a posh lemonade in a smaller flute, with a straw, and they love being included!
Mix it up & serve something different! We’ve had some couples serve, either in addition to or instead of their fizz, a shot, such as an ice-cold limoncello, and it is always a really fun way of ending the meal and shifting the tone of the day into the evening party!

EVENING WELCOME

This drink serves two purposes, firstly it makes your evening guests feel special the moment they arrive. Secondly, it is a great way to mark the end of the sit down period, and get everyone mingling and shifting into evening party mode! It is also really handy for your venue as it gets everyone out there seats and into the bar area, so they can begin clearing space for the band and party.

A cocktail is a great option for this as it is very celebratory and luxurious, or, this is a good opportunity to serve your favourite spirit and mixer, such as a great gin and tonic.

YOUR BAR

Your wedding bar provider will be responsible for serving all of the aforementioned drinks, and will also be the ones putting on the bar itself throughout the day & into the early hours.

You want to find a specialist event bar provider who has your experience as their top priority and can help you plan and put on an incredible celebration.

A great bar not only serves great drinks but adds to the style and tone of your wedding, knows how to get the party started and keep your guests dancing until the carriages arrive!

When choosing a bar provider, here are some key considerations:

Make sure the bar is beautiful! You don’t want a shabby bar dragging down the aesthetic and décor that you have carefully curated, you want it instead to complement and enhance the space.
For tailored, more luxury events, you could look to find a bar provider who can create a custom bar structure for your wedding.
Make sure there will be enough staff, and make sure they’ll be smartly dressed.
Check if they use glassware. Some mobile bars use disposable or plastic as standard, but we think using glass is an essential part of serving a great drink.
Check they are licensed and insured and can secure any necessary temporary license.
Check their menu – do they serve cocktails? Do they offer draught? Do they have a good selection of spirits and mixers?
Check what optional extras they offer that might further enhance your day. Do they have a welcome drink station, crystal glassware options, or the choice of having a signature drink/custom cocktail list?

BUDGETING & BAR PAYMENT TYPE

This is understandably the part that most people are unsure of when planning their wedding drinks or sourcing a wedding bar provider. When choosing a bar provider, you need to consider the service and experience level you are looking for.

There are many different ways to structure your bar and payments on the night, which we will explain below, but first, we want to bust a myth:

Myth!

Lots of couples think that buying and serving their own alcohol will save them money, when in fact it usually doesn’t at all but does compromise your guest’s experience and add a lot of headache onto your wedding planning. In some cases, it can actually make your drinks more expensive for you. Remember, you will need to buy a lot of the various types of alcohol to ensure you don’t run out and cater to all tastes, and then you are still going to need a bar structure, refrigeration & other equipment, barware, glassware, bartenders, licenses and insurance, which is why our full-service experience is by far our most popular option. A top tip here is not to underestimate the pressure & cost of going DIY.

Payment Types

For a bar there are 4 primary options for payment setup on the night:

Open Bar - You pay for all your guests’ drinks all night.
Part-Paid/Tab Bar - You put a fixed amount behind the bar, and once it runs out your guests then pay for their drinks as they go.
Pay-as-you-go Cash Bar - Your guests buy their own drinks at the bar.
Token Bar - You give guests tokens for their drinks, and once their tokens run out they switch to paying for their drinks as they go.

In order to choose the right option for your wedding, you need to consider your budget. An open bar is understandably the most expensive option for you, but the best experience for your guests. Lots of couples opt for a part-paid/tab bar, so their guests can start off with free drinks at the bar, which is a nice way to treat guests whilst maintaining a fixed budget.

Open Bar Calculation

If you are thinking of having an open or part paid bar, then we have a helpful formula to calculate the cost, or how many drinks your budget will get your guests.

When using this calculator it is important to remember that every crowd is different, and the menu that you have available to guests can greatly impact the average drink price. For example, some couples opt not to have cocktails or shots available in order to manage the average drink cost and volume. We are happy to craft a custom menu with you, although advise that of course the best guest experience is created when a full menu is available

Bar spend calculation formula:

X no. of guests x duration of the event in hours = Y (no. of drinks)

Y + 1 extra drink pp = Z (grand total number of drinks)

Z x £5.00 (av. drink price without cocktails) = S (total spend on an open bar)

If there are complimentary drinks being served to your guests during the day, such as welcome drinks, table wine and a toast, then you might like to make this calculation for the evening portion of your celebrations only, as your guests will be mostly provided for already earlier in the day. Here is an example:

150 guests x 4 hours (evening only 7-11pm) = 600

600 x + 150 (1 extra drink pp) = 750 drinks

750 x £5.00 (av. drink price) = £3,750 - estimated evening open bar total.

Remember, the average spend on the bar will vary depending on whether you will have drinks like champagne, cocktails and shots available and how boozy your crowd are! We are very happy to advise you on this further and can make suggestions depending on your budget and preferences.

So there you have our top tips, and now you understand the importance of getting this vital element of your wedding day right, and how you can maximise the opportunity that your drinks present to elevate your wedding and make it a truly unforgettable day and night of celebrations for all.

If you would like any additional advice or assistance then please do get in touch with us, we would be very happy to help.

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