Tags

, , , , ,

Two weeks before the wedding, it was time to order the alcohol.  Our venue only has a beer & wine license, so that meant no hard liquor or open bar, which helped keep our costs down.  But we still had a problem.  We had guests who were wine collectors.  Honest-to-goodness connoisseurs with actual stocked cellars of epic proportions.  Now, we didn’t exactly have the budget to buy the kind of wine he would normally stock in his cellar, but I had to have something at least decent.

So I hatched a two-part plan.

Step 1:  Sangria, The Pretty, Tasty, Cheap-Ass “Signature Drink”

First, our “Signature Drink” would be served during the cocktail hour.  The beauty of Sangria is that it calls for and still tastes great with not-great wine.  Our Sangria recipe was a hodge-podge of several recipes we received or found online, and it tasted great.

Sangria – Yield Approx. 8 gallons

1 case (12 bottles) Charles Shaw $3 Chuck Cabernet Sauvignon (I am not drinking the Fucking Merlot)
4 2L bottles of Sprite
1/2 Costco Bag of Oranges (approx. 8 oranges peeled and cut into chunks)
2 Costco containers each of: raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries (washed)
6 medium cans of Pineapple chunks (not in syrup; drained; don’t use the juice)
1 large (Costco sized) bottle of good Triple Sec.
Cut the fruit; pour everything into a large drink cooler (we used two 5-gallon coolers).  Seal the lid, and let it marinate at least overnight.  A full 24-hours is better.  Serve in a pretty punch bowl.

During the cocktail hour, I spoke to my wine connoisseur, who informed me that the Sangria was delicious.  Then he looked at me, smiled, and said, “But this isn’t going to hold me.  Where’s the real stuff?”

This is where our Main Bar came into play.  After everyone had a chance to enjoy some hors d’ouevres and Sangria, we had the kids bash the pinata into pieces, over by the main bar.  This gave the bartender the opportunity to move her set up to the main bar area, and segue into dinner.

Step 2:  Stocking the Bar From Stores That Accept Returns

To stock the Main Bar, I went online to BevMo! during their 5-cent sale.  I sorted their 5-cent sale wine selection according to the Parker ratings, then picked wines that were priced between $12-$20 per bottle and selected two full-bodied cabernet sauvignons with 93 ratings (the highest rating available among the 5-cent sale wines), a Spanish red with a 93 rating, a Pinot Grigio with a 92 rating, a Chardonnay with a 94 rating, and a Champagne with a 93 rating. I picked three safe beers that are generally well-liked: a dark (Negra Modelo), light (Stella) , and amber (Newcastle).  I bought one excellent bottle of expensive champagne for me and Tony, and after our glasses were filled, I sent the bartender to fill my wine connoisseur’s glass.  Then shared the rest of that bottle with our wedding elves.

At Costco, we picked up four types of soda: Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite and Dr. Pepper, bottled water, 100% juice Capri Suns for the kids, and Sparkling Cider for the kids and non-drinkers for toasting.

After the wedding, we had a ton of alcohol and sodas leftover.  Our BevMo! and Costco returns reduced our total bar bill to approximately $400, and we were still able to send a lot of beer and wine home with friends (and that’s even with my dad accidentally spilling 4 gallons of Sangria before the wedding).

It turns out that a wedding heavily populated with children that has to end by 10 p.m. due to noise regulations is not conducive to people getting drunk off their asses, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I did wonder at how successful our party was based on the amount of unopened alcohol we returned the following Monday.