How to self cater an afternoon tea wedding (part 4)

Ok so this is embarassing. A year and a half I started a series called 'How to Self Cater an Afternoon Tea Wedding'. Then I got caught up in moving to a small island and opening a B&B and suddenly it's 18 months later. Now my little darling sister is getting married in 4 weeks and it's reminded me to carry it on. So here is part four...and it's all about the drink. 

First you need to decide how you want the wedding to work. Having a wedding on a small island meant everyone was staying or travelling by boat which meant that we knew most people would be drinking. We also knew that we wanted it to be a free bar so we could make it a really great party. 

So we started off deciding what we wanted....it went like this.

Welcome drinks: Gin and Tonics

Cornish Beers

Elderflower Cordial (for children and non drinkers)

Wine for the afternoon tea

Champagne for the toasts

Kegs of beer for the evening, more wine and spirits for the late nighters.  Coke and lemonade. 

Trying to work out how much to buy is the next challenge.

 * With the welcome drinks we decided that two drinks each would be fine. 

*A bottle of red and a bottle of white per table (8 people on a table, so that's one and a half glasses each)

* Two glasses of champagne

* Evening drinks: We split the evening crowd in half. So half wine and half beer. Now we were told half a bottle of wine is the best estimate per person. We went for a bottle of wine and I am so glad we did as we had none left by the end. We estimated three pints per person. That was a little too much as we still had some left over. (It was drunk at the post wedding events.)

Money Saving Tips:

First if you are getting married after Christmas buy your alcohol at Christmas. We bought the gin, wine and champagne in the Christmas sales. You can save a fortune.

Don't be snobby about champagne. (I was). My mum convinced me to go for Tesco Premier Cru as it had beaten champagne heavyweights at the International Wine Challenge Awards. It was £15 a bottle and again we got it at Christmas so got it a little bit cheaper. 

Do your research. We actually got our wine from Waitrose because they had a really good deal and did free delivery to Scilly.

What I'm Glad I Did: 

Stuck to our guns about the welcome drinks. Both sets of our parents did not like the idea of gin and tonics and beers as our welcome drinks. There was a lot of talk about people not liking gin or beer and what would they drink then? (Our answer a) elderflower b) go and ask the bar for a glass of wine c) wait until afternoon was served.) We arrived half an hour after everyone else. Most people were on their second gin and tonic and seemed very happy....

What I Shouldn't Have Done:

Left the late night spirits on the bar. They had already been opened by 4pm. By 7pm they had gone. My sister ran down to mum and dad's and raided their alcohol cabinet bringing up all the bottles they could. My dad was horrified. The guests were very grateful. We should have ordered more spirits. I think there were 4 bottles. We should have gone for 8. 

Next Post: 

The evening do.... Hog roast, cheeseboard, brownies and ice cream sundae bar. And a fire that burnt down a marquee.