Sparkling Wine at Reception: essential?

Sleepy

We've been planning to just go with the hotel's standard package of tea/coffe and scones for the reception but I'm struggling to remember the last wedding I was at myself that didn't have champagne on offer for the guests after the ceremony.

Anyone not bothered with it? Most of the lads will just want pints and there'll be quite a few at our wedding who'd prefer the tea/coffee anyway.

We're having the ceremony in the hotel (and it'll be quite short) and having a champagne toast after the meal. Like most these days we're really trying to keep the costs down but I don't want guests first experience of our hospitality to be a negative one? Should I talk with the hotel about having something sparkling there for the guests that would appreciate it? And if we were to do this, should we then change the toast drink to avoid overdoing the bubbly?

Any thoughts?

pwurple

Sparkling wine doesn't have to be expensive at all. Tesco has reasonable bottles of cava for 5 euro a bottle. You get 8 glasses of it per bottle... so you're looking at less than a euro a glass. You'd be hard pushed to get wine or pints for that money.

I've seen people go with all sorts of welcome drinks. We had Pimms at ours, decided the day before, because it was a muggy sweltering day. I've seen sangria, gin and tonics, or other cocktails done as well. As well as tea or coffee.

You can have whatever you like.

If your question is whether you can drop the welcome drink altogether, well... I'm not sure.

stinkle

Last wedding I was at had punch - would that be a cheaper option? I had a similar conversation last night re:canapes. A friend had them at their wedding but sure a lot of people were late arriving at the hotel and they were gone (but we never knew abot them in the first place so didn't notice or mind!). So I'd say people will be grand with just tea and coffee option.

You could have champagne at that stage though and not bother with a toast drink later to keep costs down? Since it's after the meal then most people will have wine or might have slipped to the bar anyway. Very few people have toast drinks now I'm told...

Sleepy

Yeah, I was wondering about skipping the welcome drink altogether. There'll be tea and coffee obviously but since it's after the ceremony, the guests will have already been "welcomed" to the venue...

It's an odd one: we can have the champagne toast with no corkage but if we want to offer it as a welcome drink we have to pay corkage on it!

Would love to do something a bit different but as it's a Feb wedding I think it might be a bit cold for Pimms! Punch tends to go to waste in my experience. Might ask them about Irishing up the coffees or making Calypso Coffees available or something like that. Then again, knowing my luck it'll turn into a beautiful warm spring day if we go with that option!

We won't be bothering with canapés as the hotel are offering scones with jam and cream as part of our package, we'll be having cupcakes at the same time and there'll be evening food and a candy buffet on top of the meal which should cover off the food...

Moonbeam

We are having mulled wine because I love it and then tea and coffee with nibbles.
Alot of people have told us there is huge waste when it comes to the welcoming and toasting champagne so we are having neither:)

stinkle

Sleepy wrote: »

Yeah, I was wondering about skipping the welcome drink altogether. There'll be tea and coffee obviously but since it's after the ceremony, the guests will have already been "welcomed" to the venue...

yeah we were wondering about that too since everyone's already there!

corkage thing is weird, but then I was told yesterday that to have wine in the hotel restaurant would be x price per head, but 2 euro dearer if we go with a "normal" function room reception :pac: madness!

Didn't realise there was such wastage with punch, but i guess if a big barrel is made then it's an issue. I was thinking bottles of sparkling wine etc might be more wasteful cos lots might be opened at once but not fully used up.

Food sounds great by the way!

evilmonkee

I used to work in a hotel (2.5 - 3 years ago) and it was my job to do the welcome drinks.

I've seen plenty of weddings which had only tea/ coffee. I never heard anyone mention the fact that they were not provided with alcohol. Anyone who wanted a drink went ahead to the bar and got one.

I remember one wedding where the bride and groom paid for a couple of 2lt bottles of coke / 7up / fanta etc. for the kids... Went down a storm with children and adults who didn't want an alcoholic drink. Everyone seemed to think that was great.

Maybe it could be an option as you mentioned that many of your guests may not want the welcome booze...

ABajaninCork

We just bought a round of drinks for the toast. Venue allowed E6 pp. No-one was allowed to order doubles. Think there were plenty of soft drinks in that round as well (Drivers, kids, etc.). Much cheaper than getting sparking wine/champers for the toast which a lot of people don't like anyway.

Sleepy

Round of drinks = €5/€6 per head.
Reasonable Cava bought in bulk = €10 per bottle / 5 = €2 per head.

And that's why I'm going for a sparkling toast. Our budget's extremely tight so when there's no corkage on the toast, I'm not going to miss the chance to keep costs down. I know a lot of people prefer the drink of choice but as a Guinness drinker, I'm not a fan: the pints usually half flat and nearly always slopped over the side of the glass by the time it gets to you.

Orlee

I wouldn't say that it's a necessity - It looks nice for photos and that to see pretty champagne glasses but in reality most people will go off and get a cuppa or a pint!

While you can get cheap enough bottles in Tesco etc it's the corkage that's a killer!

I'd say use your fiver a head elsewhere

Penny Dreadful

Personally I think having sparkling wine/cava/whatever adds a lot to your wedding reception. I've always loved having it at any wedding I attended and made a point of having lots of it at my own.
We did the round of drinks for the toast too with the usual limitations on them.

OP I fully understand your desire to keep costs down where you can and we did that by not having wedding favours at all (I've always thought they were silly and both of us make enough charitable dontations during the year anyway so didn't feel the need to add more onto the expense of the wedding), didn't give the mothers flowers at the reception too (both had loads of flowers after the arrangements were taken from the church), went with the hotel's wine so saved on corkage on that front. We decided not to have a professional video and only photographs. Lots of people shot video anyway and have all given us what footage they had so it wasn't needed.

hoodwinked

Sleepy wrote: »

Round of drinks = €5/€6 per head.
Reasonable Cava bought in bulk = €10 per bottle / 5 = €2 per head.

And that's why I'm going for a sparkling toast. Our budget's extremely tight so when there's no corkage on the toast, I'm not going to miss the chance to keep costs down. I know a lot of people prefer the drink of choice but as a Guinness drinker, I'm not a fan: the pints usually half flat and nearly always slopped over the side of the glass by the time it gets to you.

sleepy for the reception we had tea/coffee/punch, (with chocolate fingers/bacon fries/cookies) on arrival,

when i look at photos everyone has a tea/coffee or pint/soft drink in their hand, so i wouldn't worry about the drink, they will just go to the bar and buy what ever they want, nobody complained at all at ours over having to go to the bar,


likewise for the toast we had sparkling wine, and nobody has mentioned it, if they wanted a pint they went and got it themselves, (the bar was right next to the tables so that helped)

Sleepy

Penny Dreadful wrote: »

OP I fully understand your desire to keep costs down where you can and we did that by not having wedding favours at all (I've always thought they were silly and both of us make enough charitable dontations during the year anyway so didn't feel the need to add more onto the expense of the wedding), didn't give the mothers flowers at the reception too (both had loads of flowers after the arrangements were taken from the church), went with the hotel's wine so saved on corkage on that front. We decided not to have a professional video and only photographs. Lots of people shot video anyway and have all given us what footage they had so it wasn't needed.

I think we're pulling just about every trick in the book to keep costs down! I just wanted to see if the general opinion was that not having a champagne welcome is cheap!

We're not bothering with favours either, I think they're a utterly ridiculous waste of money. So far, we've kept costs down thanks to:

• A very good deal from a hotel we've heard nothing but good things about: includes free corkage so we can splash out on decent bottles of wine.
• My brother's band are playing the reception (they used to do weddings and have played the Volvo Ocean Race, Electric Picnic etc. Lucky to have them!)
• His girlfriend (a visual artist) is doing our photographs.
• We're not bothering with a videographer.
• My fiancée's doing the cake and flowers (bouquet's, buttonholes, ceremony displays, centre-pieces) and her dress is coming in at under €300.
• Neither of us are religious which saves a good few quid in not needing to pay for permission to marry letters, pre-marriage courses, flowers for church etc.
• We're DIY'ing the invites, table number displays and escorts, candy buffet etc.
• iPod playlist for the welcome rather than live music.
• Ceremony and Reception in same hotel so no need for cars.
• Won't be bothering with flowers for the mothers. We'll probably get the parents gifts but they'll be given privately.

Penny Dreadful

Sleepy wrote: »

I think we're pulling just about every trick in the book to keep costs down! I just wanted to see if the general opinion was that not having a champagne welcome is cheap!

We're not bothering with favours either, I think they're a utterly ridiculous waste of money. So far, we've kept costs down thanks to:

• A very good deal from a hotel we've heard nothing but good things about: includes free corkage so we can splash out on decent bottles of wine.
• My brother's band are playing the reception (they used to do weddings and have played the Volvo Ocean Race, Electric Picnic etc. Lucky to have them!)
• His girlfriend (a visual artist) is doing our photographs.
• We're not bothering with a videographer.
• My fiancée's doing the cake and flowers (bouquet's, buttonholes, ceremony displays, centre-pieces) and her dress is coming in at under €300.
• Neither of us are religious which saves a good few quid in not needing to pay for permission to marry letters, pre-marriage courses, flowers for church etc.
• We're DIY'ing the invites, table number displays and escorts, candy buffet etc.
• iPod playlist for the welcome rather than live music.
• Ceremony and Reception in same hotel so no need for cars.
• Won't be bothering with flowers for the mothers. We'll probably get the parents gifts but they'll be given privately.

We gave our parents gifts too (well paid for mother in law's outfit for the wedding, father in laws suit hire and their room for the night and are taking my parents out for super fancy dinner soon) as the flowers was seen as a waste by both of us.
With regard to the cava if you go with it, you could try to get magnums rather than bottles. This is what we did and your corkage is still the same (Well the same with some coaxing) but you get twice as many glasses out of it.
We did the church and hotel separate venues but we couldn't have cared less about cars. My husband has a really nice anyway so he arrived in that and my brother in law has a nice car too and offered to drive me and my dad to the church. With a valet and some nice ribbon both cars cleaned up very well.

You've done really well with your cost savings particularly on your band and photographer. The cava shouldn't really set you back too much but only bother with it if its important to you. It was to us so we had it.

scrumqueen

I'm currently debating whether to have the bubby as the pre-dinner reception drink or have it for the toast.

MIL says do it for the toast, I would be inclined to have it for pre dinner drinks, and I say pre dinner because we are having our civil ceremony and reception in the hotel so theres not much of a welcome when you leave one room and walk into another connected by a reception/bar area!

Corkage is €10 a bottle and were getting our bubbly in france to save on costs and the hotel refuse to budge on the corkage figure too

Sleepy

Our package includes free corkage for the meal and toast but if we want to use our own bubbly for the pre-dinner drinks (much better name there scrumqueen) they have to charge us corkage. I can see their point that it reduces their bar sales at that point in the day if we do it so I don't really have too much of a problem with the charge, it's more of a thought that (a) is it almost expected at this stage and (b) would bubbly both pre-dinner and as the toast be overkill (i.e. would it push us into doing a "drink of choice" instead and add almost a grand to the hotel bill!)

scrumqueen

Sleepy wrote: »

Our package includes free corkage for the meal and toast but if we want to use our own bubbly for the pre-dinner drinks (much better name there scrumqueen) they have to charge us corkage. I can see their point that it reduces their bar sales at that point in the day if we do it so I don't really have too much of a problem with the charge, it's more of a thought that (a) is it almost expected at this stage and (b) would bubbly both pre-dinner and as the toast be overkill (i.e. would it push us into doing a "drink of choice" instead and add almost a grand to the hotel bill!)

They said that they had to chill the bubbly, open it, prep glasses etc, never mentioned bar sales but I hadnt even thought about negotiating it for just the toast, maybe if I said it was just for the toast they might come down a bit, given that the bar is not in the room itself. (it's just outside it but yano )
Must ask my wedding planner if she can negotiate this one for me!

Senna

Corkage has nothing to do with the cost of storing/chilling/opening bottles of wine, that all costs next to nothing. Its the fine you pay for not using the hotels wine, their way of making up the revenue they are loosing.

What about Black velvet/Bucks Fizz on arrival? if your paying corkage then you will use a lot less sparkling wine, 12-14 glasses from a normal bottle.
Receptions drinks are really their just to offer them, rather than being an essential part of the wedding.

Glitter

Sleepy - just a thought to check with your hotel - February is fairly off-season for weddings.

We're having our civil partnership in November this year and part of the hotel's (very nice, 5 star venue in Dublin) off-peak deal is a free sparkling wine reception post-ceremony. Might be worth checking out, although I know you said you already got a great deal with your venue.

We're having a money-saving wedding too so we're not going with toast-drinks, although, the coordinator in the hotel suggested that I give my head bridesmaid an option to allow them to open a few extra bottles of the wine we're serving with the meal to make sure everyone's drink is topped up right before the speeches. I think this is an awesome idea and should work out no more than an extra couple of hundred euro max, rather than allowing €6 a head. And if the guests haven't drink all the wine we initially allocated we don't lose a penny.