Champagne reception

Hunter333

Thinking of having a champagne reception at our wedding but not really sure of a nice not to expensive of drink or how many we would need for about 200 guest?

Peregrinus

Depends on how long the reception will run for. If it's a holding operation while the guests gather and you take a few photographs, two glasses per head should be enough. If it's going to run on, three glasses per head.

There's eight glasses in a standard champagne bottle. If you budget for three glasses per head, for two hundred guests that's 75 bottles. But if they only take two glasses per head, you'll only use 50 bottles. So buy on a sale-or-return basis.

So far as taste and quality goes, a non-champagne sparkling wine is of course generally better value than champagne - you pay a premium for the "champagne" appelation. Your supplier will guide you here. (If you're buying half-a-dozen cases of the stuff, they'll throw in all the advice you want for free.) For weddings they sometimes steer you towards a sweeter sparkling wine, on the assumption that it will be accompanying the cake, so make it clear that this is for a pre-dinner reception, and you want a dry product.

dori_dormer

We had a champagne reception and < 50% of people drank the champagne. Most people dont actually like it! so definitly dont be buying enough for 600 glasses!

Itll be wasted if its handed out to everyone on arrival, just left on tables everywhere. If there is a table set up where people can take a glass if they want it, then youll have less wastage. and the staff can open bottles as they are needed.

ElleEm

I have actually never had Champagne at a wedding, but have had plenty of cheaper sparkling wines, which do not taste good! I have seen so much waste when people do this, even as a toast drink.
Would you consider having glasses of wine poured and ready to drink upon your guests arrival? I think more people would drink this than a sparkling wine.

lazygal

We had crement de loire - its cheaper than Champagne but as nice for a reception I think. I can't understand when people post saying no one drinks it as we went through a lot of it during our drinks reception. We went free pour as we've been at weddings where the glasses are poured long before everyone has the chance to have one and some grab a few glasses leaving others with none. I've also been told there's no more by staff as everyone had their allocated glasses. Not a nice memory. If you're having bubbly I think you need to offer an alternative, like a soft drink or beer for those who won't drink it, it doesn't need to cost the earth.

Typer Monkey

Our hotel offer a sparkling wine reception as part of the package. We asked would they do half sparkling wine, half bottles of beer as I've found at weddings I've been at that a lot of people don't drink the wine, especially the men. They are going to leave ice buckets dotted around with bottles of beer in them as an alternative

whomitconcerns

worked at about 300 weddings and have been to a fair few also. Trust me its not worth it. More than 50% will either have a sip and put it down, or wont even have a sip. It really would shock you how little of it will be drank...and will just be money down the drain.

Ann Landers

dori_dormer wrote: »

We had a champagne reception and < 50% of people drank the champagne.

I was at a wedding where the champagne reception was a huge hit! These things are so hard to gauge.

I guess, OP, try and figure if your guests are a champagne-swilling bunch.

Ann Landers

Typer Monkey wrote: »

They are going to leave ice buckets dotted around with bottles of beer in them as an alternative.

That is awesome. My boyfriend would love that.

Typer Monkey

We saw it at a wedding we were at on NYE and it was a huge hit with the men especially so I was happy when our hotel agreed to do the same. Seems the lads always go to the bar for pints so it'll be nice to be able to give them a couple of free beers

Milly33

Yep I would not be rushing out to buy a perfect Champers unless ye, yerselfs like it. Even if you had a sparkling wine reception I would think most would not notice.. Jacobs creek Sparkling wine I know Tesco sell it in a black bottle that is loverly or there is one of the prosecco's that is really nice... I would think buy half of what the final number is..Once everyone gets a glass and a bit they would be happy

annoyedgal

Personally love the sparkling reception! We're having half prosecco and half beers. Should keep the menfolk happy!

annoyedgal

Personally love the sparkling reception! We're having half prosecco and half beers. Should keep the menfolk happy!

anamara86

Think a champagne reception sounds lovely - however, to save money, I'd definitely go with a nice Prosecco or Cava, most people won't know the difference. The ice buckets with beer is a nice touch...

Gatica

In our group of friends us girls always are happy to have lots of glasses of sparkling wine. I much prefer it to just wine, plus we usually end up having wine with dinner already anyway and I don't fancy just having wine again for the afternoon. The men usually seem to have a glass or two then switch to beers. I guess it depends on your guests.
It's a great idea to do beers in addition to the wine.
At our wedding we had sparking wine reception and had comment from a guest saying they knew it was gonna be a good wedding when the bubbly kept being topped up. I budgeted 2 glasses pp for 1/3 of guests and 3 glasses pp for 1/3 of guests and assumed the other 1/3 would probably not bother with it. We bought 64 bottles and even with plentiful top-ups and toast drink still returned just under 10 bottles...

Also, I think sparkling wines from Spain/Italy, i.e. cava/prosecco, are a much better choice than cheap Champagne. The wine shop also advised that.