Drinks toast

mjp

Just wondering are people doing drinks toast for their weddings or is it traditionally the father of bride or groom that offers this toast and pays for it. The few weddings I've been to in last year have been by father of groom I think.
If so I don't want to ask my father is he going doing it as it's a bit of an awkward/ cheeky conversation to have seeing as be having over 200 guests.

Also I like the idea of providing bottles of beer when guests arrive as it's a nice gesture and not everyone drinks prosecco. Do hotel normally charge full bar prices for these or could you provide your own from an Off Licence etc. It's not something we have discussed with hotel but just want to know if have bargaining power or what to try ask for before we finalize everything with them this weekend.

SheepGoHere

We're doing a toast drink, we're paying for it. I wouldn't ask anyone to pay for these things personally, if they offer I wouldn't refuse but I wouldn't ask. You do need to ask the hotel about the beer, we had a venue say we could provide our own beer and take a fiver off the package cause it saves them on prosecco, we had another say they were cool with the beer idea but we had to order in the beer through their bar, and pay extra.

love_love

We have a prosecco toast included in our package. Neither myself nor my OH actually like prosecco, but it's just to have something to cheers with. Ask your venue what other people usually do and see if they can offer anything.

Cakerbaker

We brought our own prosecco and everyone got a glass for the toast. Our hotel didn’t charge corkage so it worked out very cheap though even if they had charged corkage it would still have been cheaper than a round of drinks. We liked the idea of the toast drink but couldn’t afford the cost of an individual drink for everyone so this was a happy medium. Would probably have done without otherwise.

mjp

mjp wrote: »

Just wondering are people doing drinks toast for their weddings or is it traditionally the father of bride or groom that offers this toast and pays for it. The few weddings I've been to in last year have been by father of groom I think.
If so I don't want to ask my father is he going doing it as it's a bit of an awkward/ cheeky conversation to have seeing as be having over 200 guests.

Also I like the idea of providing bottles of beer when guests arrive as it's a nice gesture and not everyone drinks prosecco. Do hotel normally charge full bar prices for these or could you provide your own from an Off Licence etc. It's not something we have discussed with hotel but just want to know if have bargaining power or what to try ask for before we finalize everything with them this weekend.

The hotel should have discussed both with you, adding beer to the drinks reception and the toast drinks are both options which they (most hotels anyway) will include in the overall package.

mcgiggles

We didn't have a toast drink, we could have gotten it included in the package but honestly any wedding I've been to I have a drink at that stage anyways, so never miss it if its not there! I'd say only the minority of weddings we have been to have had them.. (and we've been to a LOT the last 5 years!!) And as i said I'd never miss them if they didn't have them as at that stage we had wine poured..
We had beer included in our drinks reception, initially we were going to have to pay the hotel for them, not full bar prices mind, but then we got around them somehow and they let us bring our own! You don't know if you don't ask

c6ysaphjvqw41k

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woodchuck

Is a separate drink for the toast really necessary? Any wedding I've been too, the guests always have plenty of wine already. Why not just toast with that?

(I will add that I'm a non-drinker though, so maybe that's why it seems unnecessary to me :P)

GingerLily

It really annoys me when there's no toast drink (wine is fine), there always seems to be one table that the waiters seem to ignore and they tend to get stuck for the whole of the speeches with nothing in their glasses having to "toast" each other with empty glasses!

They're usually the same weddings that have extra long speeches too.

baby and crumble

We organised to have speeches/toasts during the drinks reception after the ceremony but befre the meal. There was prosecco, mulled wine, tea and coffee included and we also asked for some of the prosecco to be subbed with Scholer as neither of us are big drinkers and we had a good few people who were driving/pregnant/don't drink so we wanted them to have something festive for the toast. The way I saw it was we were feeding and watering them all day with wine, soft drinks and what have you, i wasn't paying for a whole other round of drinks for 110 people. Nobody missed it whatsoever.

dragonfly!

We are organising a processco toast as we know exactly what we are spending then
Rather than the unknown total of a round of drinks
If we were going this route though we would be paying for it I wouldnt expect either set of the parents to get it
In an ideal world we would probably do the open toast so guests can get what they want, not everyone will like processco / drink at all but hey ho...

Toots

Regarding open toasts, check with your venue whether they'll do any sort of deal on it. I remember at my own wedding the venue did an open toast for the same price as a prosecco toast - basically they said that while there inevitably would be people ordering things like brandy or spirits, which would be more expensive, there would be others who would order a beer or soft drink and over all it would work out the same price.

Moody_mona

I know this seems ridiculous, but I like a prosecco toast, I feel like it's very celebratory. I've had a vodka as my toast drink and I'd tucked into it without thinking, whereas in my head prosecco is a little more special. Now I say that as a prosecco drinker..!