Not that we need much of an explanation as to why we thought it was necessary to have a wine night - other than to sip/drink/swirl/smell delicious varieties of wine - but we really did have a good reason for getting everyone together. Taking a few steps back, one of they key reasons we chose Danada House as our venue was the fact that we could do our own bar. So many of the venues my friends have used for their receptions had standard bar packages starting at $20 or $25 pp and would go up significantly from there depending on what type of liquor and package they wanted. Well, we were not ok paying that amount ON TOP of the price per person for food, appetizers, desserts, etc.
Fun Fact - Did you know weddings are uber expensive?!?!?! J
Anywho...the idea of being able to build our own bar with the wine, beer, liquor, mixed drinks and delicious cocktails that we wanted sounded like a fabulous idea. So, that is exactly what we are going to do. Luckily our caterer provides all the garnish and mixers. We simply need to provide the alcohol and any recipes for specialty mixed drinks. Easy enough!
While Ron and I enjoy a good bottle of wine, we have our standard bottles we always tend to buy. Sometimes we try a new bottle if it's on sale or we are eating something special and want a good pairing but most of the time, we are pretty content with our variety of 4 or 5 wines. We wanted to get other people's opinions on the types of wine we should have available at our wedding. This is where our families and the wine night come in.
We asked that everyone bring a bottle of red and a bottle of white in a certain price range, preferably something they have already tried and enjoyed. My parents hosted the evening and provided delicious snacks including a plethora of cheese and crackers. I brought these adorable tasting glasses about the size of a shot which worked very well for this purpose. Although, some people ~cough, my sister, cough~ filled the glass completely full instead of just a tasting amount. She had a lot of fun that night. J
Starting with the reds, we passed the first bottle around, tasted it and then marked down our thoughts using only one descriptor word such as, smooth, dry, tasty and some even deserved the word gross. Ha! We repeated this process through the 6 bottles of red wine and the 7 bottles of white wine. It was a fun time to say the least. By the end of it, we decided on two reds that were a must have for the wedding. A couple of the whites were enjoyable but no one around the table seemed overly enthused about them. So, we will just have to host another wine night to taste more options. That's the only solution, right? JIt really didn't matter if we found the perfect wine for the wedding, it was just a good excuse to get our families together for a fun night of laughter and entertaining conversation....I think there was even some polka dancing that took place?! All in all it was a great night with fabulous company.
Next on our bar "to-do" list is the mixed and signature drinks. I guess we will just have to get our families together this summer for some drinks, BBQ and maybe a bags or croquet tournament. J
203 days to go!!!
