I'm back and back on track!

mandragora_2

Ok, back to the wine. To be honest, the best value you'll get in France is to buy the best wine within your budget in wine boxes (try before you buy though - French supermarkets will happily advise you, and get you samples to taste - for endless hours, if you'll let them). Of course, that won't be very pretty on the tables, but you'll get a really GOOD wine that way, rather than some of the cheapest nastiest stuff. Then, in line with what seems to be the theme of having great value and a fab day, decant the wine into empty bottles, stick corks in and put them on the tables! You could even personalise them with your own themed labels if you wanted!

ellay864

We got some really nice wines last year from joining one of those wine clubs...took advantage of the heavily discounted intro offer then cancelled before we had to order anything else

LEJC

How many bottles of wine do you want...I still think the best deals are here as opposed to france?

alenax

LEJC wrote: »

How many bottles of wine do you want...I still think the best deals are here as opposed to france?

Wow, thanks for your advice everyone! We want 40 bottles - 20 red and 20 white

Lexxi

Make it at home for nothing!!! My grandad has a garage full of wine and happily gives us a few bottles, strong stuff though!! He made an amazing pinot noir a few years ago. Not too sure on the set up costs though and the whites can be very sweet but it should be within budget

LEJC

alenax wrote: »

I think we're going to set our guide price as £188 INCLUDING corkage and see if we can beat that! My mum's seen a few Dover - Calais £5 return ferry offers so will wait for one of those I think, we don't live far from there so petrol wouldn't be a massive problem, unless of course we can beat that price here.

I like how everyone's focused on the booze

is this still the amount you want to spend on wine?
40 bottles attracting £3.00 per bottle corkage would only give you a total budget for wine of £68 for all 40 bottles....thats a serious ask even if you went to france and added the cost of getting there in too...£1.70 a bottle in France is that realistic..no idea..

in tesco the other evening I bought 6 red and 6 white "la maison de charlotte" for £34.20 including a wine discount working out at £2.85 a bottle.

I think the idea of making your own wine is a good one...but if you haven't made it before then buying the demi jars and things you need for making it will take it over budget....no idea what time of year you are getting married but my brother in law is getting married in the summer next year and planning to make elderflower "champagne" for the toast...working out seriously cheaper than any champagne..but he makes it every year so its just a matter of collecting the elderflower from treesin may/early june.

clearing_out_my_pockets

http://www.carrefour-calais.com/modulosite2/fiche.php?id_bouton=15&fr=0&id=732&ss_rub=305&search=&page_centre=app%2Fcatalogue%2Fliste_apercu_gb.php&page=2

£1.70 a bottle is do-able but not sure what they'd taste like