Helping to cater sister's wedding...ideas?

caxia

My sister is getting married at the end of June. As their income has really dropped in the last year and they are trying to do things on a budget the reception is to be held at their home.

We offered to buy the drinks for the (informal) do instead of a wedding present. (In their forties...dont really need a toaster). There is about 80 people going and I would hate it not to be a lovely fun afternoon. And I would hate to run out of the liquid hospitality.

As she lives in Liverpool and I am down south what would any of you suggest?

I have a cosco card so could do a run myself the week before and take loads up to her. Or does anyone know of a sale and return place in Liverpool where I could get all kinds of wines, beers, fizz and plenty of soft drinks so I could return what we do not use?

Any ideas would be great thanks.

gleek1

Not sure about the soft drinks, but we are members of the wine society. One off payment of £40 and you get £20 or something credit towards your order. No minimum spend, no subscription and if you buy unmixed cases they do sale or return.
Really good service, and lots of wine for your money and at every price point. They do 'own label' which are basically from selected vinyards that give good quality and value too. I think their own label cab sauv was concha y toro at one point. wine ranges from £5 a bottle to whatever you want and I can honestly say that for the price point, you get better value than at the supermarket. I have not had a bad bottle of wine from them.

Give them a go - we used them for our wedding as it was well cheaper, even with corkage, than our venue's drinks package. They also do spirits and other drinks, but not so much on the soft.

Hope this helps

kingfisherblue

There is a Costco just down the east Lancs road from Liverpool, in Haydock. Would it be worth getting the drinks when you get up here, instead of transporting it all that way?

jackyann

Have a look at Majestic wine, supermarkets, and at local off licences or wine retailers. Our local, knowledgeable and really quite posh wine retailer has good wines much cheaper than Costco or supermarket, gives advice, tasting, sale-or-return and glass hire (sorry, nowhere near Liverpool!)

lowlitmemory

Don't know if you are planning to get champers for the toasts, but if you are, we found the supermarket deals were the best. We were able to get Lanson at about £12 a bottle. You do have to keep an eye out though and be willing to snap stuff up as soon as it goes on sale, and do sneaky things like buy your allotted amount and then go back in to a different cashier to buy some more.

We also bought our red and white wine from supermarkets, by getting different bottles every week in advance and selecting our favourites then waiting for one to go on sale. Ditto the beer. Soft drinks were provided by our caterers so didn't need to worry about that. We also got an amazing deal on spirits... managed to get a few bottles of Gordon's gin, Bell's whiskey and Smirnoff vodka for cheaper than the Tesco own-brand equivalents

This was for 200 people and we managed to get it all to our venue in our car, so 80 should be fine! We did have quite a bit left over too but didn't worry about that and just drank it up ourselves (over a long period of time haha).

caxia

Thanks for the suggestions. The wine society and Majestic sound particularly interesting. If we lived closer I would try the supermarket offers route but it probably isnt practical with 4 of us travelling up in the car for the big day.

Would rather over-stock with drinks than under. We can always drink the left overs through the summer. (Dirty job but someone has to do it ha ha!)

countrybum

Have you thought about Aldi? I heard on the radio today that one of their own brand red wines has been voted very highly by The Guardian (I think), beating much higher priced ones.
Also, their own brand Pimms is delicious (called 'Austins' I think) - once its mixed up in a jug with lemonade, fruit, mint and ice, you really can't tell the difference. Perfect for a sunny afternoon and evening
Good luck and I hope your sister has a fantastic wedding
x

gibson123

Could you not just order the drinks on-line and get it delivered to your sisters house?

lovesabargain123

I was going to suggest aldi too, we bought the £2.99 wine at Christmas and everyone said how nice it was!
We also got the vodka, pims, baileys and that was all fine.
I believe lidl do an own version of jack Daniels that tastes exactly the same but half the price but never tried it myself x

CH27

Aldi do some lovely wines at very good prices.

countrybum

article about Aldi wine http://money.aol.co.uk/2012/05/24/3-59-aldi-wine-thumps-30-competition/?icid=money%7CDL_1_link