Wine and alcohol at a barn wedding

RusticWeddingPreppers

Long time lurkers here Just posted about flowers... but I thought that I might post about alcohol too.

We've booked a barn wedding for next summer, and so can buy our own wine and alcohol separately - along with stocking a bar.

So, I just wondered if any MSEers have done this before? Have found good deals...

- When/where is the best place to buy?
- Is it best to go supermarket deals? Or take a trip to the continent?
- How much should we buy?
- Any other advice very welcome!

Thanks everyone!

RusticWeddingPreppers x

benjus

We used a mixture of supermarket deals and a trip to France (we used this place which was very good, and had good personal service rather than just going to a hypermarket or wine warehouse: http://boursot.co.uk/weddings.html )

Bear in mind though that in France you're only likely to find French wine (except maybe from a tiny selection of "rest of the world" wine in big supermarkets), and to some extent this applies in other major wine producing countries. So it depends on what you want to serve. French supermarkets do, however, tend to have a good selection of international spirits at good prices.

How much to buy is always a hard question. Our wedding was about 70 guests, many of whom like a drink or two. We got through roughly:

36 bottles champagne (reception and toast)
10(?) bottles prosecco (for bellinis at the reception)
40(?) bottles red wine
20(?) bottles white wine
2-3(?) bottles Pimm's
1-2 litres gin
3 litres Scotch
1/2 litre (?) vodka
Some Campari, vermouth etc
Some bottled lager

These numbers are pretty rough though as it was a couple of years ago. You need to consider the tastes of your guests and what food you're serving.

If you buy from supermarkets, remember that some (e.g. Tesco) will allow you to return unopened bottles of alcohol as part of their standard returns policy. So you essentially get sale-or-return with no minimum quantity.

Gloomendoom

All our wedding wine came from France. Most of our wine still does.

100 bottles each of red, white and cava. 140 guests (including children) and the bar was open from about 3:30 until nobody wanted any more (early next morning).

Soft drinks and beer came from supermarket special deals in the months leading up to the wedding. Cider was home made. If guests wanted spirits, they had to bring their own. We advised them of that in advance.

We now use the Calais Wine Superstore (https://www.calaiswine.co.uk) If you buy enough, they will pay your ferry or tunnel fare.