Wine on tables??

Hi,

Just want a few opinions on this subject, is everybody having wine on the tables at the wedding breakfast? The drinks package at our venue is around £1500 but to be honest the majority of our guests don't drink wine so i think it would be a waste of money. Is it normal NOT to have wine on the table??

Would appreciate any advice.

Hi,

have you checked with your venue as I know a lot of places would say that you must purchase some kind of drinks for people or have a minimum spend.

If you know that a lot of people dont drink then I think it would be acceptable to not put it on the table but maybe say that the 1st drink from the bar is paid for by yourselves?

I must admit that i have never seen a wedding where people dont have wine, but every wedding is different!

Another possibility is maybe something like Schlor (spelt very wrong!!) as it is non alcoholic

Sorry, not much help!

I don't think you HAVE to have wine on the tables.  We are unsure what to do with this yet either.  We know that not everybody coming to our wedding drinks wine so we were thinking about maybe supplying everybody with a couple of drinks of their choice to have with their meal.  Not decided though

We were in the same boat, lots of our guests don't drink wine, so I thought wine on the table would probably go to waste.

We have agreed our drinks package with our venue, we are having a drink after the ceremony (orange juice or champagne (we'll I think it's actually fizzy wine)), a drink of choice for the speeches and then another drink of choice for the meal. That way if people want wine they can order it as their chosen drink! x

I agree with Gillsy, its up to you. Im going to supply my own wine (sooo much cheaper). Not thought about it until now though. I drink wine (like water) and would expect it on the table (although went to wedding the other week where it was rationed and waiters brought it round every so often), but also aware that lots of guests dont drink it, my OH being one of them.

Gillsy I would be interested to know how you would go about providing a variety of drinks for everyone - would that not break the bank?

Thanks for the advice ladies, supplying my own wine would be fab obviously alot cheaper but i'm pretty sure my venue won't except this, i'm sure my mum asked when we viewed the place.

Charlied:

Gillsy I would be interested to know how you would go about providing a variety of drinks for everyone - would that not break the bank?

Our venue does different packages that can be tailored to suit - they will do whatever you want, like a drink from the bar instead of the usual speaches or dinner drinks etc.  The prices are just worked on the number of drinks that you want in your package.  Also, I think wine can be the most expensive drink to supply and it might be cheaper just to get drinks from the bar anyway

Steph/Andy:

Thanks for the advice ladies, supplying my own wine would be fab obviously alot cheaper but i'm pretty sure my venue won't except this, i'm sure my mum asked when we viewed the place.

I thought my venue did allow this but when I checked a couple of months ago they said they didn't.  Worth double checking with them though - you might be able to come to some kind of agreement.

We can't supply our own wine, but by giving people 2 drinks of their choice instead of a drink for the speeches and wine on the table, it actually worked out cheaper for us!

Don't know if this will give you an idea of quantity but we had 6 tables of 10 people,

about 8 of the 60 were kids and we had about 5 drivers,

we had a  bottle of red and one of white on each table also a jug of fresh orange for guests to help themselves, and asked guests to let the waitress know if they needed any more.

All the white went and the waitresses supplied about another 4 bottles and I would say out of the 6 red we had 2 of the bottles unused and the rest half full or less at then end,(i think my brothers took them to the evening room and finished them off !) We asked for waitresses to make sure everyone had some liquid in their glasses for the toast from  the table wine or orange rather than have sparkling stuff which very few people like or drink, this worked out better than paying the drinks package which I was against because I didn't want the wine rationed.

 I go to lots of weddings, and the thing I don't like is where you get one glass of wine and thats it , people then either ask for a refill and are refused or get drinks from the bar during the meal

If I was doing it again I would just have white on the tables and the waitress asking if anyone wants red, and just putting bottles where they are needed

Our Venue includes a drink on arrival/after the ceremony, 2 bottles of wine per table for the wedding breakfast,  and a drink for the speeches in the price of our meal. But most of the Venues we looked at previous to the one we booked charged extra for the drinks. x

Thanks Gillsy, I will definitely ask venue

jules.40:

Don't know if this will give you an idea of quantity but we had 6 tables of 10 people,

about 8 of the 60 were kids and we had about 5 drivers,

we had a  bottle of red and one of white on each table also a jug of fresh orange for guests to help themselves, and asked guests to let the waitress know if they needed any more.

All the white went and the waitresses supplied about another 4 bottles and I would say out of the 6 red we had 2 of the bottles unused and the rest half full or less at then end,(i think my brothers took them to the evening room and finished them off !) We asked for waitresses to make sure everyone had some liquid in their glasses for the toast from  the table wine or orange rather than have sparkling stuff which very few people like or drink, this worked out better than paying the drinks package which I was against because I didn't want the wine rationed.

 I go to lots of weddings, and the thing I don't like is where you get one glass of wine and thats it , people then either ask for a refill and are refused or get drinks from the bar during the meal

If I was doing it again I would just have white on the tables and the waitress asking if anyone wants red, and just putting bottles where they are needed

I agree, I dont like the idea of being rationed or people getting up and going to bar..... oh what a dilemma.............

We had 2 white and 2 red per table which was a mistake. Some guests got totally wasted and others didnt touch a drop. Thankfully the hotel staff moved the left over bottles to the reception tables. It did seem a bit overkill but then it was a few free drinks for folk.....  I regret not taking a bottle for ourselves!

IJust remembered, 've been to a wedding where the hotel staff have gone round the tables and asked how many white wine and red wine drinkers and then brought the appropriate ratio of bottles out to that particular table.

Don't think that helps anybody - just popped into my head thats all

Gillsy:

IJust remembered, 've been to a wedding where the hotel staff have gone round the tables and asked how many white wine and red wine drinkers and then brought the appropriate ratio of bottles out to that particular table.

Gillsy - This is what our venue assured us will be done, as not a lot of our guests like red wine, I think its better that the staff ask rather than just allocating one of each to each table. x