Cocktails

Cheers!

Long hot summer evenings are the perfect excuse to have a cocktail or two! So why not add a bit of fun and sophistication to your wedding beverages with a cocktail – maybe as a pre dinner drink or even in place of the traditional champagne toast. It is bound to be a big talking point for your guests and can be extremely refreshing on these warm summer evenings.

But won’t it cost heaps more? In most cases, no, it shouldn’t cost you anymore than traditional champagne or wine. Being able to buy everything in bulk and then mixing it keeps the costs down. You may have to hire special glasses (if you want the true cocktail effect) which should be taken into account. Also, someone will need to mix the drinks (a bartender in the family would be most helpful, although it is easy enough for anyone to learn how to mix a few cocktails).

A quick note at this stage – some venues require you to buy all drinks from them. Unless you can get a good deal from them, this may result in it being too expensive.

You can also use the cocktail as a wedding favour – you can get personalised glasses which the guests could take home with them (places such as Smashing Gifts sell personalised glasses of various shapes and sizes). The cocktail can easily be made to match the colour or theme of your wedding, for example Margaritas for a Spanish wedding or Cosmopolitans for a pink wedding.

Another benefit of having cocktails is the ability for you to easily create “mocktails” – this means that the younger guests (and those driving or just not wanting to drink) can also have a special drink to toast you with.

There is no need to offer the cocktails all night – instead you can treat them like a toast (of course, if you prefer you can keep them coming – although perhaps add a disclaimer on the wedding invites that hangovers are not your fault!!).

To help you get some inspiration (although I am sure that most of you already have a favourite!), we have recipes for a few of the more popular cocktails for you to try out: