You know you need red, white, and some sort of fizz, but do you know how much? What is the best wine? Will this eat into my budget?
For those who are not wine aficionados, the task of picking wine and champagne for your wedding can seem like a laborious task.
PenniBlack have put together our guide to choosing wine for your wedding below which breaks the process down into bite size chunks that won’t have you reaching for the bottle!
Weddings are expensive and your priority for where your money goes may not be wine. However, talking over your budget with a wine merchant will allow you to make the best of what you do want to spend.
Often brides and grooms tend to spend their chosen amount on better quality wines for during the meal and then let attendees splash out on their own drinks at the bar.
Putting in place a sensible budget, and one that you can comfortably afford, will help your merchant select some fantastic wines for you.
As a rule of thumb, quality trumps quantity at weddings. Although the idea isn’t to start seeing double, many attendees see it as a perfect excuse to indulge! However, they can do this from their own pocket.
Generally, your guests should drink a couple of glasses of fizz on arrival, a glass or two of wine with dinner, and a glass of champagne for the toast.
Always go a little over this limit as you may fancy a sip when you are getting ready to take the edge off!
Don’t start planning your wines until you have decided upon the wedding catering menu. Discussing what courses are being served at your wedding with your merchant can help them match wines to the food and ensure flavours do not clash.
Don’t appease your guests – it is your wedding! Personal taste has a huge part to play in choosing beverages for your special day. The couple tend to want to appease the masses but, if you don’t like chardonnay, don’t have it. Always make sure there are wines and fizz in your alcohol haul that you will enjoy.
Some wine merchants are extremely helpful and will accept any boxes of wine back that are in a saleable condition.
Usually wine merchants will only take back a certain percentage of surplus, but it is definitely worth checking out various merchants to see their stance on returns to save your from a garage full of bubbly!
If your merchant has agreed to take back any extras, make sure the venue staff do not automatically unload every single box. Ask that your wine is only opened as and when it is needed and kept in the boxes until that point.
If your venue is new to the wedding game, kindly remind them that white wines should not be too cold, and red wines should be allowed to breathe before serving.