Wedding By Color Blog

For some couples (and guests), cocktails are a huge part of the reception and have almost as much thought put into them as the catering. Some decisions about which drinks to serve are pretty simple, though. Personally, my future father-in-law is a salesman for a beer company, so I know that we will probably only be serving the brand which he sells. Nothing says “possible feud” like insisting we only serve the competitor’s beverage (plus, he gets a discount, so how can I say no?). Other decisions take a little more finesse and time. I would like wine and champagne, but my fiancé is not a fan, so for the next year leading up to the wedding we are trying to find some that we both like. We are also having a few signature cocktails that match our color theme. This is a huge trend that I’ve been seeing, so I’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon. Nothing says “personalization” like a drink named after you, inspired by your colors, and made especially for your reception.

Most of the drinks for our reception are still in what I will call the “testing phase” because, well, it’s a great excuse to drink once a month or so! (“No, I have to drink this weekend because it’s research for the wedding.”) However, I do know that my color theme is pink and green so I will have two signature drinks, one being pink and the other green.

Both drinks will probably be in glass contains similar to sun tea jars. The green drink will have floating lime slices (it will most likely be a margarita of some sort) and we will have pre-salted glasses with lime slices on the rim. The pink drink will be a strawberry theme and will have floating strawberries, also in pre-sugared glasses with strawberry slices on the rim. As far as what will be in these drinks, that is what is still undecided. The trick is to get two drinks that will please most people, so they have to be fairly mainstream. Also, the ingredients have to be kept simple or the signature drinks will end up costing major bucks.

So how do you find a signature drink? The first step is to decide your color theme for your wedding. Once you have done that, think about the types of drinks that you like. For example, if you like champagne and one of your colors is peach, you could do a Bellini. I attended a wedding where the bride was a huge martini fan. They actually had a “martini luge” that was basically an ice sculpture that shot out martinis. It was a fall wedding and her colors were pumpkin and chocolate, so one flavor was orange and called the “Pumpkin-spice-tini” and the other was dubbed the “Madison-about-chocolate” martini, aptly named after the bride since she loved chocolate.

Not everyone has the budget for a martini luge, but having a signature drink will bring a great deal of personalization to the reception.