How to plan for drinks for your Country House Wedding
So, once you have booked your venue and sorted the guest list, there is the small matter of adding those extra touches to make your day unique to you.
One of the biggest headaches (pun intended!) is what to drink and how much to supply. We are here to help you.
Having done many weddings here at Plas Dinam, we can now call ourselves experts on what is the best option for you in terms of providing drinks for both post-ceremony and reception and all to suit the tastes of both yourselves and your guests. Here are some options that we regularly see here at our venue.
Provide your own drinks with No Corkage Fee
First and foremost, the most important thing is that there is no corkage fee here at Plas Dinam if you would like to bring your own drinks.
At a lot of wedding venues there is a corkage charge for every bottle that you supply, and this can be anything from £10 to £20 per bottle! Here we allow you to bring your own drinks if you prefer, and with absolutely no extra cost incurred to yourselves.
You know your guests better than anyone else so you will probably know what they like to drink. With this option you can bring in beverages that are suitable for your wedding party and tailor it to both your and their requirements. They’ll love you for it!
All that we ask is that you are mindful of our ethos when selecting your drinks as we work hard to be a sustainable wedding venue.
Drinks for your Wedding Weekend
You have to think about the amount of time you will be spending at our venue. A lot of celebrations here at Plas Dinam are multi-day stays so you will need to make sure that the drinks cabinet is well equipped for the entire duration.
The amounts will be solely dependant on the variation in guests and what they like to drink.
If the Wedding is over a long weekend then you will need drinks for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday for example. You may have children amongst your guests so you will need to provide an amount of soft drinks. We’d recommend stocking the fridge with lager and ales, some wine, maybe a spirit such as gin, and mixers or soft drinks such as cola, lemonade and tonic.
So what drinks do you need for your wedding day?
For the morning you will need some beverages in our kitchen to accompany breakfast – fruit juices, teas and coffees.
You are celebrating a special day with those you love, so it’s only right that, should you want to, you share some fizz with your groomsmen and bridesmaids. Some opt for Prosecco whilst others see this as the time to drink a really special bottle of champagne– the choice is yours.
Generally after the wedding service there is the drinks reception. Fizz is most popular! For this we recommend that you allow 1 bottle of prosecco, sparking wine or champagne for 5 people. We’d also recommend filling our big Yeti coolbox with lager, maybe allowing 1 bottle for each of the boys. You’ll need to provide some non alcoholic drinks, perhaps elderflower or non alcoholic fizz. These will be served out on our lawn on dry days or in the sitting room if the weather is that bit colder. The choice will be yours on the day.
Then we head down to the stables for the wedding breakfast and evening party. Typically for a wedding with 100 guests we would place 3 to 4 bottles of red, white and rosé on the table to start (usually 4 long tables). We constantly monitor each table to see when they need to be replenished so we suggest around a dozen rosé bottles, 24 whites and 24 reds.
We tend to see more whites and rosés at Spring and Summer Weddings (Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay are favourites) with the red wines usually being more popular at Autumn/Winter Weddings (Malbec and Pinot Noir).
Typically for a Wedding with 100 guests we would place 3 to 4 bottles of red, white and rosé on the table to start (usually 4 long tables). We constantly monitor each table to see when they need to be replenished so we suggest around a dozen rosé bottles, 24 whites and 24 reds.
We always provide each table with lots of water and we can pour fizz for speeches too.
Evening Bar at your Wedding in the Glass Roofed Stables
Let us do all of the work! At the Stables Evening celebrations we have our own separate bar and this is run by ourselves. We provide a fully stocked bar that will suit everyone’s needs and all served with a smile. We keep an eye on both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drink trends so that you get the best out of our service. Let’s just say that Espresso Martini, Aperol Spritz and fruity ciders were the order for most wedding parties in 2024.
We have put a lot of time into providing drinks that are either locally sourced or sustainable, from companies that are caring about their carbon footprint. Such as Toast beer, where the ingredient is surplus bread, or Cygnet Welsh gin, which provides refill sachets of gin for their bottles. We have soft drinks on tap, and run a bar with no plastic and minimal waste in mind.
Some couples choose to provide a free bar for their guests and we do this by adding all of the drinks to a running tab. Others like to set aside a certain amount to the tab and then their guests can pay for any further drinks. Others like to just supply the fizz and wine and leave the guests to buy after-drinks themselves. All that we require from this option is that you reach the minimum spend to cover our costs.
Whatever you require for this most important day, our team are here to help you.
Book a viewing with us and you can talk through the various options and we can give our expert advice and guidance. It is what we are here for and we want to make the day and stay with us go as smoothly and amazing as is possible.