Not sure the vintages, but cases of Chandon de Briailles Savigny Les Beaune Les Lavieres and an Italian pino grigio.
The pinot grigio was definitely forgettable, but we had a few bottles of the Savigny left that I kept for a few years that just got better and better.
Married twice, both times open bar, but also wine. First time, 1990, we served '82 Camensac, which was quite affordable and quite tasty. Second time, '03, I was already interested in burgundy and we served something village wince from Girardin, since it was affordable and we thought even the non-Burg drinkers would get it. Mother-in-law, American, who had lived in France, was appalled that we served it, since, by her lights, Burgundy of any kind was too much of a crap shoot to spend good money on!
we also had gruet! ha. And yes back when it was good.
I was surprised how much wine , beer, hard liquor 150 people could go through. ha
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Montes Alpha Syrah
Marques de Casa Concha Cab
Elk Cove pinot noir
Some sav blanc I can’t even remember
Roederer Estate Sparkling Wine
Pommery Pop splits as parting gifts
Good booze on the open bar
The only thing I recall is I wanted to import some Von Strasser wines as I was really into fly fishing at the time and thought the labels would look cool on the tables. I was mid-20’s, poor and the import fees were way too much on a private order, so quickly abandoned the idea.
Probably a solid 1/3rd to 1/2 of our guests wouldn’t have drank much if at all.
My FIL paid for the reception and the bar, so I don’t remember at all - I’m not even sure I drink that night, although I must have had something for toasts.
Probably would have been a different scene had we been married in our 30’s or later, but absolutely zero regrets. We had a blast that night. Neither of us would want to do that type of full blown traditional wedding again, but at least it was fun.
It was a hot September day in 2002. We had 1990 Pol Roget Brut for everyone. I would definitely do that again.
My wife and I got married in Kyoto, so something like this. I don’t remember what it was exactly, whatever the ryokan where we had the reception at had procured. They switched over to beer before much of the sake had been drunk, which was kind of annoying. They filled up two 1.8 l bottles with the sake and gave it to us after the reception, but I am sure much of it was still left over, considering how big the barrel was. Maybe they served it to some of their other guests as a special ‘wedding sake’, and charged them a premium price for it. We also had a maiko perform, so overall it was nice. I would probably serve it again, just because bringing a barrel of sake and sharing it with people is kind of fun.
Amen! We had about 80-100 people at each ceremony and when adding it all up it almost doesn’t make sense. I was actually surprised how everybody handled this quite nicely. We even had lunch with most guests the next day and bottles kept being drained at an uncanny pace.
Thank you all for sharing your stories! ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
For the guests — plonk LOL
For me - 1994 dominus.
We had 1990 Dom Perignon and ‘94 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet. They were perfect for my 26 year old taste buds at the time, but if getting married today I’d swap out the beringer for Bordeaux. The DP is timeless!
Wasn’t a wine drinker back then, so no clue what was available to everyone else.
'02 DP and a few local village wines from Ravello on the Amalfi Coast (which is where we got married). 100% yes.
I was just getting into wine in 2011. We were fairly young and had a decent size wedding, I think about ~180.
In the limo with the wedding party I brought a bottle of NV Le Mesnil Grand Cru, and actually had the foresight to buy two extra bottles which I’ve been cellaring and will open in the future.
The reception venue gave us choices that were the usual mass produced wines. If memory serves we found one of the whites to be palatable and selected it (I think a New World Sauvignon Blanc). I didn’t care for the red options and talked them into letting me select something outside of their usual list. Wanting to stay on budget tracked down something from South Africa. A Bellingham Shiraz that I quite enjoyed which I think was about $14/bottle (their stipulation was they had to purchase the wine themselves). Both crowd pleasing and something wine nerds could appreciate.
Would I do it again? Yes, I think so. We have a fairly wide social circle and so inevitably the crowd would be large. Would need something that tastes good to the casual wine drinker, easily available, and inexpensive. To this day if a non-wino asks for a rec of something cheap I’ll usually go to South Africa. I think the QPR is even higher than the usual suspects (ie. Spain, Portugal).
Wow-a lot of fantastic wines! We eloped when we were 19/20 so probably nothing! If we had anything I’m sure it was something cheap that we wouldn’t drink now!
Barbilocks and I got married April 7, 2007. I know because our anniversary, holy smokes 14 years, is near her birthday and a few weeks away. The wedding was at my/our house in downstate IL, and she chose a lovely purple/lavender color for her dress. I got a matching tie, and we went to Chicago to buy some wines at Binny’s. The picks were somewhat random, since we were not collecting wine at the time, so a St Hilaire sparkler, maybe $10/bottle, and 2004 Moon Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 Moon Mountain Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, USA, California, Sonoma County - CellarTracker, based almost entirely on the color of the label, about a $15 bottle. I think we got a case of each for our small wedding. Her niece gave everyone the stomach flu the weekend of the wedding, so most of us were puking, and I don’t remember the wine on that day. Later we had some and the Cab was Ok, and what you’d expect at $15.
As luck would have it, Last Bottle listed that exact bottle for clearance in 2012, and I bought 8 bottle for later consumption on anniversaries. It has been faded to horrible in recent years, but I have two bottles left. Our marriage will outlast these, and I would not serve them ever again to guests, but we’ll save our last bottle for a while.
I didn’t know if that would work.
I just found this menu from our wedding 20 years ago. We did not know much about wine at the time other than what we liked or didn’t. I have no idea how we chose these, but not too bad for not having a clue!
81 Jordan cab and 84 DeLoach chard in 1986. Both have faded.
In 1989 we were young and not really into wine. Open Bar all the way.
In 1976, we were very young but into wine in a small way. The budget for the wedding was less than $1,000, and most of that went to the dress. We had a keg of Blitz Weinhard beer at the reception. At dinner that night, we had a 1971 Spatlese from the Anheuser family in the Nahe that upped our interest in wine significantly.