Let there be cocktails

"I've always believed that paradise will have
my favorite beer on tap."
Rudyard Wheatley

I spoke with our day of coordinator this week and finalized our wedding day schedule. We didn’t nail down all the specifics, but we know that our wedding will start at 5:30 p.m. The cocktail hour will take place from 6 until 7 p.m. and the reception kicks off at 7 p.m. and ends at midnight. We’re going to come up with all the specifics at our meeting in July. Getting the timeline set up made me start thinking about the cocktail hour. I’m really excited that we’ll be able to offer this for our guests. For those of you that don’t know what a cocktail hour entails… it’s typically held for an hour between the ceremony and reception. Building this in allows the bride, groom and wedding party to get pictures taken while guests enjoy beverages and mingle with friends and family. Drinks and hors d’ oeuvres are served. The cocktail hour can be held an hour before the ceremony as a welcoming event for guests. I liked it between the ceremony and reception for the functionality of it. We’re planning to serve some alcoholic drinks including a signature cocktail (more on that later) and some non-alcoholic choices. We haven’t decided on the food selections yet. We also don’t know if we’ll have mini food stations or butler passed appetizers. I’m hoping we’ll figure that out in July as well. We’re hoping to have a couple meat options and some cheese and vegetarian samplings. I’ve heard that mixing up the colors and textures is a good idea. So is providing different textures, some hot, some cold, some crispy and some creamy. I have lots of ideas of things to include, but I guess I’ll just have to wait until this summer to nail them down.

-Penny