To Drink or Not to Drink

I now have three pages full of notes about champagne, wine and beer. One of the first things we decided to keep as a DIY project was the booze. This is a great place to save money on your wedding, according to all the periodicals. Alcohol can have quite a mark-up and even if your caterer charges a "corking fee," which is a small sum to uncork and pour, you will still save on the overall cost. Our caterer does not charge a corking fee - thank you L'etoile! We also decided early on, not to offer a bar, open or not. Really, there is no reason to encourage drunkenness, right? And there is no one I can think of in any family that will miss their gin and tonic. It's so Mad Men. In fact, most baby boomers have a few AA members among us! I always tell the joke that my son is half Irish and Jewish, which means he can both drink AND think!

Instead we will offer wine that is made from the grapes in the apple orchard; ancient vines that come from the original Monticello vineyard. My wine consultant tried to talk me into peach wine too, but my husband said, "When did you ever hear anyone ask for another glass of peach wine?" So we're sticking to the usual, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon; oh and three cases of sparkling wine for the toast. Did you know that most wine drinkers will drink on average 3 glasses of wine per event? The groom and most 20 something males are beer drinkers; they will have the local Starr Hill wheat beer, "the Love," to imbibe. Here is what my wine consultant wanted us to order based on 120 people and 4 glasses per bottle of wine: 2 cases of red; 3 of white and 2 of peach. Because there are usually more white wine drinkers than red! Who knew? Here is what we are going to order: 4 cases of white; no peach; and 2 cases of red. We will still need the sparkling wine for a toast. Oh and a case or two for the rooftop terrace!

After much searching online I found a great site for beverage dispensers. http://www.infusionjars.com/is a site that sells fancy glass jars that will be perfect for holding iced tea and lemonade for all those non-drinkers among us. You don't want plastic or acrylic as it looks too cheap. Also I'd be afraid of all that plastic leeching into the drinks in the heat. And you want real metal spigots, not plastic; as they tend to leak nine times out of ten. This site is all about vodka infused drinks, but rest assured, it will work for non-alcoholic drinks too! You can have anything etched into the glass on the jug, eh jar, absolutely anything! Names, eagles, flags, anything! I decided to have the letter "R" and the letter "S" etched into each of the two dispensers I ordered, that way my daughter can keep one and I will keep one. I don't think she's taking his name - that's a whole other topic altogether - but I still think she'll like the symbolism. They will sit atop little wooden stands, looking altogether rustic and elegant!

Tomorrow night I am cooking for some JAG lawyers who just landed in my town for training. One is the son of a Big Chill couple! I love feeding the young, the hungry and restless; it takes me back to feeding the anatomy crew when my daughter started medical school. And the the next night I'll be taking a cooking course from our Chef Mark of L'etoile about making Hollandaise sauce for the brunch I'll be serving after the wedding...will the mayo break down? Stay tuned!