Wedding Wednesday: Raise a Glass

There's no way to start this post without thanking Jon's parents, who are very generously contributing all the drinks to our wedding. So: thank you, future in-laws! Now, let's talk about the booze, as I know they'd want us to...

If you scroll through wedding blogs or flip through wedding magazines, you'll know that you're not truly married if you and your groom don't serve signature drinks at your wedding.  Jon and my mother were really good at steering me away from this sort of attitude when it came to most aspects of today's wedding culture - see this post for details -  but Jon and I loved the idea of serving two cocktails that symbolized each of our countries.  (The mothers still don't really understand why this is necessary, but they've seen our resolve and given up the fight!)

Jon's choice was simple: he picked a gin and tonic as his signature.  G&Ts are so classically English and, while enjoyed year-round, are perfect for summer!  I knew better than to ask if Jon wanted to make the recipe more interesting with something like this, but I was surprised that he didn't want to use Hendrick's and cucumber slices.  Nope, Jon declared that his drink was an old-school gin and tonic with Gordon's and lemon!  Easy-peasy.

Identifying my signature cocktail was, unsurprisingly, slightly more circuitous.   My favorite "American" drink, which I got hooked on the summer I lived in Charlottesville, is bourbon and ginger.  Straightforward and delicious, right?  But I was afraid it was too simple - a college bar mixed drink is not pin-worthy, you know.  So I looked around and dove into more complicated recipes and bought random liquors and bitters and tried a handful of other recipes crafted by mixologists rather than bartenders like this one and this one... and ended up with this:

image via

 So it seems that simple does win the day!  Thank you also to my friend Liz, who helped me taste test this final option after coming out on a run with me and Charlie.  And yes - in the end, we will be making our own cute flags on drink straws.  Something has to be blogable, right?

(Because we went back and forth over what else to serve throughout the night and I would have loved to read about what other couples keeping an eye on their budget included in their open-bar weddings, let me share what we decided on. We're going to have these two signature cocktails plus fizz at the post-ceremony reception and then champagne for the speeches.  During dinner we'll serve one red and one white plus a local bitter from Adnams, all of which will continue after dinner plus whatever's left over from the cocktail hour. Of course, we'll also have non-alcoholic options available; we're going to offer elderflower cordial and raspberry lemonade from Belvoir, which we'll also have available before the ceremony for guests who arrive early. I hope this helps anyone planning her own wedding and wondering!)