Serving wine at your wedding
Reprinted with permission from weddingboXX
1 October, 2001
If you are serving wine/champagne for your wedding dinner, ensure
that the banquet operations manager (or whoever is in-charge) of
your event that night is fully aware of your expectations with regards
to the service of wine. You do not want your beverage bill to go
out of control. Decide in advance on areas such as,
- offering wine to all guests during cocktails and/or dinner, or
serving only upon request
- the setting of wine glasses on the table in advance and the use
of wine buckets
- quantity of wine to be poured into the wine glass. If possible,
indicate to the banquet manager, using the actual wine glass to
be used on the night of your event, the amount of wine to be poured
into each glass (half or 3/4). This is to avoid any misunderstanding
on what the both of you mean when the glass is half-filled
- topping up of wine glasses automatically or only upon request
Other considerations include,
- your preferred temperatures for the wines (e.g. chilled for whites,
slightly chilled for reds). Advise the banquet manager if you would
like the reds to be opened earlier to let them breathe. If so,
ensure there is no misunderstanding on how many bottles are opened
in advance
- have your wines delivered to the hotel/venue a few days in advance
of your event so that there is sufficient time to chill your wines
- if your wines are on consignment, ensure that the bottles are
not opened in advance but only when necessary. Advise the banquet
manager to avoid putting the white wine bottles into wine buckets
of ice to chill them as that will damage the labels and cannot
be returned to the vendor
- decide in advance your action plan if the wines that you brought
run out. If you intend to buy from the hotel, choose in advance
one red and one white wine. Advise the banquet manager to inform
you or your planner when your own wines have ran out. Ask him to
inform your planner again when he has already opened up to quota
earlier specified so that you are able to monitor consumption level
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