Alcohol

This is a great question for the liquor store employee, especially because some brands vary by region. For me, I chose things I already drink.


I think you can get away with the 2nd cheapest option, but not the cheapest. For example, Kamchakta is not an appropriate vodka, but absolut or smirnoff is. For beer, keystone is not appropriate, but Bud Light or Coors Light or Miller Light is fine. Do not buy Andre champagne! Undrinkable. For an affordable champagne, try La Marca. Barefoot or Sutter wine is too cheap. Kendall-Jackson, Yellow Tail, Menace A Trois are good options for wine brands.

We purchased our own alcohol and just did wine, beer, and premixed margaritas (jose cuervo). Seemed WAY less of a pain that trying to pick liquor and mixers! But if you want liquor I would ask the advice of a liquor store employee, i'm sure they deal with this a lot

We are getting things we know we and our friends like. Otherwise we are working with an employee to figure out the rest. Our goal for things we don’t know is to pick a middle of shelf brand and hope it’s good!

We chose our brands very specifically and easily: we chose OUR preferences, hah. We were able to return unopened bottles, but this way if we were stuck with almost full Opened bottles, it’d be something we could take home and enjoy. So we did Tito’s for vodka, Bulleit for bourbon, Tanquerey for gin (my dad’s fav, and they inherited the bottle). The rum was one of my husband’s favs from the DR, his mom brought back and gifted us some bottles after a cruise 🤣. I forget the tequila but it was mid level. What we did was after we picked our brands, we shopped sales. We didn’t go TOO crazy— didn’t want to keep track of what went back to what store or anything— but kept an eye on the store we chose to shop at and bought mostly when each was discounted

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Thank you!! that helps so much!

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Titos is my choice for vodka, and we planned on using Bulleit too (I forgot what we are doing for gin, we usually do Hendricks at home but sometimes Tanquerey). Have you been able to find Bulleit since the fire they had? We can no longer find it at our liquor stores and our wedding is in 36 days!

Cost and quality often go hand in hand BUT as with anything there are always brands that are a better bang for the buck. It largely depends on your own preferences. We aren't using anything we haven't personally tried and tasted. We are sourcing local beers, getting wines one of our groomsmen (who works for a wine distributor), and purchasing liquor based off what we have tried and liked (all modest priced, middle of the road options).

Keep in mind that liquors you drink straight need to better quality than liquors you mix. It's absolutely unnecessary to spend top dollar on spirits you intend to use for mixed drinks; you can get away with a middle of the road or lower priced option, as long as its a better quality one. Sugary mixed drinks also do a better job of hiding low quality liquor than ones that aren't as sweet. If you are doing signature drinks, you should actually try whatever spirits you are considering with the mixers you plan to mix it with, as each brand has its own qualities and flavor notes some things just go together nicer than others.

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The venue we chose doesn't allow shots, neat/clean drinks, or on the rocks. So I have those spirits with mixers as coke, diet coke, sprite, cranberry juice, orange juice, redbull, and margarita mix. I didnt want to do signature drinks or I didn't have an idea about it yet because I literally have a new favorite drink every couple months, lol! Thank you though, that does help a lot!

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You can definitely get away with not using top shelf liquor if it's getting mixed with soda, juice, or those other sweet options!