Wedding Sangria

BTW, as a little update from my major wedding scare last week... FH and I are doing much better. We have recognized some communication and support issues that have apparently been going on much longer than I realized. (Thanks for mentioning it, boy! ) We are going to talk to a counselor, and FH even got a referral from one of his friends. There has been a TON of talking in the past week, and my stomach no longer feels like there is a rock at the bottom of it. We've moving forward as a couple, and I have asked him time and time again, what I should do with the wedding planning, and he keeps telling me to keep on with it.

Anyways - back to Sangria makings...

We did red sangria. We bought the cheapie gallon stuff from Yago. It already was Sangria, so we didn't add anything else but the fruit. I did pre-cut my fruit. I bought a 3 gallon dispenser. DH actually filled the dispenser for our bartender the morning of so that the fruit could give it a nice flavor. We had so much other booze, we didn't run out.

I would def pre-cut the fruit for your bartender. It will make life easier.

Good luck!

If you want good Sangria, you need good wine. Good doesn't have to be expensive. White doesn't stain, but red is pretty, so you'll have to decide what's more important. I'd go with white personally. You can get a 10 gallon dispenser like this one and spray paint it white, decorate it, etc. They are very heavy though so have a plan before you fill it. lol

http://www.mansionselect.com/igloo-tennis-coolers-cooler-10-gallon-green-dcool2-tennis-coolers.html?channelid=Google Products

Edit - You may be able to find it cheaper, I didn't check the price.

These pointers might be helpful.

http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2010/sangria/

We did a Sangria fountain. Our caterer supplied the fountain. We provided all our alcohol, however we gave all the ingredients and recipe to the bartender and she mixed it up for us and filled the fountain.

Because it was a running fountain, we couldn't use fruit in it because it would clog it. The fountain held 3 gallons which worked out because our recipe makes 2.75 gallons.

We ordered all of our alcohol from a local liquor store. We had the guy at the store recommend a specific wine for it, as we did for the regular wine we served.

We did a red sangria, and went through about 3.5 gallons for our wedding. That was for our afternoon wedding of 70 people, where we also served beer and wine.

I love the red wine sangria recipe from Bobby Flay. Crowd pleaser!

We buy wine for sangria at Costco. It's not the Kirkland brand, but I can't remember it off the top of my head. It's around $8 a bottle, and it's bigger than the average wine bottle.

Thank you for all your pointers and suggestions.

Donna, I totally have one of those orange 5-gal dispensers and never even though of using it for the wedding. Duh! I've already made a cover for it for use at other previous events.

Kimber, thanks for the idea- I never buy my wine at Costco, but it totally makes sense! I'll have to go check out their selection.

Washington just privatized liquor sales at the beginning of June, so it's actually made planning some of the booze for the wedding slightly more complicated. Just since I can't walk into a liquor store and order cases, or I'm not sure where to find my dad's preferred scotch anymore... little weird things that I never thought I'd have to figure out a new way of doing them during wedding planning.

Based on RSVP's I think we'll be around 95 people, afternoon/evening wedding, with no specific end-time, thanks to having the entire B&B for 25 of us. So knowing how much you went through, and how many guests, has been helpful. Thanks!