What alcohol would you have for a garden/wedding party?

[MummyCool19]

We get married in 5 weeks. We have one bottle of gin so far 😂🙈 we have 25 friends coming in a garden party style. Hired a bell tent and having lots of food.

What drinks would you have? Just spirts and tonics? Or what 😩

I can recommend BrewDog alcohol free beers - I've had one called Nanny State and Punk AF. Both daft names but they tasted good and really felt like actually having a beer.

Alcohol free ciders I've found too sweet - might as well have appletise.

Remember to get plenty of soft drinks too, including fizzy water so people can make spritzers from the white wine.

Get big plastic tubs with ice. Do a beer bucket, cider bucket, mini wine bucket & soft drinks bucket.

If this is 25 people you know well, I'd get more of what I know they like to drink. No point buying lots of cava, if they prefer cider, real ale or G&Ts. Maybe ask them?

Plus some decent soft drinks and maybe non alcoholic ciders etc rather than boring kiddie stuff like coke and lemonade.

Lots of ice to keep things cold, as warm drinks aren't nice.

If you are doing Pimms or similar Asda have a frozen Summer Cup mix with fruit etc, ready chopped and just tip it in the jug frozen so no need for extra ice

You also need to hire glasses, ice buckets, trays etc you need ice. You need someone to wash glasses and serve drinks.

DuggeesWoggle ditto. Definitely go to Aldi for drinks. They do a lovely own brand Pimms. Kegs are another good idea. Hopefully it will be lovely and sunny so you will need lots of ice.

Aldi booze is great, but you might find that if you go to one of the bigger supermarkets, they'll do sale or return and free hire of glasses and ice buckets, and if you buy whatever is on offer, won't cost that much more.

Thank you everyone!!

We are getting Whitby ale, Cornwall cider, pimms, some gin & rum, and a few bottles of wine! Lots of ginger ale and elderflower & tonics!

Anything else?!

Will go and buy ice buckets! We get married at 4pm so will get ice in the morning, how do you stop it melting?

You don't seem to be getting lager, so I'd get a couple of boxes of that if you think someone will drink it.

How about having a use up/clear out of your freezer over the next few weeks so you have space to put the ice in there. A few bags won't take up that much space and if you've got freezer space, you'll also be able to do 'emergency chilling' if it's a hot day.

Congrats on the wedding and have a great day!

We've just had a family garden party for 40.
I over bought drinks assuming people would want a choice.

What actually happened was they helped themselves to:

Elderflower presse presented in jugs with ice.
Cold coco cola and lemonade (children mostly)
Cold bottled beers
Ciders
Prosecco
A single jug of Pimms was drunk but none of the spirits at all.

I have a sea of unopened bottles of spirits to dispose of. Unless your family and friends are big spirit drinkers I wouldn't bother with too much choice.

If you don't have a freezer to store the ice, wrap it in lots of towels to insulate it.

I bought 22 bags of ice and we used it all to keep things cool.

Another plea for fizzy water. Elderflower and tonic and ginger ale are all well and good, but you can't mix them with white wine to make a spritzer, which isn't that unusual a choice for summer daytime drinking.

Unless of course you have a sodastream-type gadget and can supply endless amounts based on tap water.

I would order some ice from somewhere in case we get hot weather, there's always a run on it if it gets hot. If you have a Booker card they have ice in large quantities. If you have enough ice it will take ages to melt.

Prosecco!!! Of course. And lovely organic cordials and lemonades for the non drinkers. Oh, and nice water, tea and coffee.

We had a garden party for our wedding. We had sangria for afternoon drinks (litre bottles bought from France) and sparkling water/flavoured sparkling water. We also provided white and red wine. We had some gin, vodka, whiskey and rum set up in the drinks tent with mixers and a few large plant pots filled with ice and cans of beer/cider. People also were encouraged to bring their own drinks as well