Setting the bar high for drinks

While the bride and groom are busily planning every minute detail of their wedding, they may not realize many of their guests are worried about only one thing: What sort of bar will there be at the reception?

The color of flowers and music choices are certainly significant, but when it comes to making the post-ceremony memorable, the bar is of central importance.

There are a number of ways to approach the drink service for a wedding, depending on the reception venue and the budget, which, in turn, determines how much responsibility the hosts of the wedding have for setting up the bar.

Perhaps the simplest way is to have the reception at a hotel or venue where drink services are part of the package. Throughout Prague, numerous hotels offer wedding reception services, and in addition they often offer breathtaking views of the city or beautiful courtyards in Prague's most popular quarters.

The Mövenpick Hotel proposes a "drink package" with the idea of determining what is "comfortable for both sides," said Jiří Kotulán, the hotel's food and beverage manager. In his experience, the most popular package tends to provide for unlimited consumption of Czech wine and includes sparkling wine, beer, soft drinks, coffee and tea.

"As a welcome drink, we mostly serve Czech sparkling wine and sometimes Italian Prosecco," Kotulán said. "[People] usually want to limit the consumption of spirits, [and] there is usually no request to do cocktails, as it is not a custom in the Czech Republic."  

For guests who want to provide their own special wine or spirits, the hotel charges a corkage fee.

But for those receptions at a venue where organizers provide their own beverages - or will need to instruct a catering company on how they want the bar run - the first things to consider are "the type, style and theme of the wedding as well as the lifestyles of the guests," according to the Hospitality Service Group and Hospitality Networks, a network of hospitality suppliers and information portals.

They recommend sticking to a large supply of basic liquor and soda in order to ensure a general selection that will last throughout the night. For beer and wine, they suggest sticking to choices that have broad appeal before purchasing those in cash and in space-saving packaging, like boxes for wine and kegs for beer, which can be 50 percent cheaper than buying bottles.

To staff the bar, they recommend the bartender-to-guest ratio be 1 to 50 and the bar serve wine in 6 oz glasses and other beverages in 12 oz glasses, as "using skimpy glass sizes at your wedding reception not only gives the appearance of being cheap, it significantly increases traffic at the beverage service areas."

Though some couples like to have themes for decorations or food, when it comes to the bar, the overarching doctrine is to worry less about flashiness and more about providing a supply of beverages that will keep guests dancing well into the night.

Cat Contiguglia can be reached at
ccontiguglia@praguepost.com