How to Create Your Custom Wedding Cocktail
Signature cocktails (or mocktails!) can be a fun, creative, and tasty way to personalize your big day. And they're a great excuse for some spirited date nights along the way - potentially at a bar for some research or at home when you're mixing up your own. We knew from the start we wanted to create our own recipe, but we found it required more experimentation and fine-tuning than we initially anticipated. So give yourselves plenty of time! Here are some steps to follow and questions to ponder based on our trial-and-error process:
1. What kind of drink do you want?
The first aspect to consider is the theme and style of your wedding. Are you having a formal black-tie affair that calls for a whiskey or gin based drink (shaken, not stirred...), or a laid-back beach wedding that begs for tropical flavors? When do you plan to serve it? A spiked lemonade might be a great option for a welcome drink before the ceremony on a hot summer day, but may not be your choice for an after-dinner drink at an indoor venue. Is there a particular color palette that you'd like your drink to align with? These factors will help you determine the overall spirit of your cocktail, so it fits seamlessly into the celebration.
Our rustic fall wedding needed something botanical to go with our herb garden theme, potentially purple or green visuals (we incorporated lavender and sage as both colors and the actual plants), and we also wanted to include a shot of pizzazz to reflect our more playful approach to the celebration!
2. What should (maybe) go in it?
Once you have the look and feel of your celebration in mind, start brainstorming potential ingredients. Consider the flavors that you and your partner enjoy, as well as any ingredients that may be symbolic or meaningful to you as a couple. Be sure to consider color as well - a vibrant hue will make your drink festive, add to the decor, and pop in photos! Lastly, you might also want to consider the season and location of your wedding, as certain ingredients may be more appropriate or readily available at certain times of year, and can highlight some of the local flavor (like maple syrup for Vermont cocktails). Or you might consider a hot drink if you're having a winter wedding!
We considered all these factors in selecting ingredients that were meaningful to us, suited our theme, pleased our palates, and (where possible) we could harvest from our own garden. Thyme played a key role in my proposal, fit our herbaceous theme, and was growing out back. Ginger is one of our mutual favorite flavors, and we knew it would provide the kick we were looking for. We also have incredible blueberry bushes on our property, and knew they would balance the earthy flavor of the thyme with freshness, as well as provide a beautiful color to echo the lavender decor. And we picked a local, Vermont-produced rum to go with it all!
3. What's the recipe?
Now that you have a list of potential ingredients, it's time to start experimenting. Mix and match different combinations of ingredients to see what flavors work well together. Don't be afraid to get creative and try something new! Unexpected flavors can be combined in unique ways to make an unforgettable experience. And make sure and record measurements as you're mixing each batch, so you'll know how to tweak the proportions as you develop the drink. Krista didn't think about this initially, and we had a couple of delicious versions that we couldn't replicate. Or, you could always work with your favorite local mixologist - give them some ingredient ideas, and see what kind of concoctions they come up with!
We rejected some potential ingredients along the way, but found that dark rum worked well with our berries and herbs, with lime and mint helping to balance out our recipe. However, while we pretty quickly keyed in our ingredient list, getting the balance and process right (how much ginger?? How long do we steep it?) proved far more difficult and time-consuming than we had anticipated. Of course, we were also making our own simple syrups from scratch...there are lots of readily-available options you could purchase that would help to streamline this process!
4. What do others think?
Invite friendly feedback! Once you have a few potential recipes, it's time to test them out on a wider audience. Invite a few friends over for an evening of taste testing, or ask your bartender or mixologist for their input. They might have some additional combinations or modifications to suggest. And if you and your partner can't choose between a few contenders (or disagree), their vote can help you narrow down your options and choose the best drink (or two) for your wedding. You want to love your drink(s), but hopefully they also have some broader appeal!
We brought our ingredients to a mini-vacay with Krista's family and had a "tasting night" with her parents and brother to solicit their input. It made for a fun evening, with some strong opinions, and they appreciated being brought into the planning process. It also helped us to have some other tastebuds to refine our mix!
5. What should you call it?
Have some fun with this step! Even if you've decided to go with a more conventional cocktail (e.g., strawberry daiquiri or a manhattan), you can still personalize it with your own moniker. "Bloody Marry Me!" or "Wedding Bellini" anyone? Consider your wedding theme, the ingredients you used, or any inside jokes or meaningful phrases that might be appropriate. Personally, we're big suckers for punny names, like "Mint to Be," "Appley Ever After," or "The Perfect Pear"! You might even consider incorporating your names or initials into the name of your drink(s).
We had some serious brainstorming sessions on this one, including the kids (who had also tasted some mocktail versions along the way, which we also planned to offer at the wedding). We ultimately settled on "A Berry Lovely Thyme" - to highlight two of the major ingredients and evoke the lighthearted, playful vibe we were going for.
6. What experience do you want to foster?
We are all about creating memorable experiences, whether large or small, throughout your celebration! A cocktail can play into so many of our senses - touch (smooth or faceted glass? temperature?), taste (obviously!), smell (maybe enhanced with a fresh slice or sprig), vision (beautifully presented, from simple to elaborate), and even sound (who doesn't love the sound of clinking glasses?). These bring a lot of factors that you could consider, in terms of any garnishes and how they are created and placed or what style of glass or vessel you serve them in. There's also the question of how they're being served - by order at the bar? At pre-set stations? By circulating servers? Are there any special touches you want to throw in that reflect your style? Maybe add some drama with a dry ice reveal, bring on the competition with a mystery drink where guests have to decipher the ingredients, or add a little whimsy by making guests solve a puzzle (or sing a song, do a dance, or whatever else is up your alley) to get one!
We decided to keep things fairly simple on the presentation, with just a little mint sprig in a traditional lowball glass. We had initially thought that a few whole blueberries as garnish would be cute, but nobody wants blueberry bits stuck in their teeth for the rest of the night! The Inn at Mountain View Farm set up several lovely stations with pre-prepared cocktails, which cut down on the lines at the bars and encouraged folks to try our drink - as well as adding another fresh pop of color to the scene!
Designing custom beverages for your wedding is a fun and creative way to personalize your celebration. By following these steps, you can create a unique and memorable drink that your guests will love. And you have the choice of how much you take on yourselves: from making your own simple syrups to using sourced mixes, relying on a local bartender, or going with a more conventional recipe. Whether you choose a new twist on a classic cocktail, or something more experimental and new, your custom wedding cocktail will bring another splash of YOU to elevate the feel of your wedding and undoubtedly be a memorable part of your special day.
If you're feeling unsure where to start with your cocktail or with other ways to personalize your wedding, we can help! Whether it's brainstorming ideas or helping bring them to life, we love showcasing your love story while thinking about immersive experiences for your guests. And we're always up for taste-testing!
BONUS: We're obviously a little biased, but we're big fans of our custom wedding cocktail, and we'd love to see others enjoy it! So here's our recipe for A Berry Lovely Thyme. If you try it out, we'd love it if you'd snap a pic, tag us on Instagram, and let us know what you think! (Or, just send us a message if IG isn't your thing!)
A Berry Lovely Thyme
Ingredients
- 1.5 oz rum. We used Vermont-made Smuggler's Notch rum, but pick whatever you like!
- 3 oz. non-alcoholic ginger beer, such as Maine Root's Ginger Brew
- 3 oz. blueberry-thyme simple syrup. You can buy a variety of blueberry simple syrups online (blueberry-thyme, blueberry-lavender, blueberry-mint, etc.) or you can make your own:
- Bring 1.5 cups water and 1.5 cups sugar to a simmer in a small, covered pot, until the sugar has completely dissolved. Add 1 heaping cup blueberries (fresh or frozen), and simmer another 15 minutes. Add ~5g thyme sprigs (stems included), and simmer an additional 10 minutes. Turn off heat, but leave covered on stove, and allow to steep for 3 hours. Strain with cheesecloth or a fine sieve. (If you remove the thyme stems, the rest of the pulp makes a great spread for toast or pancakes!) Makes ~2.5 cups.
- 1 tsp. fresh lime juice
- 5-10 fresh mint leaves
- Ice
Mix the first 4 (liquid) ingredients. Muddle with the mint, and serve over ice. Add a fresh mint sprig as a garnish if you like, and enjoy!