Bride-to-be Blogger Carolyn: Designing the Cocktail Hour

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I love me some bite-sized food, and Chris is a bit of a beer snob, so altogether, I’d say we’re pretty big fans of a good cocktail hour. We’d really like to make this part of our day reflect our personalities and preferences, so we’ve been brainstorming ways to make this special.

I really think signature cocktails are a great idea. We would love to do two signature drinks, actually—one for me and one for Chris. I have a strong sweet tooth, so mine would have to be a sugary drink—and preferably pink—while Chris’ would have to incorporate some sort of bitter liquor or, even better, a particular beer (although I doubt he could choose just one). I love how signature drinks add some excitement to a standard open bar. I’ve also seen cocktail hours with assorted fruit sangrias and frozen drinks—I love this idea, too!

I’ve never really been a fine-dining kind of a girl, so I’m looking to bring in more casual, comfort-food options to our cocktail hour. I would love to do something like mini burritos or bite sized mac-and-cheese servings. Given that our cocktail hour is planned to be outside, we have to be mindful of what we can pull off. I’m a little weird about bugs, so I’m a bit hesitant of doing any sort of table displays of fruit and cheese and whatnot (yes, I realize I’m being crazy but I can’t help it!). I feel like butlered hor devours will better accommodate (enable) my phobia, so I think we may primarily focus on them, rather than try to do any stations. But who knows, maybe by June I’ll have conquered my fear somehow, and we’ll have displays of food, after all.

Music during the cocktail hour is still up for debate. I’ve been researching ceremony/cocktail hour musicians and Chris and I just haven’t been able to make a decision. We can’t decide between classical guitar or strings, let alone musical style or song selections. We do, however, love it when classical musicians play pop music so maybe we’ll be able to feature that somehow.

How did you design your cocktail hour? Any other factor we should consider when making decisions? What little personal touches did you put on it to make it special?

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