Beers at the wedding

So I popped the big question and the planning has begun. I know the wedding is all (well 99% about the bride) but I wanted to have something about me at the wedding and beer is just that. I'm not sure yet of wedding hall's policies on supplying homebrew and if they can't, thats fine but no one has a good selection of beer!!!

Has anyone requested beer besides that usual macros be served at their wedding? I know it could add a lot of $$ but with a couple of great breweries near by, I'm sure I could get it without breaking the bank.

If you have people coming to your wedding that drink craft beer, I would absolutely go for it. If everyone is a macro drinker, you probably shouldn't bother. At my wedding I had 1 case of miller lite, 2 cases of DFH 60 minute, and a variety of flying dog, sam adams, and duvel. After the wedding I had about a case of craft beer left, and half the case of miller. In fact, I still have half the case of miller...

But that's all because most of my guests didn't drink at all, and most of those who did enjoyed craft beer.

Yea, I've thought about that....not many are big into craft beers. Their extent of adventure in beer is bud light lime.

So I guess if I did want to incorporate craft beer, find something that is easy drinking and people might be familiar with.

Certain venues will make you use their bartenders and beer/liquor selections, but other venues will allow you to bring whatever you want. You can then hire bartenders, or some (most?) caterers will provide bartenders and the glassware/mixers/etc.

The venue we wound up with allowed us to use our own bartenders and bring our own stuff, so we used our caterer's bartenders/etc and supplied them with the specific alcohol, beer, etc, that we wanted. It actually turned out to be pretty reasonable to go the craft / mid-top shelf route when doing it this way (at cost). Sorry, but I don't have any specifics on the laws and rules for homebrew in this application.

I specifically brought in a keg of easy drinking, crowd pleasing beer to my wedding. The caterer had to buy it and marked the price up, but it certainly beat the other options. It was a pretty big hit, but I still think we went through more wine than beer.

I guess this is up to the policy of each place - I am sure every place is different. We have appointments set up, so I will report back. I know I don't want to be drinking "the champagne of beers' all night.

Anyone have their own homebrew at their wedding?

I am getting hitched in March. I am planning on serving up mostly homebrew at the event. The "can you/can't you?" is a hard question to answer. It depends on the state laws and what the place for the reception will allow beyond that.

Here in WI. I am able to give some away. Unfortunately the laws here would prevent me from serving my HB ANYWHERE that other alcohol was being sold. We decided that THIS will be "just another reason" to get married at a park and have the reception there as well. (We rented two giant halls that were connected. If the weather is nice it will be an outdoor wedding and if not, we will turn the smaller of the 2 into a "mini-chapel".)

The parks only rule is that we be out by 10PM and that no one drinks from anything glass. Here, glass of most kinds is a No-No in parks/beaches and rivers. This is fine with me as beer is just fine from a plastic cup (for guests) and Stainless steel tankards for my Groomsmen and myself (also part of their gifts).

OUR mothers make wine. They are planning to also give away some "special" wines. 5 gallons each. 1-white grape the other Apfelwein. (SWMBO mom and myself picked and pressed the apples for the apfelwein.)

We are NOT charging the guests for food or drinks, so that becomes a "non-issue".

So if you really try pretty hard and do your homework you can easily plan to serve homebrews.

The downside to the alcohol at our reception is there will not be any "mixed drinks." (this only really effects 1% of the people at the reception, so IDC.)

The other really large downside is that people will not be able to use a piece of silverware to "tink" it against a glass to "make us kiss". So instead, we will be setting out kazoos.

See if one of the breweries offers catering service.

Bendbrewer - Thats not a bad idea, I'll have to make a few calls once I meet with the Halls

Zamial - That's wedding I'd love to see! Home brew and kazoos! But I know SWMBO wouldn't fly with kazoos or platic cups for that matter but neither would I. We're looking at march (2012) as well.

I guess it'll all come down to each places' policy. I do like the idea of calling a brewery - maybe get some sixels....

This probably won't make any difference but when I started brewing my father told me my grandfather home brewed too. And when my aunt was married (in the 60s) my grandfather supplied the beer. I'm sure laws have changed since then but if it's open bar and a limited selection I doubt you would have to worry about appeasing the guests. Who would complain about free beer? Unless it's crappy free beer of course!

Got married this summer, we had 275 people, open bar all night, and were perfect with five 8-gal kegs. Three Summit EPA, one Grain Belt Premium, one Bud Light. The first two are local, Summit is craft and damn good. The only thing left was 2gal of Bud and lots of wine. What a great time! I had ZERO time for anything once the wedding activities, it was hard to even talk to everyone. There was hardly any time for me to drink beer, let alone worry about it at all. If you have someone else who can bartend and know everything about your cornies, you might consider it.

Oh I almost forgot, congrats!