Cocktail Hour

Make Your Drinks Reception Truly Your Own

At Iscoyd, our approach to events is driven by our desire to make your special occasion truly unique. Our events planning team epitomise flexibility and creativity and we strive to be as helpful as possible in bringing your event to life in just the way you imagine it to be. We are intrigued and excited by your visions, your dreams and your plans and to play a role in this process is incredibly fulfilling. You can be sure that it’s not one we take for granted or lightly.

We love watching the evolution of wedding themes, schemes, and trends. What was popular ten years ago has now transfigured into something else entirely – helped of course by developments in social media and the internet. What is wonderful to see is how time-honoured traditions have been married with modern day influences. Traditional wedding customs are never really lost or forgotten, it’s just that they have evolved to become relevant in today’s climate.

Top Image: Tobiah Tayo Photography | Bottom Images: Claire Penn Photography

 

One such trend, we have noticed over the last few years, that has metamorphosed is that of the Drinks Reception. Traditionally held after the ceremony as a way of greeting guests as a brand new couple, this component of the wedding day has undergone some serious levelling up – a glow up to say the least! More and more, brides and grooms are injecting their personality wholeheartedly into their wedding days. From carefully styled ‘help yourself’ drink stations, bespoke cocktails, custom signage and lots of fun, we’re seeing couples reinterpret the traditional champagne and canapés format.

That’s not to say that champagne isn’t still popular – hello champagne towers! (more on this in a recent post which you can read here) but that some couples are choosing to tailor their wedding day to align more closely with their favourite tipples. Perhaps you’re not actually a fan of champagne, or maybe another alcoholic beverage is closer to your heart; this is your opportunity to choose exactly how you want to celebrate your day.

Top Image: Claire Penn Photography | Bottom Left: Lisa Webb Photography | Bottom Right: Claire Penn Photography

 

Here at Iscoyd, we’ve helped couples install help yourself gin bars, garnished drinks with colours and motifs that match the wider wedding scheme, positioned drinks related neon signage and generally have made the drinks reception a stand out feature all on its own! Perhaps the most exciting and thrilling way to impress your guests is to have a drinks wall. Featured in the images above, this ‘living wall’ holds drinks for your guests to pluck from before magically replenishing itself; always guaranteed to elicit squeals of delight.

Consideration is also given not only to the contents of the drinks on offer but also to the styling of the beverages on offer. On hot days in the gardens, we’re partial to serving up bottles of beer chilling in our branded Iscoyd wheelbarrows which always draws compliments from guests. We’ve served up drinks out of the back of a VW Campervan and have set up a Welsh dresser with large dispensers of cordials for the kids and Pimms for the adults so that guests get a thrill (as well as the convenience) of serving themselves.

 

Perhaps our favourite thing to do during a drinks reception is to serve up a cocktail rather than flutes of fizz and our favourite by far is the Iscoyd Gin Bramble which we’ve shared the recipe for above. Our special blend of lemon verbena and rose gin has been distilled with juniper, toasted oats, lemon verbena and rose petals grown on the Iscoyd Park estate by the talented Three Wrens Gin and has even won awards for its exquisite taste. Available to purchase in the Iscoyd shop, this is a perfect memento to remind you of your special day every time you take a sip.

Top Image: Livi Edwards Photography | Bottom Left: Lauren Juliette Photography | Bottom Right: Livi Edwards Photography

 

At Iscoyd we always have our couples ‘His & Her’ cocktails on offer on the bar. Couples can select a cocktail of their choosing and can name their libations any way that they choose. We’re proud to say our couples usually get very creative with the names – often including their dog/pets in some way which we think is fabulous. We have also witnessed this innovation extend to wedding signage too; there is often a beautiful piece of artwork on show informing guests about the wedding cocktail on offer with a clever pun or two to boot which is guaranteed to make your guests laugh.

Top Image: Claire Penn Photography | Bottom Left: Nesta Lloyd Photography | Bottom Right: Faye Wilde Photography

 

We hope this post has inspired you in the planning of your own drinks reception and how you can infuse this part of the day with your personality with small touches that don’t necessarily break the bank. We’ll be sharing more thoughts on how to personalise your drinks reception through your canapés, entertainment and of course addressing that all important aspect of timings in a future post so stay tuned for that!

Special thanks to all of the photographers named in this post for allowing us to share their images in the making of this post.

Find out more about Weddings at Iscoyd Park