Wedding stuff guys care about – booze

This is the first in a series of posts on wedding elements in which your groom-to-be actually has an interest. With this being the first article, let’s start with one of the most obvious elements – the types of alcohol served at your wedding.

Yum ... grooms likey the tequila

There is that slice of the male population that tee-totals, but for the most part we guys like to imbibe a potent potable on occasion (or on the hour, every hour, as some of my former frat brothers were in the habit of doing). For many guys, drinking was a right of passage that some of us never quite got past. I remember as a kid trying to sneak sips from my dad’s beer can at parties, and I once recall my brother and I as teens invading our parents liquor cabinet and taking hits off those bottles we knew they hadn’t touched in years. Unfortunately that meant swigging at a bottle of Midori with a Drambuie chaser (a god-awful combination), which later on led to a chaser of Pepto Bismol.

And then there was college, where it was tacitly understood that drinking until you were half-blind was a sign of maturity – as asinine as that may sound. As we move beyond those more reckless and misguided years, drinking evolves into both a more social activity – enjoying cocktails with friends, hitting happy hour with co-workers, etc. – as well as a solitary respite (i.e., when we return home and knock one back to take the edge off another day of tolerating our dunderheaded boss).

Regardless of what came before this juncture, to whatever extent your guy drinks, he will still be interested in what will be served at his wedding. For the bride who is having a tough time prodding her fella into participating in the planning process – not a shocker to any extent – this affinity for drink may actually be your opportunity to delegate. If he can write and talk and add, he can certainly talk with your caterer or facility and coordinate with them the kinds of beverages you want as well as the budget you have set aside. Hopefully your beau has honed his negotiating chops over the years by haggling with car dealers (might as well throw another cliche in the mix), so he should be able to talk down your vendors to a decent price for all the booze.

Speaking for myself, it’s always nice to have another set of eyes looking over my work, as I’ve been known to become so enamored with a certain drink that it’s not beyond reason that I’d order 20 fifths of Don Julio and 10 cases of tempranillo and nothing else. So once the groom has assembled his list, give it a once over to make sure he’s included the champagne as well as that favorite rum of yours.

Bottoms up, and happy planning…