Wedding Wednesdays: Crafting Your Signature Cocktails

Signature cocktails are nothing new at weddings, but gone are the days of brides and grooms picking their favorite classic libations. Now, couples are opting for entire custom bar programs, which tells their love story through unique mixed drinks, molecular gastronomy, craft beers, mocktails and even new inventions, like SipMi.

SipMi is a live activation provided by cocktail company, The Grand Bevy. SipMi is an invention where guests at a wedding or other event can snap an image in a photo booth and have it printed, on flavorless edible paper with edible inks, on top of their cocktail. The result is an interactive and memorable moment for guests. And it’s representative of how couples are elevating the cocktail at their marriage celebrations.

Couples use cocktails as a vehicle to deliver a message about their relationship, incorporating, say, a margarita-inspired drink to denote their first date a local taco restaurant or an ingredient discovered by the couple on a memorable trip. For one Los Angeles couple, cocktail company, Pharmacie, suggested employing their mutual adoration of music and the groom’s career as a musician as inspiration for their cocktails. The bride, Melanie Ayer, recalled that many of their best memories were on the road as now-husband Kelcey Ayer toured. Since he proposed the day after a Radiohead concert in New York, the couple and Pharmacie fashioned a dark Bourbon cocktail with Dubonnet Rouge, Benedictine, and Angostura Bitters to evoke the experience. “It reminded us of the moody, romantic vibes of that entire weekend,” Ms. Ayer said of the drink, which they dubbed “Everything in Its Right Place” after the rock band’s song.

Everything in Its Right Place

Ingredients
1 ½ ounces Bourbon
1 ½ ounces Dubonnet Rouge
¾ ounce Benedictine
3 dashes Angostura Bitters, added just before your stir

Instructions
1. Combine all the ingredients, including the bitters, in a cocktail carafe over ice and stir for 30 to 40 seconds.

2. Strain into a Nick and Nora Glass and add a cherry garnish.

Alcohol has long fueled dance parties and wedding shenanigans, but the experience of sipping an elegant drink gives guests an opportunity to converse with one another and bond while enjoying the beverage, much like a cocktail party. It’s another form of entertainment. Consider your own tastes and devour the details of crafting your signature cocktail for the perfect wedded sip. Cheers!