Creating Your Own Signature Cocktail

Your wedding day is all about you and what YOU want the day to look like! Most couples usually put a lot of thought into flowers, food, and friends. But an out-of-the-box way to personalize another part of the celebration with your own cocktail!

Where to Start

What’s your typical going-out drink? Do you prefer a simple gin and tonic? Or something stronger like an old-fashioned? Perhaps you and your significant other bonded over a certain IPA. Why not serve that at the reception? It’s all about creating a day that you love!

The Rutherford | Signature Wedding Cocktail
Madison Grae Photography

Tie It to the Theme

The devil is in the details, and we love a subtle element that incorporates the overall theme of the evening.

Sometimes the glass in which the drink is served can spice up the drink and fit the mood of the evening. Tags and stirrers can also add to the visual appeal of a drink. It’s also an easy way to tie in your color scheme without having to dye the drink.

The Rutherford | Signature Wedding Cocktail
DiPietro Photography

 

Consider the food you’re serving and maybe incorporate a drink to compliment it! If you’re having a shrimp and grits bar, consider a southern-inspired cocktail.

Advice From the Pro

We chatted with one of our favorite bartenders, Jared, from Southern Libations, about how to get the most out of your bar!

First, a bit about what he does:

Southern Libations was founded on the idea that temporary bar set ups could be more than your typical line up of beer, wine, and spirits. They found a void and decided to be the company that offered specialty drinks for reasonable prices from a bar that would be an experience for the guests who saw and interacted with it. The drinks are an important part of any wedding reception but often couples and party hosts have no idea what to serve.

The Rutherford | Signature Wedding Cocktails
DiPietro Photography

At Southern Libations, we provide a unique mobile bar service and enable guests to enjoy delicious custom cocktails made from fresh ingredients. We do a lot of weddings and have been able to add a unique touch to the couple’s day with our stylish mobile bars and custom drink selection. 

Signature Cocktails

He suggested that when it comes to crowd pleasing drinks, everyone has a different palate so to create at least two signature cocktails. 

Signature cocktails are a great way to add a personal touch to the bar at an event. For weddings, couples can customize the names to reflect their personalities. Where you really have the chance to go deeper and allow your guests to engage with your menu, is when you make a drink personal to you, your company, or the people you are gathering within celebration.

The Rutherford | Signature Wedding Cocktail
DiPietro Photography

This can also be turned into a “his and her” feature on the cocktail menu. A popular example would be a Moscow Mule (Vodka, lime, ginger beer) for the bride and an Old Fashioned (Bourbon, sugar, bitters) for the groom. From this selection, guests can still do standard two ingredient drinks with the spirits listed like bourbon/cola, vodka/tonic, etc. 

 The Rutherford | Signature Wedding Cocktail

Full open bars can provide guests with too many options. Focusing on 2-4 interesting cocktails makes the selection easier for the guests and makes the drink menu more personalized to the event. People will be more satisfied if they can start with a fairly limited number of high quality options, and go from there.  

Get Outside the Box

One unique concept that Southern Libations offers is putting cocktails on tap. Serving cocktails on draft speeds up bar service and ensures consistency with each drink. Many cocktails can easily be put on draft.

They love using Cannonborough All-Natural Craft Sodas out of Charleston—their line up includes Ginger beer, Raspberry Mint, Honey Basil, and Grapefruit Elderflower. From there, they combine your spirit of choice to the soda keg to create a unique cocktail on tap that can be served in under 6 seconds. Couples usually combine the cocktails on draft with a bubbly or beer on tap, or both. 

The Rutherford | Signature Wedding Cocktail
DiPietro Photography
The Rutherford | Signature Wedding Cocktail
DiPietro Photography

Having these drinks ready to serve straight from the tap cuts down on drink preparation time and keeps the line moving throughout the night. This also creates much less waste at the end of the night.

Let us know what you’re thinking about for your signature wedding cocktail!

– Audrey

What We’re Predicting for 2020 Weddings

2019 was (and still is!) all about bold colors (think: navy, blush, and gold), statement headpieces, and greenery everywhere.

Every single one of our brides incorporated their personal style into their weddings, and we always love to see how they put a twist on trends.

As weddings shift to a more natural yet personalized vibe, we’re predicting some of the upcoming trends to look for!

On Tap for 2020

1. Cornflower Blue and Gen Z Yellow

Unique color combinations are all the rage and we don’t see that dying down in the coming year. Unexpected pops of bright and bold hues will make your wedding stand out—and help you to express your personal style.

The Rutherford | 2020 Wedding Trends
Angela Zion Photography

 

2. Reception Entertainment

Receptions have become more than just dancing the night away. From photo booths to food board centerpieces, they’re only becoming more elaborate, and we’re excited to see what new ideas couples incorporate into their big day. Perhaps wedding scents or caricatures will become the new “it” entertainment at 2020 weddings?

The Rutherford | Taco Stand
DiPietro Photography

 

3. Eco-friendliness and Minimalism

This trend has been on the rise for years but it’s becoming even easier to implement environmentally-friendly aspects into your wedding. Using native flowers, sourcing local food, and printing invitations on recycled paper are all good starting points. Many couples are focusing on high-quality sustainable products rather than trying to incorporate every single trendy item.

The Rutherford | Wedding Invitations
Emily Bolt Photography

 

Let us know what you think will be next up for wedding trends!

– Audrey

Three Different Spaces = A Whole Evening of Events

Three Different Spaces = A Whole Evening of Events

Wedding day logistics are stressful! Let any-bride-to-be tell you. There are pictures and decorations and the ceremony and the reception and send-off. All of these moving parts, especially when you start moving places, can add more chaos to your big day.

The Rutherford can provide a solution to the crazy logistics of the day, especially when all parts of the day are done in our venue.

Wedding ceremonies typically either take place in our Brick Room, or, if the weather decides to cooperate, outside in the Courtyard. Both have beautiful backdrop options and plenty of room for guests to watch the ceremony unfold.

The Rutherford | Outdoor Wedding
Photo by Red Apple Tree Photography
The Rutherford | Brick Wedding
Photo by Madison Grae Photography

Following the ceremony, most brides choose to have their cocktail hour in the reverse of their ceremony—either the Courtyard or the Brick Room. This gives the couple plenty of time to take pictures after the ceremony while their guests mingle right next door.

The Rutherford | Outdoor Wedding Reception
Photo by Emily Bolt Photography

The Warehouse tends to be the most popular spot for food, drinks, and dancing. It can be set up for a sit-down dinner or flipped to a dance floor for you to get your boogie on.

The Rutherford | Industrial Wedding
Photo by Red Apple Tree Photography
The Rutherford | Industrial Wedding
Photo by Emily Bolt Photography

Guests can also float outside to chat under the lights or to catch their breath after an evening of dancing.

The Rutherford | Industrial Wedding
Photo by Madison Grae Photography

Send-offs are done from our parking lot and are a magical way to end a special day.

The Rutherford | Industrial Wedding
Photo by Angela Zion Photography

 

By flowing the events of the evening throughout our different spaces, you can truly enjoy the time without feeling rushed to get to the next place while still have distinct spaces for each part of the night.

Curious about how you can use all three spaces for your evening event? Reach out to schedule a tour today!

– AR