Wedding Blog

Ah, that aroma of coffee brewing: we Petunias are suckers for it! I know in 2007, the candy buffet continues to be all the rage, but I can’t help to think than an alternative would also be also nice. One possibility we’re considering is offering our guests a coffee bar instead. True, you can’t take coffee drinks home with you like you can a bag of sweet treats, but as our reception is a morning/day one, we thought offering different types of coffees as an accompaniment to brunch food would be a nice additional touch.

Another minus to the coffee bar is that it’s a hard thing to DIY, unlike a candy buffet. I suppose it would be possible to do if you or someone you know owns a hard core, top-of-the-line coffee machine, but those puppies are expensive and I personally don’t know anyone who has one. You’d also have to know someone who’d be willing to work the machine throughout the entire reception, which is unlikely (who wants to make someone work at their wedding?).

There are also reception venues that may offer extensive coffee service as it is, but ours only offers regular coffee, decaf and regular tea.

For us, a coffee bar is an especially nice touch because the local South Florida ones make Cuban coffee, which many of my family members will looooove, and also Mr. Petunia works as a barista himself and is a bit of a coffee snob.

So, what do you get with a coffee bar?

Depending on whom you hire, you’ll get baristas that will make coffees to order, with regular or decaf coffee, regular or low fat milk (as well as herbal teas and hot chocolate, which the kids will especially like!). They can make cappuccinos, lattes, espressos, Americanos, etc. They can also make flavored coffees with Hazelnut, Amaretto, Caramel & Irish Cream and so on.

So, what is this going to cost you? Well, the companies I contacted quoted me between $400 and $500 for a 4 hour service. I was told, however, that for late night receptions, coffee bars are traditionally only hired for the last two hours or so. We’d be hiring them for the entire duration of our reception solely because of the fact that we are having a brunch one and expect people to drink more coffee throughout.

If you’re a coffee lover, too and need help finding a vendor in your area, I found my local ones through PartyPop.com by entering the term “Coffee” in the search engine. I got back about 18 pages worth of entries, so hopefully it should be easy to find a vendor in most parts of the country!

Certainly, this is just another expense and not something that is needed. $500 is $500 and could be well spent somewhere else. We ourselves have not entirely made the decision to go this route, but if we can find the extra money in our budget, we do feel it would be a nice touch and something that, as coffee lovers ourselves, would actually reflect on who we are as a couple.