Wedding Blog
I instantly fell in love with both the punch bar concept and the flowered monogram decoration in the image below, from Martha Stewart Weddings. After finding our cake, this was the first inspirational image that went into my wedding binder! Today I’ll share my punch obsession with you (I will blog about the flower monogram soon). 
Punch a la Martha Stewart
Right after we signed our venue contract, I started dreaming of wedding day punch. I love the vintage aspect of serving punch at a wedding, and I love to drink it as well! Alcoholic or non-alcoholic, I can’t get enough of this delightful beverage. Mr. Taffy, on the other hand, sounded like he would need some convincing.
This punch looks so pretty and refreshing!
We can’t provide our own punch bar at our venue, but I think it is a great shower idea!
This book has some lovely punch recipes. You can also find great punch recipes from Martha Stewart and Allrecipes.
On New Year’s Eve, I dusted off a punch bowl from my (very) small vintage punch bowl collection to take to a party. I made a champagne punch using equal parts orange juice, pineapple juice, ginger ale, and one bottle of champagne.
I am such a dork, I was thrilled to hang the tiny cups off of the punch bowl. 
Our (freshly engaged!) hostess Miss K loved the punch! It blended well with the signature drink of the night, a (somewhat lethal) champagne, lemon & gin cocktail. I think I am still wincing a bit in this picture, as I drank the cocktail a bit too quickly. I was excited to blog about my punch obsession!
But by the end of the night, I was drinking punch in a larger, easier to hold glass. Hmm…
I mentioned earlier that Mr. Taffy wasn’t too into the idea of punch. Now that our wedding day is closer and our budget is a constant topic, punch is looking better and better. The main negative with our venue is the way that they charge for alcohol. In the Detroit area, most venues have a flat charge per guest for an open bar. Our venue charges per drink! Our bar total at the end of the night could be reasonable, but it could also be devastating. We have no idea, and the fact that I can’t put a solid number in our budget is making my crazy. Also, the state of the economy makes an unlimited liquor budget seem completely insane. (I know this is a sensitive topic, but I am really going nuts here!) I am hoping that by offering some lovely alcoholic and non-alcoholic punches, our total won’t be so scary at the end of the night. I was completely in love with punch before I realized its budget trimming capabilities, and our venue has some really great punches available, from sangria to mojito to classic champagne punch.
Have you had or served punch at a wedding? Was it popular?
Was there an item in your budget that was “limitless”? How did you deal with it?
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All of that looks lovely! And I would love to drink punch at a wedding! For budget purposes, could you maybe serve a few punches but also maybe one or two types of beer as well for the folks who don’t do fruity drinks?
Your inspiration pics are so cute! and I love your vintage punch bowl. I’ve been at a wedding where an alcoholic punch was one of the signature drinks, and it was soooo delicious.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Luscious-Slush-Punch/Detail.aspx
I made this non-alcoholic punch in frozen batches ahead of time, then it just needed to be mixed with sprite in my hubby’s great grandmothers punch bowl at our wedding! cool, eh? My only regret is that I ran out of time to make a fancy fruity ice ring ahead of time as well. But it sure tasted good!
I haven’t talked to our venue yet, but I’m hoping they’ll let us have a couple punches. I want to have a good non-alcoholic punch too so that the kids and people who don’t want to drink alcohol all night can have a special drink. I know I always enjoy a punch, and I think it goes with our light-hearted, summer theme. Another nice touch is to have a mint/lime/cucumber water.
Punch hadn’t even occurred to me! But I think it’s such a great idea. I love punch (perhaps because I have an unhealthy relationship with champaigne), and I get so excited when people serve punch.
I recently attended a wedding that had wine, beer, and a lethal jungle juice-esque house drink. It was cute, and they had it presented beautifully like a punch. I thought it was such a nice touch.
@phruphru: Yes, definitely! Depending on our budget, we may just add a few punches to the open bar as our signature drink, and hope that many people will consider it instead of wine or cocktails. If things get really tight, we may just have beer, punch as a signature cocktail and wine. Mr. Taffy loves beer and would be sad without it.
@renaissancetrophywife: Thanks! I bought that one as a birthday gift for myself last year. It was a steal at $10- especially because the glasses were included!
@renaissancetrophywife: @everrocks: @elizabeth: I’m glad to hear the positive feedback! Our venue has some really lovely choices, and they do a really nice presentation. I am so excited about it!
@IdahoSummer: Mmm, cucumber water is so refreshing. I’ll have to bring it up to the catering manager!
I’m in love with the punch/flower monogram photo and have it sitting in my “inspiration” folder as well. Our plan is to do something similar for our guests to enjoy during cocktail hour (especially for those who don’t partake in the cocktails). There is a drug store in my college town that is famous for it’s lemonade. So we plan to have a family member pick up a few gallons of both it and their orangeade on their way to the venue. I think I might be more excited about having a large glass container of that lemonade than any of our other food/beverage decisions!! So I can’t wait to see how you constructed your flower monogram!
I love this idea - I’m mainly drawn to the pretty colors of the punch and I love the glass containers
I made punch for our New Year’s Eve Party, too! Pour 3 cups Southern Comfort, 2 cans of pineapple juice (I actually used one huge can), and ginger ale (I used almost an entire 2 liter) into a gallon size Ziploc bag. Freeze the bag overnight. The alcohol prevents it from freezing solid, so it is the perfect slushy-shaved ice texture. Dump it in a bowl and pour 7 Up over it to serve. Tastes sooo good and you can’t really taste the alcohol.
I was just thinking about doing an alcoholic punch at our wedding in May. We were going to go an open bar with liquor provide by us but then we woulda had to pay two bartenders. So, now I am thinking of doing maybe three different punches and two ice tubs of beer. Our wedding is on the beach so it’s more of a casual vibe anyway. The only dilemma is I will have to assign someone to refill the punch a couple of times during the night.
Oh - I SOOOOO wanted to do punch at our wedding. But alas, we held it at a restaurant and didn’t have complete control over the menu, so it was out of the question.
But I feel you about the open bar. We were SO scared for what the final tab would be. Our venue could give us the total at any point so that we could cut it off if need be - but we completely forgot to check! So at the end of the night, we thought it would be horrific. But turns out, we worried for nothing! It was about 40% of what we were expecting. It was about $800 for 60 people over about four hours. Drinks were ~$4-5 each. We think it came out lower than we expected because (1) many of the guests had had children since the last open bar wedding we’d seen them at and were probably more subdued, and (2) most people opted for Guinness (we were married at an Irish pub), which is really filling.
The most popular story at our wedding was when the “party table” (the groom’s cousins) had to rescue the the punch and hide it under their table to stop the catering staff from drinking it.
We made ice cubes out of lemonade (a key component in the family punch recipe) so it wouldn’t get too watered down.
Take away the alcohol, add in some jordan almonds and little sandwhiches cut into quarters and you have yourself a mormon wedding. ALL mormon weddings have punch. Even mine! (Well we had some kind of a strawberry drink for dinner, I think of it as a punch)
As you can see from the inspiration pictures you posted, punch is usually an afternoon thing. It doesn’t seem like it’d really fit in at a formal evening wedding. I’ve only ever seen it in casual, outdoor or informal indoor afternoon receptions.
I mean, I think punch is a cute idea, but it seems like your wedding is going to be very formal and the punch seems really out of place with what else you’re doing.
i NEED to attend a wedding with a punch bar, love!
our venue (a vineyard) doesn’t have a license to serve hard alcohol so it was limitless wine and beer. we ended up getting much more wine than our package minimum required, folks were gobbling it up! we offered a fake sangria with red wine + orangina as one of the siggy drinks, which was popular.
@GG+SB: Isn’t the monogram cute?! I am excited to jump on the project, but due to material supplies I might make our table numbers first. That lemonade sounds great!
@AliCherri1: I know, the colors are so cute!
@Mindy: That sounds yummy, thanks for the recipe!
@Erin: I have seriously had nightmares about it!!! I’m glad to hear that your total wasn’t as bad as you had thought, that gives me some hope.
@Sarah: That is too funny to picture!
@Mrs. Avocado: mm, strawberry punch sounds so good right now.
@lb bride: Thanks for your input, but I think that our punch will blend right in! Bad pun, ;). Although our wedding is in the evening, we are quite the whimsical couple and think that punch is a perfect choice for our signature drink. I’m sure our caterer will present it in an appropriate way.
@Mrs. Penguin: me too! I also want cupcakes.
@Mrs. Green Tea: That sounds so good! I think that sangria would be a hit.
@Mrs. Sea Breeze: Thanks! I feel like they are fairly easy to find… garage sales, resale shops and ebay should have lots of choices!
Your punch bowl reminds me of something my grandma has stored away somewhere. I heart it! And I also heart the idea of serving punch at the wedding!
I saw this idea on the MS website and fell in love with it Some say it’s dorky but it’s nice to see others enjoy the same enthusiasm as I do.
We did this at our winter wedding (chilled apple cider) and I just did it again for a party the big jugs they used in MS are from target (13$) and I now own three, they’re amazing!
[...] was the answer to my prayers! I searched “punch” and what did I see? A post titled Punch (Drunk) Love a la Mrs. Taffy. It was just too perfect. Great (or in my case, desperate) minds think alike, I [...]
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Mrs. Taffy, Ann Arbor
Age and Occupation: 28, Color and Materials Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Automotive Designer
Engagement Date: May 9, 2008
Wedding Date: May 2009
Blogging Since: September 14, 2008
Venue: University of Michigan Union
About Me: I’m a girl who is crazy about Mr. Taffy, sewing, dancing, almost all types of sweets, and our cute pet canaries. I dislike touching fuzzy fabric of any kind, eating somewhat squishy food, and Michigan winters. Mr. Taffy and I are having a blast planning our Ann Arbor wedding, and cannot wait to share our day with friends and family.
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