Wedding Blog

Back in April, Mr. DD and I had a week where we found ourselves completely over wedding planning. Note that I didn’t say completely over with wedding planning. We had just been working hard to knock a few wedding tasks off our ever-growing list, and this, coupled with work stress and moving (and a lot of swearing and vowing to hire professional movers next time), had us just plain worn out.

So, we broke out the wine. Actually,we broke out a lot of wine.

Don’t believe me? Here’s the evidence:

No, no, we’re not quickly becoming alcoholics. We sent out the following SOS to a bunch of friends via my (and Martha Stewart’s!) online invitation system of choice, pingg:

Us: Recent acquirers of lots of wine to taste in order to figure out what to serve at our upcoming wedding. Proud owners of many, many wine glasses. Potentially indecisive. Well, maybe.

You: Thirsty. Opinionated. Free on Sunday afternoon.

Please come over and help us pick out wine for our wedding! Clearly we need your help!

Luckily they were happy to come to our rescue and help us choose a red wine, a white wine, and a sparkling wine—all of which we planned to serve at our wedding. (Our caterer doesn’t charge a corkage fee, so we’re supplying our own alcohol.)

Curious about the winners?

They were:

Red wine: 2006 Rutherford Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon

White wine: 2007 Wente Riverbank Riesling (I’m excited we picked this one because Wente Vineyards is located in Livermore, CA, where Mr. DD grew up.)

Sparkling wine: Chandon Brut Classic

So, as I said, we planned to serve all these wines at our wedding. But you know what they say about the best-laid plans…

A couple of months later we realized we had a problem. We’d bought the Rutherford Ranch Cab at Costco for under $10/bottle. We could no longer find it anywhere for less than $17/bottle. That was a little more than we wanted to spend.

So Mr. DD and I did a little research (this involved a lot of staring at wine bottles at Costco) and found a substitute: Cameron Hughes Lot 103 (2006 Napa Valley Meritage). Cameron Hughes is an interesting company that purchases surplus high-end wine from wineries and bottles it under their own label. We’ve really liked the three or so types we’ve tried (and they’re all around $10/bottle). Has anyone else checked them out?

Anyway, back to the story…

Having a little wine tasting party was a great way for us to unwind a little and actually see our friends. It’s way too easy to schedule all your free time away with wedding planning and forget to have a social life! (You all just agreed with me, didn’t you?)

What are your favorite ways to unwind and de-stress? I can’t be the only one who could really use some suggestions right now!