One option our venue gave us was to provide our own wine and champagne, and pay a corkage fee of $15 a bottle. It seems steep, but because the venue has a loose policy on this and didn’t say magnums would be charged double, we bought magnum sized (1.5 L) wine bottles, which cost around $15 each. A regular bottle of wine (750 mL) at the venue was around $37, so we inevitably saved money on the wine front. For champagne, the price was around $8 a glass. We bought our champagne for $9 a bottle. We clearly saved money here too.
Yesterday I went to Real Canadian Superstore and bought all of our wine and champagne. At first, I wanted to place an order because they only had nine bottles of champagne in stock. However, I waited too long. The order wouldn’t come in in time for us to drop it off at the venue on Thursday to be chilled for Saturday. (I’m getting married on SATURDAY! YAY!) So, I ended up having to visit two stores. At the first store, I bought 12 magnums of white, 14 red, and nine bottles of champagne. At the second, I bought four magnums of red and 11 bottles of champagne. My car was PACKED!
It may not look like it, but I’ve got nine bottles of champagne and 24 magnums of wine in here!
If you added up the numbers, we bought 12 magnums of white (24 actual bottles), 18 magnums of red (36 actual bottles), and 20 bottles of champagne. That’s A LOT, but we can take it back after the wedding if there are leftovers. We are having an open bar, so people may drift toward that more so than wine…but I’d hate to run out.
Now onto the choices! We chose:
The Merlot is my mom’s favorite, and the Sauvignon Blanc is also quite good, especially with chicken. The Barefoot Bubbly is Fiancee Eagle’s favorite—she’s not a big drinker at all, but I’ve seen her on occasion drink a whole bottle herself. I think it’s great that we were able to choose wines and champagne that we actually know and like, and not get overcharged in the process.
all personal photos
Did you buy the wine for your wedding too?
I love the Barefoot Bubbly Muscato Spumante!! We provided four cases for our wedding. They were the only thing not left over! It’s the one “wine” or “bubbly” That Mr. Johnny B will drink, so we loaded up… then we continued during our honeymoon with a few more bottles! It’s so crisp and delicious – excellent choice!!
I was always curious about the BB. Thanks for the heads up. And EEEEEEE, it’s so freakin’ close – I’m halfway between jumping in the air excited and crawling into bed overwhelmed. ha!
I will be purchasing all drinks for my upcoming wedding/reception. We are having a limited bar with a few options for our guest to choose from. The list includes a signature cocktail, a sangria, and champagne along with water, punch, and sweet tea. Im expecting 200 ppl to attend and I have no idea when/where/how to start preparing for this!
Hah! I totally did the same thing. I bought the alcohol at Superstore the Tuesday before the wedding and got stuck with what they had in stock – it was a good thing my Father-in-Law came with me and helped me pick out the booze. But who knew you had to order wine ahead of time?
Great choice! The Barefoot Bubbly Moscato is the BEST. We are purchasing our own alcohol for the wedding as well and may end up using this for our “champagne” toast. Weird? Maybe… But oh so yummy!
I’ve never had the champagne but I love Jackson Triggs and Gato Negro!
Mmmm….Barefoot Bubbly Moscato….sound delicious! We bought so much wine for our wedding, we are still drinking the left overs, which is actually pretty awesome 
We’re buying our own alcohol (the venue doesn’t provide it) and it has proved to be tricky. Since we’re paying a corkage fee per bottle we’re buying 4.5lt bottles of red label.. how about that.
Thanks for the heads up on ordering wine beforehand. I will definitely keep this in mind!
I love Gato Negro! My FIL did this for us a few months before the wedding. I’m so glad he was in charge of that because I would have been crying on the liquor store floor overwhelmed by choices at that point of planning.
Holy shizz that is a lot of wine E! Gato Negro is delicioussssss.
Have you ever seen the movie “Hot Rod”? Your cart reminds me of a scene in that movie, haha.
How many people are you guys having? We’re trying to decide how much wine to buy for our open bar too – trying to not get too much left over so I don’t drink it all after the wedding
We’re adding two bottles of wine on every table as an extra since we can’t afford to do open bar for our guests other than the one hour hosted bar during cocktail hour. Sadly, our venue charged double if we get the bigger bottles of wine. So we stuck with the regular bottles and are paying $12 a bottle for the corkage fee. We bought our 30 bottles of wine during BevMo’s 5 cent wine sale! We definitely saved a ton of money doing that! And yay for getting married on Saturday!!!
Love love love Jackson Triggs! I am buying 30 white and 30 red for my wedding to put on all the tables Yippy
We are getting married at a winery so that’s not an option, but I love that you were able to buy your own, especially since you get to save money and pick out what brands you want
We’re supplying the wine and signature cocktail for our wedding, and the wines will be from local wineries. A white from one just north of us and a red from a Central Florida winery we’ve visited in the past.
If there are any unopened Moscato’s left, you may not be able to return those if they’ve already been chilled–once a sparkling wine has been chilled it needs to stay that way. But, you know, disposing of leftover bubbly isn’t such a tough thing 
We bought our wine through Walmart and saved a TON of money. Of course we overbought, but I didn’t want to run out, and we are still drinkging wine from the wedding…at least my wine rack has been full for 6 months
We just purchased all of the alcohol for our wedding bar recently too! (As mostly everyone else has said, we overbought – but it’s open bar and let’s face it – alcohol never goes to waste!) We are going to have around 120 guests and a 7 hour reception. This is what we bought:
12 bottles of Merlot
12 bottles of Pino Noir
12 bottles of table red
12 bottles of Chardonnay
12 bottles of Reisling
12 bottles of Pino Grigio
6 x 1.75L of vodka
3 x 1.75L of whipped cream vodka (my favorite!)
3 x 1.75L of malibu rum
3 x 1.75L of peach schnapps
1 x 1.75L of regular rum
1 x 1.75L of melon liquer
4 cases of regular beer
4 cases of light beer
Mrs. Eagle, Calgary, Alberta, Canada Age and Occupation: 22, Medical Sciences Graduate Student / Science Instructor Fiancee's Age and Occupation: 23, Nurse Engagement Date: April 2011 Wedding Date: August 2012 Venue: Historic Lougheed House About Me: I'm a science-geek graduate student who is studying craniofacial malformations and evolutionary developmental biology. I have a passion for DIY crafts, amazing red wine, and all-things-wedding. Together with my wonderful fiancée, we are planning a formal black tie wedding filled with DIY projects and vintage decor. When I'm not reading about science-y things or wedding blogs, I enjoy teaching science-y things to kids and trying to be Martha Stewart incarnate.
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