For Your Toast: The Perfect Signature Drink

Here's one of the details that you find yourself scrambling to cross off your list at the last minute - your signature drink. You work so hard to perfect your menu to ensure that your guests are completely satisfied. So don't forget about choosing something fab for your signature drink. Here are a few options that containing Combier and Bols Genever. I haven't tried these drinks myself, but the ingredients look like each would be a tasty delight.




The Cheeky Couple
Created by Jonathan Pogash (http://www.thecocktailguru.com)

1 oz. Roi Rene Rouge Cherry Liqueur
.5 oz. L'Original Combier Liqueur d'Orange
.5 oz. Van Gogh Dutch Chocolate Vodka
.25 oz. POM pomegranate juice
Moet & Chandon Champagne

Directions: In a mixing glass, stir all ingredients together with ice briefly and strain into a chilled champagne flute.
Garnish: Spritz of rose water and rose petals.

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Boule Royal
Natalie Bovis-Nelsen, The Liquid Muse, author of "The Bubbly Bride: Your Ultimate Wedding Cocktail Guide"

8 rosemary leaves
.75 oz freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
1 oz citrusy gin
.75 oz Combier Royal
1 ounce sparkling wine

Directions: Muddle the rosemary in the bottom of a mixing glass. Add juice, gin, Combier Royal and shake well with ice. Strain into champagne flute. Top with sparkling wine.

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Thyme for Romance
Natalie Bovis-Nelsen, The Liquid Muse, author of "The Bubbly Bride: Your Ultimate Wedding Cocktail Guide"

.5 inch piece fresh ginger
1.5 oz Bols Genever
1 oz thyme-infused simple syrup*
.75 oz fresh lime juice
Dash Angostura bitters
fresh thyme

Directions: Muddle ginger in the bottom of a mixing glass (or cocktail shaker). Add Bols Genever, thyme-infused simple syrup, lime juice, bitters and ice. Shake and strain into a cocktail glass.
Garnish: A sprig of thyme.

*Bring 2 parts sugar, 1 part water, and a few leaves plucked from the stem of a thyme plant to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cool, bottle, and refrigerate.

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Rouge Noir
Junior Merino

1.5 oz Combier Rouge
.5 oz Combier Orange Liqueur
4 oz brut
Orange zest

Directions: Pour Combier Rouge and Orange Liqueur in champagne flute. Top with champagne.
Garnish: Orange zest

Create-Your-Own Wedding Cocktail

2 parts base spirit of choice
1 part L'Original Combier Liqueur d'Orange
.75 part fresh citrus juice
Champagne or sparkling wine

Directions: Shake base spirit, L'Original Combier Liqueur d'Orange, and citrus with ice and strain into a chilled champagne flute. Top with Champagne or sparkling wine.
Garnish: Fresh, seasonal fresh fruit.

Wedding Reception Basics

However tempting it might be to run off after your wedding ceremony with your new spouse to sip champagne, pose for hours of wedding photos, or just get a burger, remember that your wedding guests are waiting for you! The wedding reception is one of the most enjoyable parts of the wedding for the people who love you most, and part of their enjoyment hinges upon getting to see you in all your finery up close.

If you're going to be late to your wedding reception because posing for wedding photographs is going to take a while, be generous and have sumptuous treats to greet your wedding guests. Cocktail hour creates an environment conducive to mingling and conversation, especially when you have soft music playing in the background and plenty of drinks to go around.

Having a cocktail hour at your wedding reception gives your wedding guests an opportunity to get to know each other and talk. To set the mood, opt for jazz classics piping through your reception venue's sound system. Jazz classics are enjoyable, but at the same time set an elegant mood that reminds people that they are in attendance at a solemn and important event.

Consider springing for extra wait staff at the reception venue. It is quite a hassle to have to repeatedly go to the bar, and once there, wait in line. It also adds a sense of refinement to your event to have butlered drinks being passed. Here is a chance to incorporate your personality by having a signature drink passed and available at the bar. Put up a little sign in a silver plated frame explaining the significance of your custom wedding cocktail.

Trust us when we say that it's little touches like that that make a wedding feel truly special... even if the bride and groom haven't yet arrived!


Click to learn more about planning a wedding reception

Wedding Reception Checklist

Once you've said your "I dos," it's time to party! While there are many ways you can format your wedding reception, most wedding receptions involve certain must-have elements. You can't, after all, have a wedding reception without a reception venue, and it is the obligation of every bride and groom to feed and entertain their wedding guests. Most wedding receptions are somewhat formal, but yours can be anything from pizza and beer at the bowling ally where you met your spouse-to-be to a English-style garden party complete with finger sandwiches.

No matter what kind of wedding reception you choose to have, you'll need to be familiar with certain elements of reception planning. Here's a helpful (albeit short) checklist to get you started:

__ Book your wedding reception venue at least six months in advance. Ask for discounts if you feel like it -- the worst the site manager can say is no.

__ Ask about special wedding packages before you book your wedding date or sign any contracts. Many venues will give you freebies or perks because you're the bride.

__ If you don't understand the fees you're paying, a second pair of eyes (your intended, your mom, etc.) can ensure you don't get scammed or overcharged.

__ Make sure your preferred venue will accommodate all your guests.

__ Don't forget that your reception venue will have its own color scheme. Consider whether your wedding colors will clash with the walls, the carpets, or the linens.

__ Ask the reception site manager whether you can use your own caterer or are obligated to use the house service providers. If you can, make sure your baker and caterer are familiar with the site.


Click to see our complete wedding reception checklist

Wedding Music Order of Events

If you can afford to have live musicians at your wedding ceremony, we say "Go for it!" Live music adds a special touch to a wedding ceremony that cannot be replicated with a CD in a boombox or a wedding disc jockey playing Here Comes the Bride. Live wedding ceremony music is not only a nod to wedding traditions of days gone by; it's also extremely elegant and entertaining for wedding guests waiting for the bride to make her grand entrance.

Of course, once you have hired live musicians to play at your wedding ceremony -- we recommend a classical quartet -- you still need to know what music happens when. Your musicians may or may not be familiar with the usual order of wedding ceremony events, which means it's your job to know everything you can about wedding ceremony music. Here's a primer to start you off:

The Prelude
As guests are arriving and being escorted down the aisle to their seats, a mix of classical pieces and soft contemporary songs lets them know that something special is about to happen.

The Pre-processional
Wedding music helps build emotion as family members and other honored guests who are not members of the wedding party are escorted down the aisle. The mother of the bride is usually the last to be seated before the wedding party comes down the aisle.

The Processional
This is the point in the ceremony when the groomsmen, best man, groom, bridesmaids, maid of honor, ring bearer, and flower girl walk down the aisle. The bride and father of the bride are the last ones to walk down the aisle in the most dramatic part of the ceremony.

The Ceremony
In a traditional Christian church wedding, hymns, calls to worship, or other wedding music that is part of the order of the wedding service can be performed by your wedding musicians as the ceremony unfolds. This is also the appropriate time for an instrumental or vocal solo.

Recessional
At the conclusion of the ceremony, the wedding officiant announces that the bride and groom are married and music is usually played at this point. This is when many couples let their personalities shine through with their music selection. During the recessional, the bride and groom are first, followed by the wedding party and the officiant.

Interlude or Postlude
This is when the guests exit the church. Wedding music can be played until the guests are out of the ceremony area.

With a few modifications, this order is appropriate for a quicker or less traditional ceremony. It's always a good idea to have wedding music as guests arrive, as the wedding party enters, and as the bride and groom exit together.


Click to learn more about choosing wedding musicians or the order of wedding ceremony events