When do you serve Champagne and toast at a wedding?
I have seen it written that you serve Champagne with dessert or after dinner. Others say Champagne is served right after the ceremony. Some say you toast the couple before the dinner, some say before dessert, others insist it be after the cake cutting. If there are rules for when to toast and other for when you serve Champagne how do you know when to do both?!
My wedding and ceremony are in the same location and there are only 25 guests attending. The wedding is at 1:00 pm. My caters are serving an iced tea to our guests at 1:30 (also available will be green tea chocolates for everyone) while we have pictures taken. At around 2:00 my caterers are performing a Chinese Tea Ceremony for us and our parents (it lasts about 30 minutes). A five course dinner will be served around 3:00 pm including a Chinese vegetable soup, garden salad, assorted dim sum (as an appetizer), a Chinese entree, and red bean buns with mochi and bubble tea for dessert. Now, my mother ALSO wants cake because she is crazy, so there will be cake cutting as a second dessert (why?!) after dinner. Tea will be served to everyone and an assortment of beer and wine will also be available.
My question is, when do I serve the Champagne for toasts? I plan on having a Wild Hibiscus flower placed in the bottom of each glass before pouring the Champagne, but when should this be served? Also, should I designate a family member to prep and pour the Champagne since it is not really part of the food prep by the caterers (a husband and wife duo)? I know I may be able to ask them to do it for a fee but when do I have them serve it? It would probably go best with the second dessert later in the evening, but wont everyone be full, and don’t toasts com first?
I’m so confused! Please give me some ideas! This schedule is not concrete (except for the ceremony time) so if anyone has a better set up let me know!
Tagged with: appetizer • bubble tea • caterers • ceremony time • champagne • chinese tea ceremony • course dinner • dessert • dim sum • family member • garden salad • green tea • hibiscus flower • husband and wife • mochi • red bean buns • toasts • vegetable soup • wife duo • wild hibiscus
Filed under: misc
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Usually there’s a speech (optional) by the Best Man & Maid of Honor before dinner. The Bride & Groom are toasted after this. You can get great toasting glasses too at http://FavorsDepot.com – that’s where we got ours and we recommend them to everybody.
right before you chow down
Our DJ recommended just before dinner (we are serving appetizers so no one is starving). Everyone is at their tables then, and you have their attention. So that’s when we are doing it!
You can do it whenever you like, though! We just went with our DJ’s recommendation since he has seen a LOT more weddings than we have, and he suggested that it would go the smoothest this way.
We had our right before dinner! It "kicked" it off the reception so to speak
it’s your wedding, and ultimately you may do as you please. at the last wedding I attended they didn’t cut the cake at all. they had a tier cake and some bar cakes which they cut and served quite a while before the photo of the bride and groom ‘cutting’ the cake.
No one is going to appreciate the cake after a five course dinner. How about serving the champagne and cake and having the toasts at 1.30 instead of the tea? that way the main photos will have been taken early, seeing the beautiful wild hibiscus in the champagne glass will have the guest feeling good right from the start and the champagne (with an alternative for non drinkers) will have loosened people up and put them in the mood to enjoy themselves from the start, also guests will have had two hours to digest it before dinner at 3.00. I’d get the caterers to serve it.then people won’t spend the afternoon wondering when it was going to happen.
Toasts should happen at the end of dinner before any performances or dancing should happen.
serve it first