How to Warm Guests at a Winter Wedding: Cocoa Bar, Marshmallows and Cocktails

Don’t let your guests freeze! At a win­ter wed­ding, this task is no less impor­tant than beau­ti­ful decor and musi­cal accom­pa­ni­ment. Fleece blan­kets, warm­ing drinks, win­ter for­mat go ahead? Regard­less of the place of cel­e­bra­tion and the for­mat of the­ban­quet, there are won­der­ful ways to take care of rel­a­tives and friends, give them a good mood and a sense of com­fort at your hol­i­day. Chan­fash­ion ready to share ideas, tips and recipes for alco­holic drinks for a win­ter wed­ding!

hot chocolate and cocoa bar

Hot choco­late and aro­mat­ic cocoa are the most pop­u­lar drinks for autumn and win­ter. They fill us with warmth, are asso­ci­at­ed with child­hood and hol­i­days. There­fore, we firm­ly believe: cocoa bar is a must for every win­ter wed­ding, no mat­ter what theme you choose. Take a vin­tage side­board or wood­en table, cov­er it with a table­cloth, add spruce branch­es in wreaths or spruce gar­lands to cre­ate an absolute­ly win­ter atmos­phere.

Small snowy Christ­mas trees, cop­per mugs, choco­late fig­urines ded­i­cat­ed to your wed­ding, wood­en signs with inscrip­tions “Get warm”, “Help your­self”, “Keep a good mood” — fan­ta­size and dec­o­rate your cocoa bar, as you wish. Your guests will be hap­py like chil­dren in the New Year!

Of course, you need to take care of the dish­es: paper cups look very dig­ni­fied, and if you dec­o­rate them with themed inscrip­tions, your ini­tials or cute pat­terns, they will make guests take out their mobile phones and take self­ies!

Porce­lain cups or mono­grammed alu­minum mugs with your date will cost sig­nif­i­cant­ly more, but look even more beau­ti­ful! This is not just dish­es, but a real decor.

marshmallow bar

Fused marsh­mal­lowsso vis­cous and sug­ary-sweet, while still hot, are won­der­ful­ly suit­ed for a hol­i­day in the cold, whether it is a win­ter, Christ­mas or Feb­ru­ary wed­ding. Orga­nize a bar with marsh­mal­lowso that guests can chat by the fire and eat deli­cious sweets.

You can also merge the zone marsh­mal­low and a hot choco­late bar, cre­at­ing one very pop­u­lar spot at your wed­ding. Per­haps more pop­u­lar than pho­to booth and the dance floor!

Alcoholic drinks for winter holiday

Cock­tails for a win­ter- they must be spe­cial! There will always be a place in our hearts for mulled wine, hot top­ping or warm apple cider. But if you’re look­ing for some­thing spe­cial for a dou­bly fes­tive Christ­ma­sor a Feb­ru­ary fam­i­ly­din­ner at home, turn off the ket­tle and head for some whiskey and rum, because we’ll show you wor­thy drinks for your­guests!

Hot whiskey with cinnamon

This old school the strong drink is chic, and is ready to warm men (and pos­si­bly ladies) through­out the evening.

Ingre­di­ents

• 1 tea­spoon sim­ple syrup or pow­dered sug­ar
• 2 drops of tinc­ture
• 40 ml of whiskey
• water splash
• Orange peel
• 1 frozen cher­ry
• 1 cin­na­mon stick
• cedar board + kitchen burn­er
• ice

ready

Use the burn­er to set fire to the cedar plank, and then imme­di­ate­ly place an upside-down cock­tail glass on it, squeez­ing the smoke.

In anoth­er glass, com­bine syrup (or sug­ar) and tinc­ture (bit­ter). Make some quick moves. Squeeze the orange zest over your drink, then light­ly rub the rim of the glass with the rind. Add ice (a large ice cube would look great here) and pour in the whisky. Then add some hot water. Or a lot if you don’t want to see at the moment hung over guests. Cin­na­mon and cher­ry as gar­nish.

Hot Chocolate Boozy

Add Bai­leys clas­sic hot choco­late, whiskey, Amaret­to, Frangeli­co, coconut rum, cof­fee liqueur or crème de men­the – the options are end­less.

Hot Buttered Rum

But­tered rum is one of those things that gets talked about a lot in food­ie cir­cles, but no one makes it in real life. It’s time to change tra­di­tions and sur­prise guests! Dark rum, but­ter, sug­ar, cin­na­mon and nut­meg — that’s your win­ning com­bi­na­tion!

Ingre­di­ents

• 2 parts Bac­ar­di Car­ta Negra
• 1 ½ tea­spoons brown sug­ar
• 3 car­na­tion flow­ers
• ¼ stick of but­ter
  
• stick and nut­meg for gar­nish
  

ready

Melt but­ter in saucepan with sug­ar and cloves on low heat. Turn off the heat, add Bac­ar­di Car­ta Negra and stir well. Pour the con­tents through a sieve into a mug or ther­mo glass. Dilute with hot water to taste. Gar­nish with a cin­na­mon stick and grat­ed nut­meg. Deli­cious!

Warm apple cider

There are many vari­a­tions of warm apple cider cock­tails, some with whiskey, oth­ers with liqueurs, but all include cream and cin­na­mon, which play a deci­sive role. We find this recipe to be a fun and rel­a­tive­ly easy­cock­tail option.

Ingre­di­ents

• 60 ml of liqueur Tua­ka
• 1/2 cup apple cider (hot)
• whipped cream
• cin­na­mon stick

ready

Pour Tuaku in an Irish cof­fee glass. Pour in hot apple cider. Add a dol­lop of cream on top and gar­nish with a cin­na­mon stick. Ready!.

mulled wine with Sangrinia

The per­fect drink for prepar­ing large par­ties and serv­ing your guests as a wel­come drink or late in the evening.

Ingre­di­ents

• 1 bot­tle of red wine
• 4 cups apple cider
• 1/4 cup hon­ey
• 1/2 cup spiced rum
• 1 apple chopped
• 2 halves clemen­tines
• 1 clemen­tine
• 3 cin­na­mon sticks
• 8 whole cloves
• 3 star anise
• 1 vanil­la
• 1 tea­spoon fresh grat­ed nut­meg
• 4 thin slices fresh gin­ger
• apple and clemen­tine slices for dec­o­ra­tion

ready

Mix wine, cider, hon­ey, rum, apple pieces, clemen­tines and zest in a large saucepan and leave it on low heat.

While the ingre­di­ents are heat­ing up, put out cin­na­mon sticks, cloves, anise, vanil­la, nut­meg and gin­ger in a small saucepan for 5 min­utes, occa­sion­al­ly toss­ing spices with a wood­en spoon. Add to saucepan and mix well.

Let the san­gria sim­mer for 25–30 min­utes, stir­ring occa­sion­al­ly to help dis­solve the hon­ey and spices. Don’t bring to a boil.

Serve hot, gar­nish­ing glass­es with apple slices. Enjoy!

White wine Toddy

Some white wine lovers will see this as sac­ri­le­gious, but if you’re look­ing for a unique alter­na­tive to mulled wine, this recipe might be just what you need. Car­damom, cognac, hon­ey and lemon — does that sound like a cure for a cold? And you try!

Ingre­di­ents

• 4 car­damoms
• 1 (750 ml) bot­tle of Ries­ling
• 2 tea­spoons cognac
• 2 table­spoons hon­ey
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 half of a lemon
• 4 lemon wedges

ready

car­cass­es pods car­damom in a dry skil­let over high heat, toss­ing fre­quent­ly, until fra­grant, about 3 min­utes. Gen­tly crush them in the gar­lic press.

In a medi­um saucepan, com­bine the ries­ling, cognac, hon­ey, car­damom and bay leaf. Squeeze half a lemon and add the peel to the pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to the low­est set­ting and sim­mer. with­in 45 min­utes. Strain and divide into 4 cups. Gar­nish with lemon wedges and serve!

Hot Gin and tonic

Yes, gin and ton­ic is not at all asso­ci­at­ed with a win­ter drink, and the thought of a warm ver­sion of it can con­fuse and sur­prise you. And yet, pay atten­tion to this amaz­ing drink!

Ingre­di­ents

• 50 ml of gin
• 25 ml syrup
• 10 ml hot water
• orange peel for gar­nish

ready

Unlike a clas­sic G&T, this warm gin cock­tail does not con­tain ton­ic water or ice. Instead, use boil­ing water, sug­ar, or even some kind of ton­ic syrup.

Con­nect gin and syrup in a mug or heat-resis­tant glass. Stir prop­er­ly. Fill with boil­ing water.

The best dec­o­ra­tion for a warm gin are cit­rus. Try lemon or orange peel!

coconut cocktail

It sounds so deli­cious! By mix­ing dark rum with tea and coconut milk, you can cre­ate a real fra­grant mas­ter­piece! This is a great hot cock­tail to make in large batch­es.

Ingre­di­ents

• 3/4 cup coconut milk (best used from a can)
• 3/4 cup water
• 1–2 table­spoons coconut sug­ar (or more depend­ing on desired sweet­ness)
• 1 tea bag
• 60 ml dark rum

ready

Com­bine coconut milk, water and coconut sug­ar in a small bowl.

Put on the fire and put the tea bag in your drink. Leave on fire for 5–7 min­utes.

Add rum, stir well, then pour into a mug.

Gar­nish with cin­na­mon, choco­late chips, or your favorite spices.

Mulled wine with pomegranate juice

Take care of your guests, includ­ing those who don’t drink alco­hol. If clas­sic mulled wine seems too clas­sic to you, or if you want to please your guests with an unusu­al vari­ety. Try!

Ingre­di­ents

• 1 liter of juice
• 1 sachet of rose­mary
• 1 pinch of sumac
• 1 cin­na­mon stick
• 1⁄2 tsp corian­der seed
• 1⁄2 orange

ready

Pour the pome­gran­ate juice into a large saucepan. Add rose­mary, sumac, cin­na­mon stick, corian­der seeds and orange. Bring to a boil, then pour through a sieve into a pitch­er. Pour into heat-resis­tant glass­es or tin cups. Fra­grant!

Tips for serving hot cocktails at a wedding

• Think about how you’ll serve your drinks: sim­mer­ing, hot cock­tails will blow up reg­u­lar glass­ware: look for iron dis­pos­able cups, ceram­ic mugs, or Irish cof­fee glass­es for win­ter drinks, or serve them warm rather than hot.
• Talk to the ban­quet venue admin­is­tra­tor about how to store ready-made drinks: on the stove or in large food ther­moses.
• Dream up dec­o­ra­tions — cre­at­ing styl­ish hol­i­day cock­tails is all about how they look, not just how they taste. Cin­na­mon sticks, orange peels, can­dies, pome­gran­ate seeds, cof­fee beans and marsh­mal­lows - beau­ti­ful win­ter dec­o­ra­tions.