Pip Pip!

Apparently, signature drinks are all the rage in the wedding industry. They were created so that couples who couldn’t afford an entirely open bar could have an open beer and wine bar with one cocktail made from hard liquor that was their “signature drink.” The idea was soooo cool that it quickly spread to people with more moolah. (Why should the frugal folks get to have all the fun?) Then people started having signature drink “menus” of multiple drinks with incredibly clever names (like Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue). The exceptionally creative Miss Cream Puff over on weddingbee even created an entire signature drink menu around her pets:

I don’t really drink hard alcohol. And there’s a good reason. I’m a drinker, not a sipper. Gulping candy-flavored hooch on half-price martini Thursdays means that my legs are so rubbery they’re practically liquefied. One martini. Two martini. Three martini. Floor. Or, as Mr. Mama likes to say, “You had ti many martoonis.”

The Mister and I recently went out to the super cool place we got engaged. When I started talking about the year I graduated law school, he laughed and said, “I graduated high school that year.” (I did graduate college in three years, so that means that the Mister and I have a six-year age difference. Usually I’m pretty good natured about being a cougar. Rawr. But the thought of dating a highschooler while I was graduating law school?! I felt positively ancient!) I marched right over to the bartender and said, “I need a very big my-fiance-made-me-feel-old drink.” I don’t know what he put in there. And I think it was free. I don’t really remember, because I sucked it down, got over feeling old, and tritzed back to the table. I was tooootally fine for approximately eleven and a half minutes.

So, when our wedding caterer asked us about a signature drink, all I could imagine was me slurping hard liquor out of the dreaded bubba keg (which the Mister LOVES and I loathe), slurring my vows and whatnot. Um, no thanks.

But the Mister had a brilliant idea. What about Guinness as our signature drink? It pokes a little good-natured fun at the entire concept by being anything but a mixed drink. Guinness fits right in with our “across the pond” reception décor (more on that later). And it has the added benefit of being drinkable (rather than purely sippable)! The caterer threw in even more fun by suggesting that waiters pass our high fallootin’ signature drink in tiny beer mugs. Pip, pip! Cheerio, old boy! I can’t wait to hear all those teensy clinks as people toast with the little buggers!

See why I love my Mister?