Tiki wedding punch and logistics

My tiki love and I got engaged two weeks ago - yay! We're really excited starting to think about our wedding which will probably be next summer with about 100 guests.

My fiance is a die-hard tiki drink enthusiast. Obviously, one of our #1 requirements for a venue is that we can bring in our own booze and lavish our guests with delicious tiki drinks. I've convinced my fiance that he will not be mixing drinks at our wedding...but he's really gunning for mixing up punches that morning and giving instructions to whoever is bartending (and not presumably tiki-educated). Is this realistic? Has anyone had a traditional wedding where they brought in their own tiki punches? What are some tried-and-true low maintenance big-party punch recipes?

A Rum Punch is the way to go, lot of recipes online

There are many punches and pitcher drinks that can be scaled up in size and mixed in advance. A number of cocktails scale up well too. A bartender would just need to pour over ice and serve a lot of them.

If you want more presentation than that pre-mix everything but the alcohol ahead of time and then give the bartender instructions for hat to add before they shake with ice and pour.

On 2012-09-28 17:07, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:
A Rum Punch is the way to go, lot of recipes online

Lemme expand on that:

Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai
Scorpion Bowl
TV's Tahitian Rum Punch (never had it but it makes 5 gallons)
Painkiller
Chief Lapu Lapu
Spindrift

All work well in quantity. The Painkiller may be too sweet. Too many sweet cocktails will destroy your guests. Have beer and wine on hand.

Thanks for the recipes and recommendations. It's good advice to avoid too many sweet drinks. We don't want to overdo it, but of course want our guests to be happy and dance a lot!

Official Appleton Estates Rum Punch:

In a punch bowl, combine
1-750ml Appleton Estate V/X
1-750ml Coruba dark Jamaican rum
1-750ml Wray & Nephew white overproof rum
2L orange juice
2L pineapple juice
1 cup lime juice
1/2 cup grenadine and several dashes of Angostura bitters
Stir to mix and add a block of ice to chill. Serve in punch cups and garnish with fresh fruit.

On 2012-10-04 11:29, Hale Tiki wrote:
Official Appleton Estates Rum Punch:

Very cool recipe! So I'm getting married in the near future, haven't set a date yet, but soon... Am planning on hosting a "groom's reception" for the guys where we would rent a space for a few hours where we could relax, talk, and where I would be able to serve classic tiki drinks. A good punch would be very helpful to have available, as making individual drinks would be very time-consuming depending on the size of the group. I am considering recruiting one or two of my friends to tend bar. I really like the idea of doing this, although it might be hard to pull off the way I am visualizing it. Now to find a good venue that's not insanely expensive and will allow us behind their bar with my rums and mixers...

I bet you could find a nice cigar lounge around there that would accommdate you.

I love the idea of a groom's reception in a lounge with tiki punches. Very cool. Only problem for us is that I'm the bride and I will definitely want in on it! I think it's a good idea to appoint a couple of groomsmen or friends to help tend bar, if you are in a private location that will allow that. If you make punches in advance, the work would be minimal. You could also have some tiki mugs personalized with your name and date on the back as gifts.

We've seen a couple of reception venues in the Boston area that allow outside alcohol and have talked to the onsite event coordinators about the logistics of bringing in our own punches and home-brewed beer. In this area, places without a liquor license will allow you to bring in your own alcohol as long as you work with a catering company on getting all the necessary paperwork and have one of their licensed bartenders serve your guests. Seems reasonable. For our punches, we would probably buy the liquor, squeeze the juices, and make the syrups in advance, then have a friend mix the punches that morning (except the rum). Then, we can give instructions to the bartender for adding liquor at the beginning of the reception. One coordinator suggested we just give the bartender a recipe and s/he will mix it. We might do that, if the bartender seems good!

The Appleton Estate punch sounds great.

The Appleton Estate punch is pretty hard to mess up.

They could probably handle it.
I've seen quite a few custom bride/groom mugs lately.
And if they're out of your price range, you could always find mugs you like, and have someone enamel them for you!
Or have them customized by a pinstriper.

Ooh, custom bride/groom mugs! love it. I might be coming back here for enameler (enamelist?) suggestions. Thanks!

On 2012-10-04 11:29, Hale Tiki wrote:
Official Appleton Estates Rum Punch:

In a punch bowl, combine
1-750ml Appleton Estate V/X
1-750ml Coruba dark Jamaican rum
1-750ml Wray & Nephew white overproof rum
2L orange juice
2L pineapple juice
1 cup lime juice
1/2 cup grenadine and several dashes of Angostura bitters
Stir to mix and add a block of ice to chill. Serve in punch cups and garnish with fresh fruit.

how many would you say this serves?

Nomeus,

By my calculations, this recipe totals a little more than 6.5 liters. That translates to approx 212 oz + 12 oz for the cup and a half at the end. That's 224 oz. if you serve the punch over crushed ice and each drink is approx 5 oz (just a guess), that would provide you with about 45 drinks.

Hope that helps.

Cheers and aloha!

45 drinks, that would be enough for about 30 regular people or 3 Tiki Central folks :lol:

No kidding! A couple of other TC folks and I do craft cocktail events as The Straw Hat Barmen (www.strawhatbarmen.com) and it's amazing how much you have to dial down the "drinks-per-person" estimate for tiki folks versus "civilians"!

So true, I consider Tiki folks, "Professional Drinkers"
vs the rank amateurs most other people are.

So true! It all depends on the type of drinkers, the size of the cups and the serving. It's all relative.

Lots of crushed ice and smaller cups will help it go farther.

Cheers!