I'm just going to come right out and say it: Our venue, which we love, is a plastic cup zone.
Yep, exactly like these, but with keg beer and wine inside instead of lights. Wine in a plastic cup? Bet you didn't think you'd see that again once you left college...especially at a wedding! (Note: This will be entirely unlike college because we're not serving Boones Farm to our guests.)
OK, so it's obviously not a deal breaker and we're choosing to focus our attention on other more important things (like, you know, our union). You see, there is actually the option to pay extra for real glasses, but we would also have to pay extra to have a staff member to wash all of the glasses as people chug their drinks, slam the empty cup on the bar and demand another round. I would offer to do it to save a few bucks, but I figured I would be awfully busy playing bride and rocking an air guitar with Dustin to the Spin Doctors.
For a fiery hot second, we considered making sweet drink-stirrer-flag-things like this (and I have Mrs. Trail Mix to thank for this idea, since I saw her say somewhere that they were a snap to make):
The flags pictured above are made with Japanese washi tape (LOVE this idea for so many reasons), but you can follow Mrs. Dolphin's step-by-step ribbon flag DIY right ova here.
...but in the end, we just decided against it. Yes, they would be all sorts of cute and festive and go with the non-color-scheme we're sort of throwing together haphazardly as we please. (Polka dot and striped drink stirrers? Why not?!) But are they necessary? Because we're only serving beer and wine, the answer is an unenthusiastic, "Nope." It's quite possible that the idea would be lost on our guests, because who really wants to have to deal with a flag hitting them in the face as they try to enjoy a cold beer?
Not I, and certainly not Dustin.
Thus began my, "How about biodegradable plastic cups?!" kick, because if we're going to have to throw away oodles of plastic drink vessels, they may as well be eco-friendly. And did you know some are even made out of corn? How entirely fitting since our wedding will be among the cornfields of Illinois.
Unfortunately, this is turning out to be so far out of our budget, it's somewhere warm and tropical with not a winter storm alert in sight. Spending a few hundred bucks on plastic cups we plan to simply throw away? My wallet is screaming at the mere thought and my brain keeps drifting back to the original FREE plastic option.
Alas, we're 99 percent sure we're going to suck it up and deal with the plain ol' plastic cups. Life will go on, and so will our festive wedding love-fest. I certainly hope guests will leave the party remembering the amazing music, delish food, and oodles of love...not the plastic cup they sipped from.
However, because I'm a bit persnickety when it comes to details, I will probably take full advantage of that uncertain 1 percent and spend lots of time researching alternatives when really I should be thinking about vows. Or the collection of antique glass I have scattered all over my table. Or if my dress will even work with the necklace I'm borrowing from my grandma. Or how much I seriously miss Dustin and wish he was here to plan alongside me and spend hours upon hours thinking about something as small as what our guests will drink from.
Sheesh. We can only hope that I'll stumble upon an estate sale with boxes of hundreds of amazing glasses for just $5.
Have you been to a plastic zone wedding, and does it totally stick out in your memory? Or are you, for whatever reason, having a wedding adorned with plastic cups? Do you think it's tacky, or is it totally acceptable for a casual wedding? Tell the truth...I can handle it!
I have a secret for you!!!!
MY WEDDING WAS ONLY PLASTIC CUPS!
GASP!
I totally forgot and had to look back at pictures to even see what we had! I remember LIKING them in the end, like when my friend pulled her purse off the table taking four full drinks with her spilling all over me (no stain!) and sending the cups flying around the room. No broken glass! YAY!
We actually had the awesome bright red totally keg screaming cups. I actually think they look funny and make me laugh now looking back at pictures.
You won't care! You're to big a cool cat to care about that in the end! ;)
Hope that helped!
Posted by: JazzWhispers | 02/01/2011 at 12:25 AM
I'm a cajillion percent certain that a detail like plastic cups wouldn't stick out to me in the least...instead, I would feel grateful that I didn't have to worry about lipstick prints and thumbprints from weddings before on poorly washed glasses :(
Is it sick that that's where my mind IMMEDIATELY goes?
Posted by: lizzie | 02/01/2011 at 01:53 AM