There are lots of little details to consider before the ‘Big Day.’ One major decision is what wine your guests will be drinking. Not only is it important, it’s also a challenge if you’re not especially knowledgeable about wine. However, you can choose the right one if you take the time to do a little homework.

Tips on Choosing Wine

The best wine for your wedding is one that you like yourself. This is why it’s important to sample lots of wines before you make your decision. You can visit a wine bar and try out their offerings, or you can try a different bottle each time you go out to eat. Another option is to hit a few wine tastings. Wine tastings are great because you can pick the brains of other tasters for ideas.

Knowing when in the ceremony wine will be served helps you decide on a wine type. You may offer wine to guests on arrival, when dinner is served, and during the toast. A crisp, light wine is good for arriving guests, while something bubbly like Champaign or sparkling wine is good for toasts. For wine served during meals, match it with the dishes you’re serving.

One more thing to consider is how much your guests like wines. If you don’t anticipate many wine drinkers, you’ll want something light, smooth and easy to drink.

How M&S Helps

You don’t have to plan your wedding wines all by yourself. Marks and Spencer (M&S) can help. Their website offers resources and information on choosing the right wines and when you’ve made up your mind, you can order directly from the site.

In particular, the M&S website has a blog written by a wine expert that gives advice on wines. You can find recommendations for various occasions and the information is up-to-date, using this season’s newest wines. You can use recommendations like these to choose which wines to sample.

The website has information about each wine they offer to help you educate yourself. You can also read reviews written by customers who have tried each kind. It’s like the Amazon.com of wines!

The site has a huge selection of red wine, white wine, Champagne and sparkling wines. There’s a page that shows you wines that are the highest rated by users and there are also recommendations from wine expert Oz Clarke. The site has beer, cider, and spirits as well.

It also helps that the M&S website offers good deals. You can mix and match two wine cases to save 25% and they deliver everywhere.

Keep It Simple

In your wedding wine selection, it’s a good idea to keep it simple. Offer something red, something white, and something sparkling, and you’ll have everyone’s tastes covered. If you’re inexperienced with wine, don’t worry. Spend some time sampling different wines and choose a few that your palette likes.

The wedding cake tradition goes back as far as the Roman Empire, but over the last number of years the style and shapes of cakes have changed. Traditionally, they had mostly being round or square and in white royal icing. The colour white denoted purity and the wedding cake was known as the bride’s cake as it is today considered the bride’s day.

Today the icing on the cake can wither be white or ivory. Fondant icing is the most popular choice of icing at the moment, which is easy adapted to the colour theme chosen by the bride; chocolate is also a very favourite choice of icing. The classic wedding cake is three tiers of rich fruit, covered in almond paste then icing, starting with the largest cake on the bottom, for example a 12 inch, then middle tier and the smallest cake on the top.

Cake pillars are used to separate and stand each cake on top of each other. Tradition used to have it that the top tier of the wedding cake would be saved and used for the christening of the couple’s first child. This is still widely practiced but the top tier can also be used on the wedding day or for another occasion, ie the day after, as decided by the bride and groom.

From the traditional to the modern, the simple to the simply outlandish, the wedding cake is an integral part of the wedding day.

Today wedding cakes are available in different shapes and sizes from single tiered to multi-tiered and can also be made from rich fruit, chocolate biscuit, carrot, Madeira, to name but a few.

The most important thing is that the bride and groom have the cake they want and enjoy their very special day. To help the bride and groom in choosing their cake, they can

• Ask for samples of cakes, and at most wedding fairs they are samples.
• Ask to see examples of previous cakes.
• Check out websites for designs.
• Ask to see if you can view your cake beforehand.
• Ask for recommendations from previous clients.

Some considerations

Do the bride and groom have to call for the wedding cake or can it be delivered? If the cake is being delivered, is there a charge? Will he/she set up the wedding cake?

If your wedding date is between June and October or at Christmas it’s best if you give 8-10 months’ notice. If you want rich fruitcake, it’s best made three months before your wedding. If you want your wedding cake to be used as your dessert, make sure you check this out with your hotel, as there might be a charge for serving.