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Your wedding day celebrates love, unity and shared joy with friends and family. Enhancing this experience with well-chosen food and wedding wine pairings can make the occasion even more memorable.
Choosing the right wine for your wedding involves thoughtful consideration of various factors. It’s not always about the price tag – the small details deserve some attention, too. Do you choose red or white wine? What season is your wedding happening in? Are you going to do a Champagne toast? Remember, the most expensive wine option isn’t always the best.
This guide delves into the practicalities of creating a harmonious menu, covering everything from appetisers to desserts and the wedding cake. You’ll discover helpful advice and specific examples of food and wedding wine pairings to help celebrate the occasion and delight your guests.
How much wine should I buy for a wedding?
When buying wine for your wedding, your first question will probably be: how many bottles do we need?
A practical guideline is to allocate half to three-quarters of a bottle per guest, considering most attendees will drink two or three glasses during the meal. Then tweak those numbers to suit your specific event by considering the length of the reception, any additional champagne toasts, welcome drinks, whether you’re also having a cash bar, the preferences of your guests (are they beer drinkers, for instance) and how many guests are likely to be driving.
Plan on adding 10–20% to your initial wine estimate, to make sure you won’t be short of wine as the celebrations unfold.
Top tip: a standard 750ml bottle is enough for around five glasses, so a case of 12 bottles will cater to approximately 60 glasses of wine.
What to consider when finding the best wine for your wedding
Here are five essential things to think about:
Season – Different wines naturally align with different seasons. A sophisticated red wine is suitable for autumn or winter weddings, while a crisp white or a dry rosé might best accompany a spring or summer celebration.
Location and theme – Is your wedding setting casual, embracing the summer outdoors, or is it a refined, elegant affair indoors during winter? Aligning your wine selection with the theme of your wedding can enhance the overall experience for both you and your guests. For example, classic wine varieties and vintage Champagne could be ideal if hosting a formal event in a historic venue.
Courses – Your food and wine choices should complement each other. A versatile red and white wine should suffice for a conventional three-course meal. However, offering a variety of wines to complement each dish might be worth considering for a more sophisticated menu of more than three courses.
Keep it simple – Your wedding reception might not be the time to try and win people over to the delights of off-dry Riesling or a super bold Barolo. Maximise your guests’ enjoyment by choosing something more crowd-pleasing.
What you like – Ultimately this is your day, and you should love what’s in your glass. So if rosé makes you happy … make sure it’s there. If Aussie Shiraz was the red wine served on your first date, and you both love it … that’s a perfect choice.
Do I need to have Champagne at my wedding?
The Champagne toast is a long-standing wedding tradition, but all that bubbly could eat into your wedding budget. If it’s something you still want to do but are concerned about the cost, why not swap out the Champagne for an equally luxurious but more affordable option?
Prosecco and Cava are popular alternatives to Champagne, with lighter bubbles and more fruity flavours than the iconic French sparkling wine.
But if you wanted to offer your guests something different, how about an elegant Crémant? Think of it like Champagne that’s not been made in the Champagne region. This sparkling wine is also made with a signature secondary fermentation in bottle giving it a very similar flavour profile to Champagne. So you and your guests can enjoy all the sparkle without breaking the bank.
Popular wine and food pairings for weddings
Starters
A light intro to the wedding meal, starters are designed to whet your guests’ appetites. Standard starters for a sit-down plated meal often include soups, pâté or seafood dishes like prawn cocktail.
When choosing a wine to pair with lighter dishes like these, look for something light-to-medium-bodied with soft tannins, like a Pinot Grigio or a Beaujolais.
Red meat mains
Options like roast beef or a rack of lamb are always crowd-pleasers at weddings, but you’ll want the right red wine to complement these dishes. Easy-drinking reds like Pinot Noir might be overpowered by those big, beefy flavours, so a full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz might be the best wine to choose here.
White meat mains
Chicken is a hugely popular dish for weddings. Following the rule of ‘white meat, white wine,’ consider a lighter, refreshing Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc rather than a fuller-bodied, oaked wine like Chardonnay.
Seafood mains
White wines also pair perfectly with seafood, such as salmon and crab. You’ll want a white wine with mineral and citrus notes that won’t overpower the seafood’s naturally delicate flavours. Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio again make great options here, but so does a refreshing Spanish Albariño. A fuller-bodied Chardonnay or Chenin Blanc can work well for seafood dishes served in a creamy sauce.
Vegetarian mains
Choosing an appropriate wine for a vegan or vegetarian dish can be tricky. The range of meat-free dishes varies greatly, from leafy salads to vegetable pasta and lasagne, and their distinct flavours and textures require careful consideration.
For dishes made from fresh greens like pea soup and asparagus risotto, a white wine with herby notes, such as Grüner Veltliner, is ideal. But for ‘meatier’ vegetable dishes, such as stuffed mushrooms and roasted aubergine, you should match the intense earthy flavours with a punchy red like Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon.
Desserts
For chocolate-infused desserts such as tiramisu or mousse, a smooth, medium-bodied red packed with silky, sweet red fruit flavours such as a Merlot or Pinot Noir is a treat. A glass of zippy, acidic Riesling can balance the rich creaminess of dairy-based desserts with a smooth texture, such as cheesecake or crème brûlée.
Wedding cake
Champagne, Prosecco or other sparkling wines are popular options when pairing wine with a wedding cake, with their tingling bubbles and high acidity complimenting the sugary sweetness of the cake. The celebratory style of sparkling wines also makes them the perfect fit for toasting to newlyweds and adding an extra layer of festivity to your special day.
About the author
Steve Rumble
When Steve first started writing for Laithwaites, dry rosé wasn’t a thing in the UK, the only Malbec we stocked was French and hardly any Brits could pronounce Rioja. Things have changed but Steve still loves telling the great stories behind our wines. He holds the WSET Level 4 Diploma and loves a good Provence pink or an oaky Chardonnay. Steve has sports writing experience and is our go-to writer for all things Laithwaites and England Cricket.
