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So you're planning out your beverage strategy for your dry wedding, or your wedding with kids, or just looking to offer some sober alternatives.
You can surely offer sodas and coffee, but why not make their experience a little more special with fancy-shmancy mocktails?
Adding fancy stemware and a garnish will put those teetotalers in the mood to party, and they won't feel left out from any “signature cocktail” moments.
Since it's starting to get warmer in some parts of the world, outdoor beverages that keep you cool and hydrated are key. You already have your beverage dispensers ready, right? Let's dive into these dry drink recipes for your wedding.
Cranberry Cutie ᔥ This Week for Dinner
18 delicious mocktail recipes to thrill your teetotaling guests
We've talked about delicious mocktails and non-boozy drinks before, but we knew there were more drool-worthy recipes out there to inspire your DIY bar, signature... Read more
Ingredients:
3 ounces Sierra Mist Natural
3 ounces Cranberry Juice
Juice from 1 cutie/clementine orange
1 ounce lime juice
Clementine slice and sugar for garnish
In a shaker filled with ice, mix cranberry juice, cutie juice, and lime juice. Add Sierra Mist Natural and stir. Strain into two martini glasses with edges that have been dipped in sugar (optional). Garnish with a cutie slice.
Bloody Apple Cranberry Cocktails ᔥ The Cooking Photographer
Ingredients:
1 (12 FL OZ) container frozen 100% cranberry juice, thawed
2 (25.4 FL OZ) bottles Sparkling Apple Cider, chilled
4 cups very cold water, or ice water mix (for more intense cranberry flavor, use less water)
Stir everything together in a pitcher and serve (preferably in spooky glasses like these!).
Agua de Jamaica (Hibiscus Punch) ᔥ Chow.com
To help you figure out this flavor, try the “Red Zinger” series of Celestial Seasonings tea.
Ingredients:
3 quarts (12 cups) water
1 (1/2-inch) piece ginger, finely grated
1 1/2 cups dried Jamaica flowers (also known as hibiscus or flor de Jamaica)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (from about 1 large lime)
Combine water and ginger in a large pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Remove from heat and stir in Jamaica flowers and sugar until sugar has dissolved. Let steep 10 minutes. Strain through a chinois or fine mesh strainer into a large, heat-resistant bowl or pot. Stir in lime juice and set aside to cool. Refrigerate until ready to use. Serve over ice.
Independence Punch ᔥ Big Bear's Wife
This recipe is cool because you can harness the power of science to separate the layers by sugar content! Once you know the trick, you can replace with any drinks/colors you like.
Ingredients: (adjust volume for your container)
Cranberry Juice
Blue Gatorade Frost
Diet 7Up
Ice cubes
Fill the glass or drink dispenser with ice. Pour in the cranberry juice. Next, pour in the Blue Gatorade Frost, but make sure that you pour straight onto some of the ice to gently add the layer. If you pour it directly into the juice it will mix. Pour in the Diet 7Up the same way. You'll need to use drinks with varying amounts of sugar, since those that contain more sugar (such as soda) are denser than those with less (such as diet drinks). This makes the stacking possible.
Ingredients:
4 or 5 springs of fresh mint
1 lime
1 ounce simple syrup
6 to 8 ounces soda water
Garnish: lime wedges and mint sprigs
Muddle the mint (reserve one sprig for garnish) with the simple syrup in the bottom of a tall glass. Add ice cubes. Squeeze half of one lime into the glass, reserving the other half for garnish (slice it into three or four wedges). Top with soda water. Stir, drop in lime wedges, and decorate with the last sprig of mint.
Italian Soda ᔥ Sugar and Charm Blog
Ingredients:
Blueberry or strawberry syrup
Club soda
Half and half
Fill a glass with ice. Pour 1/4 part syrup over the ice. Add in one part club soda. Pour in a dash of half and half and stir.
Flavored Waters ᔥ NancyCreative
Flavored water is inexpensive, totally versatile, and oh-so-perfect for a hot weather wedding… and any other kind of wedding. Lots of water on hand also means more hydration for those who are partaking in the real booze.
Citrus Cucumber Water
1 large lemon, sliced
1 large lime, sliced
1 large orange, sliced
1 large cucumber, sliced
1 half-gallon of water
Place all the sliced fruits and the cucumber in a glass pitcher and add water. Refrigerate for two hours to allow flavors to infuse, then serve in glasses over ice.
Honeydew Lime Water
2–3 slices of ripe honeydew melon
1 lime, sliced
4 sprigs of mint
1 half-gallon of water
Add melon slices, lime slices and mint sprigs to a large pitcher; fill with the half-gallon of water and refrigerate 2–4 hours. Serve in ice-filled glasses. Makes about 8 servings.
Lemon Lavender Water
3 large lemons, sliced
1/4 cup fresh lavender
1 half-gallon of water
Add lemon slices and lavender to pitcher; pour water over both and refrigerate for 2 hours. Serve over ice and garnish with a sprig of lavender.
Virgin Bellini ᔥ Chow.com
This version of the classic champagne drink would totally work for a brunch wedding.
Ingredients:
1 ounce chilled peach nectar
4 ounces chilled lemon-lime soda
Pour peach nectar into a champagne flute and top with lemon-lime soda. Stir gently and serve.
Watermelon punch WITH bowl! ᔥ Martha Stewart
Ingredients:
1 oblong seedless watermelon (about 14 pounds)
3 cups seltzer
Cut top third off of the watermelon (or carve into shark or Death Star shape!); trim the bottom just enough to make a flat surface. Scoop out the flesh. Working in batches, puree watermelon in a food processor. Strain through a fine sieve and discard solids. Cover the rind with plastic wrap. Refrigerate the juice and rind until chilled for about one hour. Combine juice with the seltzer and fill your bowl!
Milk and Cookies Cocktail ᔥ Mixing Bowl Kids
While not technically a “cocktail,” they sure do look cute, and any kids at the party will go nuts.
Ingredients:
Agave Nectar or honey
Colored sprinkles
Milk
Your favorite small and soft cookies
Peach melba cooler mocktail
Ingredients (7)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1 medium, ripe peach (about 6 ounces)
- 1/2 pint fresh raspberries (about 6 ounces)
- 1 bunch fresh lemon thyme (about 30 sprigs), rinsed and woody ends trimmed
- 1 liter cold club soda
- Ice
Instructions
- Bring the sugar and water to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar has dissolved, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Transfer the syrup to a small container with a tightfitting lid.
- Halve, pit, and cut the peach into 1/8-inch-thick slices. Add the peach slices to the syrup and stir to combine. Seal the container and refrigerate until the peach flavor infuses the syrup, at least 4 hours or up to 3 days.
- When ready to serve, pour the syrup through a fine-mesh strainer set over a medium bowl; discard the peach slices. Add half of the raspberries and half of the thyme sprigs to the bowl. (Set the rest of the raspberries and thyme aside to use as garnishes.) Using a potato masher, briefly smash the raspberries until they release their juices.
- Set a fine-mesh strainer over a large pitcher and pour in the raspberry mixture. Lightly press on the solids with a rubber spatula, then discard the contents of the strainer. Add the club soda and some ice to the pitcher and stir gently with a long spoon until combined.
- Gently bruise the remaining half of the thyme by crushing it in your hands (but don’t completely mangle it) and set it aside. Pour the Peach Melba Cooler into ice-filled collins glasses and garnish each drink with a sprig of the thyme and a few fresh raspberries.
Source: Greatist
Now it's time for you to reveal your favorite recipe for party time dranking (mock or otherwise)!
About the Author: Catherine Clark
Catherine Clark loiters at her local library, makes art, watches movies en masse, plays video and tabletop games, poorly cooks healthy things, cuddles with her feline fur babies, and blogs at BijouxandBits.com.
These all look so good! The cookies and milk are a super cute idea and would be great for a brunch wedding or dessert reception. We are perking up our non-alcoholic drink options with a self-serve Italian soda bar (similar to the recipe above, but without the cream, since that’s usually how it’s served here). Going to buy lots of flavoured syrups from the Italian market and let people go to town!
I would so get into an Italian soda bar.
As a soon-to-be offbeat mama.. this is a FANTASTIC post!! Now I don’t have to miss out on fantastic summer cocktails.. thanks offbeat!
Screw my wedding, I’d make those just for me! They all look so tasty!
the milk and cookies are SO cute!
I will definitely make the watermelon punch but LOVE the Independence Punch – so SCIENCEY
Awesome! We’re going dry to save costs, and I was thinking we’d have to go with just soda and lemonade and water without a bartender to mix drinks, but some of these will be perfect as DIY or large pitcher options 🙂 . I love slippy’s Italian soda bar idea above!
When I was little, Sunday morning was family brunch, and we had our own version of a mimosa. Mix equal parts seltzer water (any flavor, though I like plain the best) and orange juice. Use frozen strawberries as ice. The strawberries add flavor and an awesome color as they thaw, plus they are super fun to eat when you’ve finished your drink, all full of frozen orange juice and strawberry-y goodness.
Arnold Palmer all the way! It layers really well, isn’t too sweet, and has a cool retro drink name. It’s really just lemonade and ice tea. But so much cooler than either. If you used a flavored tea with some color (berry or green tea) it would be very pretty. Lemonade goes on the bottom. Enjoy!
Oh wow, perfect perfect perfect! I want to have a boozy wedding, but with plenty of non-booze options. I don’t think I’d want to drink a lot, and my sister wouldn’t be of age, and I want her to be able to drink something besides soda. I’ll have to run these by her and see which ones she likes (although those flavoured waters look delightful!).
This is great! I have been trying to figure out how to manage having alcoholic drinks for the drinking side of the family, but not having them be too in-your-face because of the Southern Baptist side of the family. I’m thinking that if I can make two drinks that LOOK the same but one has alcohol and one doesn’t, it could cut down on judgmental glares since you won’t be able to instantly tell who’s drinking alcohol and who’s not. I really want to try the watermelon thing!
Great idea, but people would have to be really careful not to pick up the wrong drink by mistake!
Love all these recipes – great for barbeques with expectant mums too and how great to make the drivers at your wedding feel special. Another easy but delicious recipe (courtesy Nigella) is half pomegranate juice and half dry ginger over ice. It is s-ooo good!
I was just thinking of fun non alcoholic drinks and these are SO much better than anything I’ve thought of! What a great post.
You should link to this from Offbeat Mama. All of us pregnant ladies love mocktails too!
Potentially dumb question- how would you go about serving these drinks at a wedding? I realize if you had hired a bartender you could just ask them to include these on their menu- but if you’re not hiring anyone? Make big jugs of them with instructions on how to garnish? Have a table full of prepoured glasses waiting? Something else?
Hire someone, or ask friends to take turns playing nonboozy bartender!
I’ve also spied this idea: pre-mixed drinks in mason jars. Or make up a big batch in some beverage dispensers.
I LOVE these ideas! My family is very conservative and would frown on alcohol, and we also haven’t the money to have booze at our wedding, so these are much appreciated!!!
Would a venue let you bring in the ingredients to do this? We are going No booze for our day and I was looking for some great ideas to keep people hydrated. Anyone tried these?
You are so helpful,me and my patrner for Life… our planning our wedding… And you gave made its so very helpful being we both are recovering alcoholics…..
Late to the party on this, but I want to recommend the book “Zero Proof Cocktails,” by Liz Scott. She has some incredibly sophisticated and fun ideas for mocktails, wine-copycats, and other nonalcoholic drinks. When a friend of mine who loved swanky cocktails but who’d stopped drinking was moving away, I made him dinner and served each course with a mocktail from this book. I also gave him a copy of the book as a present. He was thrilled!
I wish I’d seen these sooner! While we did not have a dry wedding, by any means, it might have been nice to have a couple of suggestions on hand for the few guests who could not imbibe for health or other reasons.
Thank you! While we aren’t having a dry wedding we were looking for non-alcoholic “special” drinks for our wedding since I have family that don’t drink. So they too can have something other than soda or juice to toast with. I was having a bit of trouble finding anything!!!
Thank you so much for these. As a recovering alcoholic, I feel like I miss out on the “fancy drinks” at weddings and other occasions. I love these recipes. I will make these as a special treat.
Ooh Trish, keep your eye on Offbeat Bride in the next couple weeks. We have another awesome mocktail post in the works!
As a non alcohol drinker these look amazing! However, I’m from Australia and some drink names are unfamiliar. Could someone please inform me what the following are or possible substitutes? Thanks!
Sierra Mist Natural
Diet 7Up
Half and half
seltzer
Sierra most and seven up are very similar, a clear lemon – lime carbonated soda. Sweet and a little tart, but overall pretty neutral.
Half and half is a creamer commonly used in coffee, if I remember right it’s half milk and half heavy cream.
Seltzer is carbonated water, no added flavor.
For a light, tropical twist to your virgin Mojito, try this — leave out the simple syrup and replace it with sugar free coconut espresso syrup (I like Torani or daVinci). It turns it into what I call a “Coconut Fauxjito” with essentially zero calories. Refreshing, zero-calories and “tastes like vacation.” 🙂
In the Independence Punch, Will Sprite Zero work in place of Diet 7Up? Honestly couldn’t find any Diet 7Up.
I LOVE these ideas! My family is very conservative and would frown on alcohol and also i have these type of recipes in my recipe book and know i want to share with you if you want this then clieck given below link:- http://goo.gl/gSwlwS
I LOVE these ideas! My family is very conservative and would frown on alcohol and also i have these type of recipes in my recipe book and know i want to share with you if you want this then click given below link:- http://goo.gl/gSwlwS
This is what I need. I want my wedding to be alcohol-free. Thanks for sharing!
I would love your opinion.
I am obsessed with mocktails. I am frugal.
One of my favorite mocktails is virgin whiskey (half Mountain Dew or diet Mountain Dew mixed with root beer.)
I sent my roommate to pick some supplies up and she got the Stars & Stripes brand at Dollar Tree.
I am not paranoid, but I am a little leary of using such cola. I only use diet Moutain Dew and A & W Root Beer.
Would you use Stars & Stripes?
Thank you and thank you for this list of recipes!