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I've noticed in my wedding shooting days that serve-yourself hydration stations were becoming more and more popular. And for good reason — no need to hire staff to re-fill your drinks, your guests can get refreshed at will, great for weddings on hot days, and they also look really pretty! Just look at those beehive beverage dispensers pictured below. When any of these are filled with colored liquid like bright sun teas, fruit filled water, or sangria, they're like refreshing colorful wedding decor.
If you're thinking of setting out some drink dispensers, here are a few options that will not only serve up yummy liquids, but will look good doing it — and match your wedding decor from vintage-style to nerdy or gothic.
This Creativewear three gallon beverage dispenser is UNBREAKABLE, bitches! This will last through ALL your raging parties — wedding and beyond.
This one is also by Creativewear, but it's got some cool texture detail to it that I really like.
I just LOVE the look of this Artland pedestal-style beverage jar.
The Simple Lines ceramic beverage dispenser is sexy and modern, just like you. (Winky face.)
Ooh: A set of two large mason jar dispensers with a stand — how convenient! And how charming!
Note that spigot being allll the way at the bottom: not a drop goes to waste with this 1.5 gallon dispenser.
I'm going to end this roundup on these awesome colorful Mason Jar-style beverage dispensers. They come in red, green, and blue. Artistic beverage dispensing DONE! (Also, if you're wanting to serve your guests from mason jars, we recommend this 24 pack!)
Oh, and in related news… a personalized beverage tub makes a great keepsake after the wedding.
About the Author: Megan Finley Horowitz
When Megan's not writing, traveling, and sleeping, she's eating like the fate of the world depends on it. (You're welcome, world!) You can snoop into her personal life over on her website The Dash and Dine!
Wow. I never knew my life was lacking drink dispensers. But it is. It totally is.
Im with ya
We have ours bought. Two are really pretty with silver glass lid and base, the other two are more casual but we are going to paint the lid to match the mirrored glass on the others. I’m really looking forward to the hydration station! I think it’s going to be a hit!
ZOMG. How did I not find those mason jar dispensers when I was planning my mason-jar themed wedding??
Oh. The price, that’s how. 🙁
NOOOOOOOO! Why are my favorite ones “currently unavailable” on Amazon!?! SADNESS! I was totally prepped to buy one right here right now, for no other reason than they are awesome and I want one.
Was it the globe?
The globe AND the 3-in-1 one! Hooray Google shopping….. 🙂
Oh no! Must’ve sold out right quick. Sorry!
I WANT THE BEE HIVE ONES. Seriously, FH is a mead maker and I those would be awesome to serve mead out of.
I’m pretty sure I need to buy that fire hydrant dispencer for my Dad! 🙂
These are so cool and practical. LOOVE the globe. Gotta love function and looks.
Megan, this is the best porn post I have ever seen on OBB. Yeah, I might maybe have brought home a beautiful 1.5-gallon apothecary-jar style glass beverage dispenser last night. I LURVE it. I said to my sweetie, “This beverage dispenser represents to me the foundation of our wedding style.” I took pictures of me hugging it. (I know that’s weird.) I got it off of Craigslist and it cost me $10, and I am sooooo happy and materialistic about it I can’t STAND myself.
HA! That’s hilarious. You go on and hug your fancy foundational wedding apothecary jar-style dispenser. And I would like to see that photo. 😉
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/543030_10150787050145932_743940931_11979711_1254449844_n.jpg
YES! Even better than I thought it’d be!
Ohh, I love this. I like the inexpensive, unbreakable ones – I had already been looking at getting that one. But now there’s so. many. to. choose. from. (and how to explain to my partner that you can really spend time trying to decide which drink dispenser? :-D)
I bought 2 of the creativewear dispensers and they are BEYOND awesome! Wedding isn’t until August and I’m storing them at my sister’s so she used one this past weekend for a party with crazy drunk hockey guys and everyone thought it was amazing! 🙂
the unbreakable ones are nice and affordable, too bad the spout isn’t unbreakable 🙁 mine is out of order till i figure something out
Awesome! Full of nice ideas! thanks for all
I bought a bee-hive one very similar the the one shown, but I paid $20 at TJ MAxx. The one on Amazon.com at $44 is ridiculous. Sometimes buying stuff online is really not the way to go.
Sadly, not everyone has a TJ Maxx around them. I’m pretty sure the small town in northern Michigan where I used to live would probably have maybe 2 places where you could buy anything like this within about 100 miles, and they would both probably charge well over $100 for it (and that really is not an exaggeration). During that time, amazon/internet shopping was my bestest friend.
Plus, being able to link directly to where you can buy these beauties is pretty nice, instead of just saying something like “can buy at TJ Maxx… if you happen to know what that is in China….”. I say HOORAY ONLINE SHOPPING! 🙂 (And hooray local shopping too, of course!)
We have the gas station pump because we found it on sale in a store. I love it. It harbors our whiskey and is cute and easy to use/ wash!
Some timing! We’re providing beer and wine, and in lieu of a bar at Cocktail Hour we’re putting out dispensers of vodka and cranberry juice (with floating eyeballs of course) for our Halloween wedding. We’ve discovered it helps A TON to have friends who work for Macys. They get great discounts on top of all the sales.
WOW! so many great finds!
I’ll bet the “goth” one would be great filled with absinthe
The only problem I have with drink dispensers is most of them leave that 2 inch space between the bottom of the jug and the spigot.
I am afraid someone would break the glass all over the floor trying to tilt a condensation-covered beverage dispenser to get at the last bit.
The globe and gas station ones look like they don’t have that problem, but they’re not quite my decor cup’o’tea.
I have the third one. It is really nice to have not only for weddings but picnics and other get togethers as well. I saw one at the Marriott and it was in the shape of a triangle! I want one of those.
These are all so cool! My favorite is the wrought iron one. Very classy!
Ahhhhhhhhhhh, this is an amazing post–Megan, I swear everything you post speaks to my *soul*. I’ve been 100% for the idea of refreshments at ceremony but blank on “dispensers”– now I have a direction to go in!
Does anyone know how many cups per gallon (not much of a math person here, clearly… lol)?
16 cups…but if you use smaller glasses, you could probably get 18-20 “drinks” out a gallon. It forces people to only get what they will consumer – no half-finished punch cups everywhere. 🙂
Aw! Smerby! That just made my day. Gracias! 🙂
And thankfully Sara came in clutch with the math facts there. Soul speaking, I can do. Math, not-so-much.
We bought two of these for our wedding in two months.
http://www.zgallerie.com/p-1835-apothecary-beverage-dispenser.aspx
what a great & unique idea, I would never have thought of this! I love it!
LOVE these. Just bought ours 2 days ago hahaha
For my Canadian brides….we got these at Canadian Tire. Super cute, non-breakable, BPA free and only $30 bucks!
http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/8/KitchenBath/Dinnerware/Servingware/PRD~1422301P/Bark+Clear+Design+Beverage+Dispenser.jsp?locale=en
Beware ones with the spouts too high.
You don’t have access to that portion of your drink. That three-piece stand one makes have your liquid useless. 🙁
ribbed for her pleasure
heehee
only on the offbeat empire can you get innappropriate comments about drink dispensers!!!
I bet offbeat home readers would love this post too for summer BBQs
We have the beehive one and it has come in handy in many occasions, especially for a “Sweet as can Bee” Baby Shower. The only problem is that the spicket (sp?)is very slow. We usually just end up taking the top off and scooping with a ladle.
They just had large drink-dispensers on sale at my local Costco. Now…I want. All of these.
I’ve got the dispensers, but I’d love some “offbeat” ideas for what to fill them with! Has anyone had any trouble with limitations set by the venue on what you can and cannot serve in these things? Ideally, I’d like to fill them with signature alcoholic drinks.
Has anyone tried to serve soda out of one of these dispensers? I see them filled with lemonade, tea, and water, but I wonder whether pouring the soda in causes it to fizz out too quickly. I am planning to have a beverage station, but a wedding day without Pepsi would be a sad day.
We got these at Sam’s Club for $16 each! (they seem to be a couple bucks more online than in store) They are pretty nice, and unbreakable.
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod1830541&navAction=
Plus, they have an empty space under the beverage compartment to put decoration type things to tie it into your theme. That feature did it for me.
For our Mexican-American wedding, we are planning to serve “Aguas de Sabor”, essentially a long line of containers with a rainbow of natural fruit flavors. We love to head out of our home in Mexico and find our local Aguas vendor. My particular favorite is cucumber water, but watermelon, pineapple and guava waters are some of the most colorful.
Gaaa! With the wedding 2 days away it’s too late to put one of these on the registry. What was I thinking leaving out a fab drink dispenser? Sigh.
I LOVE drink dispensers. But the cheap ones that I’ve had in the past all had leaky problems. And the ones I love are too expensive now that I’m on a budget (although you betcha sweet cheeks they’re on the wedding registry). So for my wedding I’m looking at Apothecary Jars that I can use a ladle with so I don’t have to worry about leaky spouts. Some of the jars I’ve seen look exactly like the dispensers above, but half the price! And I can use them as vases around the home later instead of stuffing it in a cabinet!!
These are all so awesome and I’ve looked into buying about half of them. However, they are either too expensive or what Kelsey said, the affordable (read: cheap) ones leak. I just posted a journal entry about how I am going to solve my beverage dispenser dilemma!
http://tribe.offbeatwed.com/journals/2013/05/diy-beverage-dispenser-that-wont-break-my-budget
Kelsey – I don’t know if your wedding is inside or outside but keep bugs in mind. I wanted to do the ladle thing but Chicago in July in a backyard is not a bug nor falling leaf nor random-floating-object free zone.
Hi. Does anyone have a great idea on how to keep condensation from dripping on the table or counter? I have the bee hive dispenser and the condensation ends up pooling on the table. Thanks. Jasmin
Where would I find the glass drink dispenser that has a spigot and two chambers, one for the drink and one for ice or fruits and flowers? I think it was around $200.
Thanks
Is it safe to store water for drinking n a daily basis? Will the metal part of the sprout, on the inside, be health hazardous ?
We got four of the beehive ones, but with gorgeous metal stands, double the capacity, and a tiny fraction of Amazon’s price here:
http://www.webstaurantstore.com/core-2-4-gallon-glass-beverage-dispenser-with-metal-stand-12-x-10-1-2-x-19-1-2/553040067KIT.html
These were *amazing*. No issues with leaking, clogging, or slow pours.
Has anyone tried using a drink dispenser to dispense honey? Does it work?