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What do we want? Coffee! When do we want it? At our wedding reception! Wedding reception coffee bars are easier than you might think. You can certainly ask your caterer to whip you up a fancy coffee bar for beaucoup bucks, but DIYing it can be just as easy, especially if you use a few shortcuts.
With the right coffee maker setup, the most delish of flavorings and goodies, and even coffee mug favors, your coffee bar can easily outshine the rest of the food. Let's get our bean faces on and DIY the crap out of a rad reception coffee bar.
Lotsa coffee
Providing pre-made coffee is a great way to serve a lot of guests, but sometimes you want a fresh cuppa joe. Single-serve pods (such as from our sponsor, Keurig) offer something for everyone at your wedding including freshly brewed coffee, tea or hot chocolate with a simple press of a button. The Keurig K575 (pictured here) also comes with an extra-large color touch screen making it easy for guests to brew the perfect cup. Keurig brewers can also fit any size beverage bar and color palette.
Just provide the Keurig brewer, the K-Cup pods, and cups and you're almost there.
Cups, two ways
Serve your beverages in mismatched ugly mugs: Muglies!
This will look familiar to those of you who've read my book — one offbeat bride borrowed my Muglies idea for her recent wedding, complete... Read more
Speaking of cups: you can either supply disposable paper cups or regular mugs, depending on the number of guests. I love the concept of mismatched “muglies” which can double up as wedding favors. Just scour your local thrift stores for the funkiest mugs you can find.
If you opt for paper cups, you can snag the kind that come with plain sleeves, which you can then DECORATE. Personalize them with your name and/or wedding date… or anything you like.
Coffee fixins'
This is where things get seriously customizable. Here are a few coffee mix-ins and fixins' we'd recommend:
- Cream
- Sugar and sugar substitutes
- Non-dairy creamer and/or almond/cashew milk (labeled for allergy reasons!)
- Flavored creamers or syrups
- Coffee stirs
- Whipped cream
- Chocolate and caramel sauce
- Marshmallows
- Cocoa powder
- Cinnamon
- Cinnamon sticks
- Sprinkles
Don't forget to provide a little basket or trash bin for discarded wrappings and stirs. And napkins… don't forget those!
Coffee-loving snacks
This is totally optional, especially if you're already providing noms elsewhere. But cookies, graham crackers, pizzelles, Pirouette cookies, flavored nuts, and other nibbles pair really well with coffee. Just sayin'.
Coffee bar signage
You have to let guests know where everything is, right? Nab yourself a little chalkboard and write up your favorite coffee combination recommendations. Or snag an ultra cute sign from places like Etsy and then keep it for your own at-home coffee bar setup.
Thanks to Keurig for sponsoring this post! Find out more about their products.
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.
I don’t know how I didn’t think about this, I was just doing to do one boring coffee and a hot cocoa, but I am excited about the variety. This is happening for our brunch wedding with Kahlua.
With a brunch wedding you have so many fun things you can do. Are you having a morning wedding or a breakfast-for-dinner kind?
We’re thinking a reception from 11 am – 2:30 or 3 pm. Donuts from our favorite local (super divey, 24 hour, cash only) place as an appetizer while we are out taking some pics and then various quiches and root veggie hash and fruit salad . We have family in recovery and neither one of us dance, so shifting the reception to daytime and removing the crazy party focus was best for us. Thanks for asking!
What about those of us who are coffee nerds? I know a lot of folks love the Kuerig thing, but I am not one of them. Has anyone figured out good ways of doing french presses, Chemex, or pour-over bars for a big crowd? Ours is an afternoon wedding, so not everyone will be wanting coffee, but we want what coffee we do have to be well-crafted because that’s how we drink it at home.
Ah, just saw that this was a sponsored post. That makes sense, but I still want to know if any of you lovely folks out there have more coffee ideas! Thanks!
I’m doing a coffee bar and we’re actually planning on hiring someone to act as barista and having the full on coffee bar in place of a regular bar for a brunch reception. My fiance does not drink alcohol, his father was an abusive alcoholic, and he is actually uncomfortable and afraid in situations where people may get drunk, so doing open bar was never an option for us. But he looooves coffee so it seemed like a fun alternative.
i loooooove this idea as an alternative to a cocktail hour for a morning or afternoon wedding!
It pains me k-cups aren’t recyclable!!! So many little pods in landfills… There are a couple of companies that have biodegradable cup bottoms, maybe if you choose this you could try them and see if you like them! In advance, of course.
San Francisco Bay Coffee pods fit Keurig Machines and are compostable. It’s what I use at home!!