Help us decide what kind of bar to have at our wedding! Scroll down and leave a comment to vote.

This summer my new thing is about creating cocktails in pitchers with fruit and other delicious ingredients. I’m in love with the Pottery Barn pitcher that my mom purchased for me from a Seattle Outlet several weeks ago. Hopefully I’ll end up with around 3 pitchers for the summer so I can serve some different kinds of cocktails at my patio parties.

This past weekend I made a modified Brazilian kiwi caiprinha. A couple of my coworkers are from Brazil and they’ve been talking to me a lot about caipirinhas — so I got on the bandwagon. A Brazilian caipirinha is made from Brazilian cachaça which is a type of rum made in Brazil from sugar cane, mixed with fruit. This drink has a very full, rich flavour because of the cachaça. It’s similar to a mojito but a little bit spicier or heavier in flavour. It’s very refreshing and I love the fruit component. It’s by no means a very traditional caipirinha (because of the added soda water and apple liqueur), but it’s still delicious.

ALLIE’S BRAZILIAN KIWI CAIPIRINHA COCKTAIL RECIPE

- One large glass pitcher
- 6 ripe kiwis
- 6-8 oz of Brazilian cachaça, such as Sagatiba Pura (I found mine at the BC liquor store at Cambie and 41st)
- 3-4 oz Giffard’s Manzana Verde (apple liqueur, but any tart fruit juice would work fine like pear or apple juice)
- Two fresh limes, squeezed, and one lime cut up into thin slices
- 1/4 cup or less (sweeten to taste, I like less sweet) of raw cane sugar
- Three cans of club soda
- 1 large handful fresh mint

Mix everything in a pitcher and enjoy! Fill the pitcher with as much ice as possible… Works GREAT with summer BBQs.

In others new.. Allan and I have been doing a lot of thinking on the type of alcoholic bar to have at our wedding. We are trying to keep our costs down, but most of all want our friends to have a good time. It seems that everyone I talk to has a different opinion. Here are the different options we are looking at:

1. OPEN BAR: Everyone has as much to drink as they want, but runs the risk of getting “sloshy” or many unfinished drinks, also very expensive
2. TOONIE BAR: Perhaps give out a few free drink tickets, and then people pay $2 for an additional drink. More to prevent wasting of drinks and to prevent the party from getting out of control. Also helps pay some costs like the bartender fee. You can get a lot of drinks for 10 or 20 bucks, but hopefully it keeps people from wasting their drinks.
3. TICKET SYSTEM: Basically purchase a pre-set amount of tickets and hand out to guests accordingly. Could look cheap but prevents certain individuals from going overboard.

What do you think? What is the best system to have at a wedding? Any other ideas? Please vote below and help us decide!

For those of you who have been following me on Twitter, you know by now that we’ve picked a date for our wedding and a venue as well!

Allan and I will be getting married in Tofino/Ucluelet on Saturday, September 3rd 2011. Wohooo! We feel that Tofino is the perfect place for us to start our new life together, and I am really excited for all our guests to experience our favourite place in the whole world.

We’ve put deposits down on our venues already! Our ceremony location will be at the Black Rock Resort.

Allan wants an outdoor wedding and I want an indoor wedding… so we thought — hey, let’s have the weather decide! Black Rock has a beautiful outdoor patio that looks out onto the wild Pacific Ocean with dramatic trees and rocks framing the landscape.

It can seat around 100 people, but since we are having only about 70-80 people, it will be the perfect size.

While we were standing there, it was amazing to hear the ocean crashing against the rocks and seeing the ocean spray shoot into the air in the background.

In the event of rain or wind, we will be going downstairs to the Wine Cellar Room at the Black Rock for the ceremony. The room can seat around 100 people for the ceremony.

The room is beautiful with candlelit alcoves and floor to ceiling windows.

The windows look through steep cliffs on either side out to the Pacific Ocean and the waves. We love it!

Our dinner reception will take place just down the driveway at the brand new Ucluelet Community Centre that just opened a few weeks ago!

It’s hard to imagine with this fair going on, but we’re going to transform the inside of this venue to look romantic with tent-like draperies, natural elements and of course, some simple wedding florals. The ceilings are ridiculously high with exposed wood beams and windows. It’s going to be beautiful! And best of all… it’s HUGE (can seat 250 people) so there will be lots of space for a rockin’ dance floor.

We’re really excited about our wedding venues and can’t wait to tie the knot on our favourite little spot on the West Coast, with lots of time for surfing afterwards

What do you think of destination weddings? What do you think of our venues?