Entertaining 101: Stock the Bar   

When the wedding planning is all over, the next step is life as a newlywed couple. Hence, you’re bound to entertain friends and family in your humble abode, and nothing gets a party started faster than great cocktails. Before you invite folks over, make sure to stock the bar with all the wedding essentials. Here’s a detailed list of what you’ll need:

Tools of the trade:
Long gone are your college days of using two plastic cups to make a mixed drink. Your home bar should be just as grown up as you are. Here are a few of the basic tools needed to concoct the perfect cocktails:

• Blender
• Bottle stopper
• Can opener
• Champagne pliers
• Corkscrew
• Cutting board (for lemon or lime wedges)
• Decanter or carafe
• Ice bucket and scoop
• Jigger
• Muddler
• Pitcher
• Recipe book
• Shaker
• Spoon (one with a long handle for stirring drinks)
• Serving tray
• Strainer
• Swizzle sticks
• Wine chiller

Read on for more wedding essentials

Beverage beginnings:
Preparing a good drink takes the right base. Keep these spirits on hand to serve up the right mix of fun. 

• Beer
• Bourbon
• Brandy
• Champagne
• Cognac
• Gin
• Vodka
• Rum
• Tequila
• Vermouth
• Whiskey
• Wine (red and white)

Festive Fillers:
All the extras that keep the party going.

• Glassware (high ball, wine, champagne flutes, pilsner, mugs, snifter, shots, etc.)
• Glassware charms (for guests can tell between whose drink is whose)
• Cocktail napkins
• Coasters
• Stirrers
• Mixers and schnapps (juice, soda, sours, simple syrup, bitters, etc.)
• Rimming salt and sugar for garnish

Read on for more wedding essentials

Bar Lingo:
Terms every great bartender should know.

• Dry: made with less vermouth
• Neat: without a mixers
• On the rocks: served with ice
• Shooter: served in a shot glass
• Straight up: chilled drink served without a mixer or ice
• Wet: made with more vermouth