Welcome to The Wedding Tea! Each month, Christen Westcott with Look West Events sits down for a cup of piping hot tea with a local wedding industry professional. We’ll share our insights and hopefully help you navigate the wild world of wedding & event planning! We invited Kaitlyn Granado with Bar or Brew to tell us more about one of the most important parts of a wedding – the BAR, honey!
The Wedding Tea: Sipping Spiked Tea with Kaitlyn G. and ‘Bar or Brew’
Christen: Miss Kaitlyn Granado of Bar or Brew. First question is – how do you take your tea?
Kaitlyn: I love tea!! I like strong tea. I don’t add anything to my tea, actually. Unless it’s iced tea, where I’ll do a half sweet, half unsweet. But I’m really big on coffee.
C: So how did you come up with the name Bar or Brew?
K: I actually really wanted to implement coffee as part of the business as well as bartending, so that’s kind of how we came up with Bar or Brew. And we definitely do serve coffee bars and hot chocolate bars! But bartending is what I do, so that kind of took off first! I also wanted a name that was simple, and I liked the look when I typed out Bar or Brew.
Spilling the wedding tea: the atmosphere
C: What makes you come home from a wedding bar and you say to yourself, “that was really fun!”
K: The interactions from the guests! Every wedding or event is always so different and I have no idea what kind of crowd or vibe it’s going to be. It’s about making those relationships – people love when I already know what they’re drinking! Or when there’s a signature drink that I created for that wedding that makes the bride sooo happy, and that makes me happy!
C: If you could dream up your ideal wedding bar, what would it look like? The bride and groom have unlimited funds, they want to really blow it out, what kind of bar do they have?
K: I would want it to be a walk-up bar where I could make any drink that they ask for, just like if I was behind a bar in downtown Dallas. I’d want to be able to whip up ANY drink. And I’d have a team of 3, running around and making amazing things!
Spilling the wedding tea: stocking your bar
C: If I’m a bride or groom and I don’t have any experience stocking a wedding bar, what are some questions that I need to have answered in order to figure that out?
K: Two really important factors are the number of hours of service and how many guests are of drinking age. The season is important too, because there can be a big difference between how much red or white wine people drink depending on the time of year! Also, it isn’t 100 percent necessary to know upfront, but it can be helpful if you know what style beer your crowd will enjoy, or how much they will gravitate toward liquor versus beer.
C: What is one drink you would never want to make again in your life, if you had the option?
K: This is a hard question, because it depends! I personally really enjoy drinking whiskey sour and I don’t necessarily mind making them. But if I have to make a LOT of them…or if I’m cleaning up and then someone asks for one, I’ll be like..hmph. And the reason is because you have to be so careful with anything with an egg white. So I’m a little over it after I’ve made a few!
Spilling the wedding tea: the Bar or Brew experience
C: At the end of a wedding, how do you measure your success?
K: Usually I can tell I’ve done well when it’s the end of the night and people almost always stop by and say thank you. I know then that they were happy! And when I get a message from a bride, a text or even a comment on a post, I can tell that they’re going out of their way to say thank you and it means a lot!
C: Ummm what about the tip jar being chock full?!
K: Hahaha that too!! That is validating!
C: Hard hitting question – if you were a signature wedding cocktail, what kind would you be and what would you look like?
K: There’s a cocktail called the Aviation, and that’s what I’d be! It’s a Gin cocktail with creme de violette, maraschino liqueur and luxardo cherries. One of my favorite things to do is make drinks for brides that are ‘made up’ and there isn’t a classic recipe. But it’s kind of funny that if I were a signature cocktail, I’d be a classic recipe! Maybe because I only trust myself to experiment!
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