Cocktail hour is one of the most fun parts of any wedding. Who doesn’t like drinking delicious and refreshing drinks that also happen to have alcohol in them?

So, you may want to stock up on different kinds of drinks to suit everyone’s taste. You can even have a signature drink!

A signature wedding cocktail can make your big day even more memorable! A wedding reception with a signature cocktail is definitely memorable, and your whole guest list will love it. Here are some ideas for summer signature drinks.

If you’re not a cocktail drinker, you may not even know what a drink mixer is. A mixer is the non-alcoholic part of a cocktail. It makes your drink taste much better, and it adds volume to it.

They can often include multiple ingredients and flavors in them that would be used in a specific cocktail, which means you’d only need to add alcohol (sparkling wine, wine, vodka, gin, rum, etc.) and possibly soda (tonic, soda water, etc.), and have your cocktail ready. And some are more simple, and just used as one of the ingredients.

Having great drink mixers can allow you and your guests to toast to your new life with your partner.

Best Drink Mixers For Wedding

When you’re choosing a mixer to buy, here are a few tips for what to look for.

Try to find mixers that don’t have that many ingredients. First of all, you’re avoiding buying the ones with all of the artificial flavors, and you’re also making sure the taste is top notch - if they have fewer ingredients, that means the main flavor will come through more, and be more natural.
If they have sweeteners in them (as most of them do), try to find the ones with natural sweeteners - maple, agave, cane. They offer richer flavors.

How Many Mixers To Buy For Wedding?

First, let’s quickly help you solve this question. When it comes to how many mixers you need to buy for your wedding, it depends on how many guests you’ll have, and how many different cocktails you decide to offer. Typically, each guest will drink about one drink per hour + 1 more in the first hour of arriving (on average), so you can calculate based on that. Take into count that not everyone will drink cocktails the whole night.

Now, let’s get into mixers.

Tonic

You probably heard of this one, but it’s great for Gin & Tonic obviously! The taste is very subtle, so it doesn’t overpower your drink, but makes it taste much nicer! Make sure you add a lemon wedge to your gin and tonic, it will make it so much better!

This is perfect for summer weddings, winter weddings, and all weddings really. They’re such a classic, and there’s no way that your guests won’t love having this as an option, and it will definitely be a popular wedding drink option.

That’s the one almost everyone’s familiar with, almost everyone has tried before, and orders often. So, you can go wrong with this classic..

Cranberry Juice Mixer

This is a great and refreshing one! It adds a fresh, fruity, and sweet flavor to your drink, and it is perfect for those who don’t like to taste the alcohol.

Here are a few cocktail recipes that use cranberry juice as a mixer.

Holiday Cocktail

210 calories

4 oz Prosecco (champagne, cava) - 90 calories
8 oz Cranberry Juice Cocktail - 120 calories
1 Rosemary, sprig - 0 calories

DIRECTIONS

Combine juice and prosecco. Add in rosemary sprig.
This is for those over 21 years.

Red White & Blue Cocktail

129 calories

4 oz Prosecco (champagne, cava) - 90 calories
2 oz Cranberry Juice Cocktail - 30 calories
⅛ cup Blueberries, fresh - 8.75 calories

DIRECTIONS

Combine juice and prosecco. Spear blueberries on toothpick, add to drink.
0.125 cups = 1/8 cup (2 Tbsp).
This is for those over 21 years old.

Orange Juice

Even though it’s technically a juice, orange juice is often used as a mixer, and is a part of many cocktails. So, I wanted to include that on here as well. If you want healthy drink mixers, that one is great!

Here are some cocktail ideas that use orange juice.

Bubbly Margarita

83 calories

1 oz Tequila - 69 calories
1 oz Orange juice - 13.75 calories
¼ cup Seltzer - 0 calories
2 Tbsp Lime, juice - 0 calories

DIRECTIONS

Juice limes in a small bowl (or use lime juice from a bottle).
In a cup, add tequila, orange juice, seltzer, and lime juice.
Mix with a spoon.
Add in ice to fill the cup.

Mimosa

118 calories

4 oz Prosecco (champagne, cava) - 90 calories
2 oz Orange juice - 27.5 calories

DIRECTIONS

Combine orange juice and prosecco.
This drink is for those over 21 years.

Ginger Beer

Ginger beer can be used in many cocktails, and the most popular one where you can find it is a classic Moscow Mule. It complements the vodka very nicely, it’s not overpowering, and the subtle carbonation adds a nice touch.

That would be great for a winter wedding, but it can absolutely be drunk even if it’s a different season.

It can even be added to the classic Aperol Spritz for a more interesting cocktail (if Aperol Spritz is your signature cocktail of choice, you can serve different variations of it, to make it more interesting).

Watermelon Syrup

Watermelon syrup is an amazing mixer that can be used in all sorts of cocktails. It’s perfect for a summer wedding and a summer drink, since the watermelon flavor really goes with a summer theme.

It’s sweet, and it takes away from the alcohol flavor, so it’s perfect for those who prefer lighter drinks.

You can mix it with an alcohol like vodka or tequila, and add soda to it as well, to make it perfectly balanced. It goes well with a lot of different flavors, so you can really use this one for a lot of different cocktails.

If you want to know which one to get, Monin has an incredible one, and one of the most popular ones.

Powdered Mixers

If you want to choose this option, you definitely can. In many stores, you can buy powdered mixers - they come in many different flavors, and are usually categorized by the cocktail that they go with, so that can make your job easier.

You can often get them in packs - one pack usually includes different mixers for different cocktails, Margaritas, Mai Tais, Moscow Mules, etc.

They’re usually made of dried fruit and sweeteners (sugar, stevia, etc.), so they can definitely come in handy.

Bloody Mary Mixer

As the name says it - this one is used for Bloody Marys. Even though you can make a Bloody Mary from scratch, this would be a great idea for a wedding, especially if you have many guests.

Even though it’s not a common wedding cocktail, you can make your wedding unique and different, and put this as an option for your guests.

Mojito Mixer

Mojitos are extremely delicious and refreshing. If you’re having a summer wedding, this is one of the best options to have for your guests!

The taste is not too strong, it’s both sweet and a bit sour, and a perfect drink for a hot day when you’ll be doing a lot of dancing and need to be refreshed from time to time.

It includes muddled mint, cane sugar, and lime juice. So, the flavor can’t be anything but amazing.

Don’t forget to have them garnished with mint leaves!

You can also make some non-traditional mojito cocktails, for example by adding grapefruit juice for a grapefruit mojito! Or any other flavor you like.

Cosmopolitan Mixer

This is another classic, and always a crowd-pleaser.

Cosmopolitan is a delicious and fruity cocktail, with a perfect amount of alcohol + mixer in it, so it’s not too powerful alcohol-wise, but still packs a punch.

It can be for any season, as it’s super delicious for any time of year. The fruity taste goes well with most themes, so no matter what theme your wedding has, this classic cocktail would be a perfect addition. And the mixer makes your bartender’s life much easier!

It usually contains bright cranberry juice and key limes - so the flavor goes well with everything!

Margarita Mixer

Another classic. Margaritas are great for a summer wedding, and they taste great. A margarita mixer usually contains lime juice and pure cane sugar, perfectly balanced with triple sec.

Old Fashioned Mixer

An Old Fashioned is a very tasty cocktail, perfect for winter weddings. It usually contains cane sugar, orange, and cherry juice, and if you pair it with whiskey, you'll get the perfect cocktail to serve to your guests.

Sour Mixer

Sour cocktails are very popular. They can especially be refreshing during a hot summer day, but they are delicious any time of year. A sour mixer usually has lemon juice, orange, key lime juice, and it’s slightly sweetened with pure cane sugar. You can mix it with vodka, tequila, rum, or any other alcohol, and get a very delicious cocktail.