Wine & Cocktail selection at your reception.

I just opened a bottle of Cupcake Vineyards wine - yes, I sometimes choose wine according to the label/name/picture and I'm not ashamed - but this one got me thinking that it would be super cute to have on your wedding menu if you were having a tower of cupcakes instead of a traditional cake:

I think it's fun to have some kind of meaning behind the menu at your wedding; when Paul and I got married, we chose an Australian wine for the private dinner with our families at SW at Wynn Las Vegas it was a Mitolo G.A.M, the motto is 'Honor nostrorum liverorum pulchrorum' or 'In honour of our lineage' which seemed quite fitting. Paul had spent 6 months in Australia for work and when I visited him we went to various vineyards hence the choice.

And at our post wedding reception at Atkinson Country Club (essentially a big excuse for me to wear my wedding dress again and celebrate with our friends) we had a martini ice luge and named the martinis after our dogs - so we had the Coco Chanel Cosmopolitan and the Nutty Tiger Woods:

I've photographed weddings with signature cocktails, jugs of homemade lemonade and even wine pairings with each course and they've all been a huge hit with guests - it makes everything a little more personal.

And for the photography fiends amongst you, the top picture was taken with my D700 at ISO 1600, and the Nikon AF-S Micro Nikkor 105mm 1:2.8G ED lens at f3 1/100, a little backlighting with a Litepanel video light and a hint of light from a Brinkmann gun light. I know I'm getting impatient for wedding season to start when I start playing with lighting a wine bottle...