Sparkling grape juice instead of champaign?

Sparkling cider is another good one, and is a bit more "adult" sounding than grape juice

I think it would be a waste of money, if there isn't goingto be any alcohol to toast with than people can just toast with whatever they are drinking. I've never heard of sparkling grape juice, but If I wasn't allowed to drink alcohol at someones wedding, I would rather have a diet coke than grape juice. I say skip it.

I thought about doing apple cider but the venue would charge a $10 p/bottle corkage fee to open up the damn bottles we bring (really, that is not even worth $10 a bottle).

Check with the venue to make sure they will not do the same to you.

The sparkling grape juice is fine, I've been too many non-alcoholic weddings and they always use sparking grape juice for the toast, it's not a bad idea at all go for it. We're still debating about alcohol in our wedding, only my side of the family drinks, and I do believe that's what will use for the toast

@yady, the reason that venues charge a corkage fee is to cover their expenses and the loss on the item that you are not purchasing from them. You are paying for their servers to pour and distribute the beverage; wash the glasses; account for breakage of said glasses; contribute to the cost of insurance (especially if the beverage contains alcohol).

$10 is actually very reasonable.

The venue that we used, for my daughters wedding, waived the corkage fee. Saved us over $600.

@Katie, you can toast with any beverage you you choose. AT my daughters wedding, people toasted with their beverage of choice. We did not do a "Champagne" toast. Although we did have Spanish Sparkling wine available. Would love to have done real Champagne, but not at $50 per bottle....and that is my cost as a wine wholesaler. LOL!

Our venue is a banquet hall that a local grocery store owns so all our food and beverage will come from there. I'd hope they wouldn't have an extra charge to open a bottle. I'd bring my own bottle opener if that is the case lol

My FI really wants a bottle of champagne at everyone's table...it's 20 bucks a bottle for a magnum bottle (it's a supmoni (sp)), so it's not bad champagne and they put on a custom monogramed label. I am going to talk to my venue about having a bottle or two of sparkling cider for guests who don't drink or are in recovery, as a few of my friends are.

I think it's great that you want to have a toasting beverage. I think i'd go with sparkling cider instead of grape juice, but to each his own!

If you are purchasing the beverages from the owner of the venue, you should not have any additional fee (other than gratuity).

I'd like to have some cheap wine because I'm easy to please but my FH doesn't want alcohol at all and that's a small price for me to pay for getting A LOT of things I want. I guess I've never heard of an opening fee. The wedidngs I have been to never really had servers really and that might be because I'm from SD and you do have much of that here so that's probably why I have never heard of the opening fee. Course I'd rather have cheap box wine over the supper expensive champaign lol. Call me simple but it works. Another question I just thought about would it be rude to just have one bottle of the real stuff at the bridal table and then have something else for the guest? That would be the only time alcohol would take place.

I guess the only thought I have is that sparkling grape juice would stain if spilled, more than sparkling apple cider would.

We had alcohol, but I don't drink and we had kids at the wedding too. We the kids and I got sparkling cider.

Yeah thats right...we, the kids, and I....lol I think I meant to say 'so' not 'we'

@KarateChick, You are speaking of "Spumante", which is a sweet sparkling wine.

Rather then sparkeling grape juice we made our own, white grape juice and ginger ale. not expinsive and a big hit with the kids. We used a punch bowl and froze some of the grape juice so it would keep the mix cold and not dilute it like ice would.

I grew up in a small town in Ohio with a Presbyterian college in it. Since wine wasn't allowed at any of the functions, sparkling catawba juice was served on festive occasions. It's not as sweet as regular grape juice.

However, having people toast with what they are already drinking is fine, too.

@Kathy...I think we both may be wrong lol...I just pulled out my paperwork and it says "Verdi Spumunti"

I don't know much about champagne or wine, so who knows lol

Or maybe I just spelled wrong, but according to their website they have both champagne AND sparkling wine.

Either way I guess it doesn't matter lol...that's what we're getting.

@He-Gives-Me-Butterflyz: Sparkling grape juice, like wine, comes in white, rose, or red. So if you use a white sparkling grape juice, you wouldn't have any more of a staining problem than with a white wine.

@Kathy, sounds reasonable.. but this venue specifically would only be serving it. They are not providing glasses (other than plastic ones for soft drinks), they do not sell apple cider (I inquired and she had no clue since they don't serve that). I still think that she should play it safe and ask about those charges so they can be taken into consideration for her budget.