Classy way to serve hot drinks

I posted this question on weddingbee.com and got some interesting ideas, here's how it started, see below for the help I'm asking of you!

how to serve hot drinks in a "pretty" way

from me:

We're having a winter wedding and we want to have the "ski lodge" sort of feel to our daytime reception. We will be having lots of drinks and heavy appetizers. I'm trying to come up with a way to serve Hot spiced cider and Peppermint Hot Cocoa in a cute way? The coffee and tea and hot water will be in the giant carafes that the church already has (they have a little coffee bar set up for that) but I want a seperate place and way to serve the cider and cocoa, any ideas? posted by kimi22 (message) 3 days ago


Use old fashioned candy sticks as embellishments. You can get clove flavored ones, and peppermint ones that will look adorable, then they will dissolve eventually and just add a little flavor. I am doing a tea/coffee bar and using clear and pink rock candy sticks as stirrers. It just gives it a little something extra. posted by Melanie (message) 3 days ago


I would serve the hot cocoa after the cake cutting. I think it'll be cute to serve hot cocoa with minature marshmallows and cake instead of the traditional coffee and cake. posted by springb2b (message) 3 days ago


My mom made homemade marshmallows last winter (she said they were really easy) and if you got a tiny heart-shaped cookie cutter, you could make heart-shaped marshmellows for the cocoa! posted by loveletter (message) 3 days ago

I was at a wedding a few years ago with a cocoa bar, and they had adorable heart shaped marshmallows like loveletter suggests, and then a bunch of whipped cream cans(wrapped in cute patterned paper to hide the ugly labels :)), jugs with chocolate syrup, and little dishes of sprinkles. That would be easy and inexpensive to do, and provide a nice extra touch to fancy up your cocoa. :)
I would also look into getting cinnamon sticks for your cider as well. They smell sooooooo good as they heat up.
posted by aimee (message) 3 days ago

OKay, if I went to your wedding and had all those cute options aimee and loveletter suggested, I'd be so happy! I love cocoa and with all those options, I think I'd die from joy! posted by kiwi (message) 3 days ago

LOVE these ideas, my worry is that I need somehting for the cocoa and cider to go in? plain black carafes? they have to stay hot, be able to be refilled easily, etc.
by the way I LOVE the ideas of the whip cream cans, syrup, etc. I'm SO doing that. I teach sunday school and a bunch of my kids will be at the reception so I'm sure there will be some fun pictures to be had with that!
you all rock. posted by kimi22 (message) 2 days ago



Okay, so here's some concerns and ideas:

I love the idea of having a table with a hot cocoa station. I think we'll rent big hot drink servers and have hot cocoa in one and hot cider in the other.


We'll do the hot cocoa with little glass creamers with chocolate syrup in them, cover the whip cream containers with a cute sheet of paper with what is in it, a little sugar dish with mini marshmallows and a little dish with crushed candy canes and then mini candy canes in another little bowl.

The cider will be in a big carafe as well and there will be cinnamon sticks, and possibly orange peel spirals. Any other ideas for what could be here? Should I ditch it and focus on the hot chocolate?

Does anyone have any CREATIVE ideas to add? a different way to serve the hot drinks so I don't have to rent the carafes? My mom said we could use the plain hot water ones that the church already has and put hot cocoa packets out but I don't love that.


Would love some imput!