Here's When To Pour The Champagne For Wedding Toasts To Ensure The Freshest Bubbles

For celebratory occasions, it is understandably reasonable that you may want to start pouring, toasting, and drinking as soon as possible, yet when it comes to matters of Champagne (and the heart), timing is everything. Though grab-and-go drink stations can help keep friends and family plied with booze and teetotaling beverages before lengthy speeches begin, you may want to hold off on batch-pouring glasses of bubbles. Lauren Chambers, founder and owner of Direct My Day, told Tasting Table why happy couples should press pause on popping open bottles of anything carbonated before toasts are ready to take place.

As tempting as it might be to start passing out drinks as soon as attendees enter the venue, prematurely opening bottles of bubbles can result in disappointingly limp sips later on. For the freshest, most lively pours, Chambers suggests opening bottles about 15 minutes before planned speeches. This kind of scheduled timing can keep delicate flute glasses filled with fresh, linear-rising Champagne bubbles as guests toast to the health and happiness of the newlyweds. 

Whether dishing out crisp glasses of Champagne or prosecco, encourage any overzealous servers to hold off on popping open corks until right before the planned toasts. And how many bubbles are there in one Champagne glass? The aim is as many as possible (instead of offering guests deflated-looking drinks). If the event is staffed generously, another serving option is to ask the waitstaff to walk around with chilled bottles of sparkling wines and start pouring and refilling empty flutes once toasts begin. Guests will appreciate the added attention, and no attendee will be left waving an empty glass in the air when the toasts begin. 

With the wedding cake cut and friends laughing over shared memories, fizzy glasses of alcohol can help emphasize the celebration instead of distracting from the happy affair. Ultimately, we want attendees to be as enamored with the entire occasion as the bride and groom, and flat drinks will do little in this celebratory department.