I love it when inspiration hits suddenly while you’re at your favorite restaurant. Our favorite restaurant is Rick’s in London and they just happen to be as eco-minded (and money conscious) as we are. So when they came up with their RC H2O, Bottled at Source tap water idea, it really got me thinking.
Let me explain their process first, and then maybe you’ll see where I’m headed. As a proper Modern European cafe, Rick’s serves a lot of good wine every night and every bottle (and much more) goes into the recycling bin. Late this summer though, some of those bottles ended up in the kitchen sink to be soaked and sanitized for tap water use.
See, Rick’s usually serves tap water cold from their kitchen sink in a jug, which is never thoroughly chilled, takes up a lot of room on the table, and is more cumbersome for the servers (like me) to replenish.
But with used wine bottles repurposed as water bottles and kept in the fridge, they are a snap to refill and take up so much less room on each table! No more than a glass of wine, really.
Learning about all this (and seeing it so successfully executed in the restaurant) it got me thinking about possible wedding uses of this fabulous idea! What if we saved our wine bottles/collected them from restaurants/got them from the reception venue and soaked and sanitized them? What if we designed our own label with A&E or A<3 E with our wedding date and had them on each table? Or a whole tap water section at the reception, ‘Bottled at Source (With Love)‘?
Recently I had read somewhere not only how much bottled water alone can cost for a wedding reception, but also how much waste is recreated from it. Furthermore, some bottled water is no different than tap water (the great debate continues) and think about all the production, packaging, and transportation that goes into bottling water.
Yes, some venues keep the jugs and pitchers of tap water flowing for guests, but what about less catered venues, limited space or a smaller affairs?
Basically, putting together your own version of custom tap water adds a personal touch to your reception, flexs those DIY muscles, saves money, recycles and repurposes items and gives your guests something to take home (and think about).
I’m pretty sold on the idea. What are your thoughts on water?
Huh, hadn’t thought about whether the water served would be tap or bottled. But it makes so much sense not to use bottled for budget and eco concerns. Good question to ask the caterer, thanks!
I love this idea. The labels make it personal and I hadn’t even gotten around to thinking of water.
That is a sweet idea! I would never have though of such a thing – brilliant!