So You're EnGAYged, a LGBT wedding blog

Its about that time in my planning where things have decended into chaos and my house is stuffed to the hilt with wedding stuff. Where juggling work, the wedding and a regular sleep schedule is proving to be a most challenging task. However through the madness of this stage there is nothing that feels better than crossing a project off my list. And thats just what I get to do now!

A few years back my parents went to Italy with most of my extended family, whilst there they rented a villa and drank tons of wine and did all things Italian. Since then my family has developed a fondness for Limoncello. For those not in the know Limoncello is a liquer distilled with the essential oils from lemons. The name may sound familar because Danny Devito got himself into a bit of a mess a few years ago when he went on The View wildly intoxicated on the stuff.

For me the taste always reminds me of the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster from Hitchiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, which my fellow nerds may recall is refered to as “The best drink in existance. The effects of which is like having youre brains smashed out with a large gold brick wrapped in a twist of lemon”. Its delicious and intense… sip it slowly though, or else you may end up in a bluebird costume crumping at you’re engagement party… not that… thats ever happend to me. ::shifty eyes::

Anyways, my father took up distilling the stuff himself a few years ago and since then it has made appearances at many joyus Noel family occasions. It only seemed appropriate that this handmade delicious sirum play in a role in my wedding, who could ask for a more personal touch? However, my wedding venue obviously would prefer we serve THIER alcohol, so where better to place it than as a favor!

We began by my father making up more than 3 gallons of the stuff, which as you might imagine takes quite sometime to distill properly. I would give all of you the recipie but its family secret, so i’ll just tell you that you soak the rinds of lemon in alcohol in a cool dark place for several weeks, stirring occasionally, and then at the end adding a splash of simple syrup for sweetness. Then we funneled it into our little “Wagner” glass bottles we purchased from Glass Wharehouse.org

I designed the labels myself and patterned them after real antique poison labels. What better for a halloween wedding I figure? On one side it reads “Noel Family Brand Poison Limoncello, Joey & Derek , 10-17-10” on the other side it says

“Limoncello: The spirits you hold in your hand are pefectly harmless I assure you! Dont you trust me? It’s contents are a homemade concotion of lemons and liquer. It’s frightfully bold stuff sure to warm even the most morbid of souls, but only those over the age of 21. Happy Haunting!”

Then we dipped the bottle in wax on the tops to seal them. The first step was to boil a small amount of water and place tin dish or can inside it. Then pour the waz beads into the dish…

Once the wax is in the pot slowly stir it with a coffee stirrer until all the wax is melted. Then take each bottle and dip the lids twice to make a nice rounded seal.

Then we set all the bottles to the side to set, once the wax had cooled we labeled them and attached a hang tag which we patterned after the one in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. On it read:

“Drink Me: “Better read it first, for if one drinks to much from a bottle marked ‘Poison’ its bound to start disagreeing with one sooner or later.”

Limoncello Label

The Finished Product!

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