Wedding Bartending in Philadelphia
Spirit Forward is a Philadelphia based craft cocktail mixology team. We bring the drink-making experience you'd find at your favorite cocktail bar to your wedding, and we build it around the two of you.
All you need to provide is the alcohol, we can take it from there.
A lot of the best rooms in Philadelphia hand you the keys and let you bring the bar. The Deacon, the Maas Building, Fleisher Art Memorial, Location 215, Billy Penn Studios, all the way to your own backyard. It is the single best way to have a wedding bar that is actually yours without having to worry about paying for overly bloated bar packages.
We'll create a custom cocktail menu based on your preferences/experiences and we'll create all of the ingredients from scratch. We'll handle set up and breakdown, we bring the bartenders, the equipment, the ice, we even have custom glassware and other amazing features available for that signature touch.
Our team is certified and insured.
Three we've poured before
Smoke and Fire
Rye whiskey · black walnut · smoked maple · flamed orange peel
Mango at Rest
Reposado tequila · mango · miso · lemon · Topo Chico
Kyoto Smash
Dry gin · lime · hojicha tea · honey · mint
Every menu is written for the event. These are three from past ones.
The venues that recommend us
Many venues in Philadelphia have us on their short list of vendors that they call on exclusively.
Here's how it works from the inside. When a couple is doing a walkthrough, the venue wants to hand them a vendor it can vouch for. We get to be in that conversation, and then we show up and deliver so the venue's recommendation holds. We're grateful for those relationships and we go out of our way for them.
The first thing my 3 year old nephew asked me on Sunday morning was 'Where's the guy that makes the drinks? Where did he go?'
I'm still coming down from the high on Saturday. Thank you so much for making the day feel even more special for us and our guests.
Thank you for helping make Kelsey & Daniel's celebration such a huge success.
Working with your planner
We work side by side with your wedding planner both day of and leading up to your date. You'll get a bar timeline that slots into the day-of schedule, a bottle list weeks out, a layout for the bar that makes sense, and a single point of contact on the night. Your planner's ideal scenario is to ensure that your wedding day is an orchestra of coordination and we're happy to play our part.
Do we have to provide the alcohol ourselves?
Yes, Pennsylvania law requires it, and it is good news for your budget. Alcohol costs are merely a passthrough as opposed to a bloated package you have to find room for. We give you an exact list with quantities so nothing is guessed at and nothing is left over by accident.
Do you provide glassware?
Rental glassware is available as an add-on. We don't shoehorn it into our base pricing as there are often many different platforms where glassware may be included, i.e. the venue or caterer. That said we do provide elegant disposables as part of our package and we have a few different rental options curated for the bar.
Can you handle a big wedding?
Yes. We've poured for rooms of 350, and we'll talk about anything bigger. We size the staff to your guest count and make sure that lines and queues are always managed with grace.
Start planning your wedding.
