How to Make a Mimosa Bar

You’re getting married. Congratulations! While there’s a lot of planning that goes into creating the perfect wedding celebration, there’s one thing you don’t want to miss—and that’s planning refreshments for your guests.

If you’re having a daytime or brunch wedding, a DIY mimosa bar is a great option for serving guests and creating a fun experience at your wedding. Because guests can serve themselves, it also works great for weddings that feature an open bar.

So how, exactly, do you create a bubbly bar from scratch? We’ve put together a seven-step guide that not only makes creating the perfect mimosa bar easy, but lets guests join in on the fun and make their own drinks—leaving you to enjoy the party along with them.

Let’s take a look at the step-by-step guide to all things mimosa bars (as well as a few mimosa recipes!) for your wedding:

What You’ll Need for Your Mimosa Bar:

In order to create the perfect mimosa bar for your wedding, you’ll need a few key ingredients. Since one bottle of champagne is equivalent to around six to eight mimosas, keep your guest list in mind when shopping for your favorite bottles of bubbly. See our list below for the essentials you’ll need to make a mimosa bar that will impress your guests.

• Champagne: The number of bottles will vary depending on the size of your wedding guest list. Consider purchasing one bottle of champagne per four guests.
• Juices: We used pomegranate, pineapple, grapefruit, and orange juice, but feel free to select any fruit juice based on your taste and color scheme.
• Garnishes: We used pomegranate seeds, strawberries, pineapple wedges, edible flowers, and rosemary, but any fragrant herb or complementing fruit will work too.
• Juice carafes: Put your juices on display in unique vessels for a clean look like juice carafes. We used 12 oz. carafes for each flavor of juice.
• Champagne flutes: Can’t forget the most important part! Make sure you have enough champagne glasses available for everyone attending the reception.
• Sugar (optional): We created a sugaring station so guests have an option to add a sugar rim to their glass. In order to make the sugar stick, you will need to include a small bowl of lime juice or water.
• Decorations: Some ideas include flowers, banners, straws, coasters, and flute charms.

How to Set Up a Mimosa Bar

Now it’s time for the fun part! Follow these seven steps to create the ultimate mimosa bar for your wedding. Feel free to add or skip any steps based on the supplies you can find and the number of guests you’re hosting for your wedding festivities. Remember to have a theme in mind when setting up your mimosa bar (generally, the theme and color palette of the mimosa station should match the theme and color palette of your wedding).

1. Make All Items Easily Accessible

When it comes to weddings, presentation is key—and the same goes for your mimosa bar. In order to make sure guests can easily access all ingredients, set up your mimosa bar in order of sequence by starting with the champagne flutes and ending with garnishes, plates, and napkins. If you choose to add a sugaring station, make sure to have it at the beginning of the bar, since that’s one of the first steps when making a mimosa.

2. Create a Backdrop

Use your theme to get as creative as you can with this step. For our mimosa bar, we used a wooden “love sign” and assorted greenery. Make sure to be cognizant of the rest of the room’s decor when creating your backdrop to make sure that it doesn’t overpower and stays consistent with your wedding theme.

3. Decorate Your Bar or Table

Whether you will be placing your mimosa essentials on a bar or a table, make sure to add some fun decor to complement the setup. Some ideas include banners, chalkboard signs, appetizers, confetti, and straws. For our design, we included mini muffins and cinnamon buns as appetizers for guests to snack on, as well as fun straws meant to accessorize their mimosas. If you’re stuck on what to add to your bar decor, fresh flowers will help liven up the space and go great with any design; just ask your wedding florist to add a few more arrangements to liven up the mimosa station area.

4. Pour Juices into Serving Glasses and Add Labels

Pour your juices into serving glasses and label them so guests know what they are. Make sure the design of your labels works with the rest of your bar decor. We used heart shaped labels to match our love sign and banner. We also put our juices in 12-oz. carafes with wooden corks to complement the rest of the table set up. Pro tip: Use clear jars so that guests can easily differentiate between the juices.

5. Place Chopped Fruit and Garnishes in Serving Dishes

Depending on the type of mimosas you will be making, put your garnishes in serving dishes so guests can easily access them. Include a sign next to the garnishes so wedding guests know exactly what to use them for. Adding garnishes to your mimosa is one of the best parts of the mimosa-making process, so get creative with the types of garnishes you include. If you’re stuck on what to add, edible flowers are always a great accessory—particularly for weddings! You can find these at your local farmer’s market or organic supermarket.

6. Include a Sugaring Station

This step is optional, but definitely a fun touch for your mimosa bar. This will allow wedding guests to add sugar to the rim of their champagne glass, which will give their mimosa an extra kick of sweetness. For this, you will need a small bowl of lime juice (water or lemon juice will work as well) and a dish filled with sugar. Let your guests know that they should dip their champagne rims into the lime juice before applying sugar so that it will stick.

7. Keep Champagne Chilled

One of the most important parts of your mimosa bar is the champagne, which should be kept chilled at all times. A bucket is ideal for this so that you can have multiple champagne bottles on the table at once. We decorated our bucket of bubbly with greenery and edible flowers to match the rest of the decor.

How to Make a Mimosa

Making a mimosa can be done in four simple steps. We recommend a 1:1 ratio of champagne to juice. However, guests can serve themselves and make the mimosa according to their own preferences.

1. Create a sugar rim.
2. Pour the bubbly.
3. Add your choice of juice.
4. Top with a garnish.
5. Enjoy!

Mimosa Bar Recipes

Below are recipes for each mimosa that we made for our mimosa bar. Depending on the number of guests and your budget for the open bar at your wedding, feel free to include as many options as you like.

• Pineapple mimosa: champagne, pineapple juice, pineapple slices, and edible flowers.
• Grapefruit mimosa: champagne, grapefruit juice, and rosemary.
• Classic mimosa: champagne, orange juice, and strawberries.
• Pomegranate mimosa: champagne, pomegranate juice, pomegranate seeds, and edible flowers.

For an easy guide, download our infographic below to get started on making your own mimosa bar.

DOWNLOAD INFOGRAPHICS

If you’re looking for more wedding planning tips, check out our Wedding planning timeline and don’t forget to create your Wedding Registry at least eight months prior to your wedding day.

Tips to Create a Great Mimosa Station

Want to ensure your mimosa bar goes off without a hitch at your wedding? Here are a few tips to help you create the perfect mimosa station:

• Do a test run before the big day. Creating the perfect mimosa bar takes prep time—and if you want it to be perfect at your wedding, you might want to consider doing a test run before the big day. Set up a trial mimosa bar at another wedding-related event (like your bridal shower)—or, if you want guests to be surprised, do a trial run at an event not tied to your wedding, like a Mother’s Day brunch or New Year’s Eve party.

• Make sure to keep things cold. We mentioned this briefly, but it’s so important, it’s worth mentioning again. One of the keys to a successful mimosa bar is keeping everything cold—so make sure to store champagne in a container that will keep it nice and chilled (like a beverage tub that’s filled with ice).

• Buy more than you think you’ll need. The last thing you want to do is run out of mimosa supplies halfway through the wedding. So, when it comes to stocking your mimosa bar, consider buying slightly more champagne and juices than you think you’ll need. Many people drink a decent amount at weddings, so you’ll probably go through your supplies—and if not, there’s nothing wrong with having a bit of leftover champagne!

• Put someone in charge of restocking supplies. You also want to make sure that your mimosa bar stays full and stocked throughout your wedding reception—so put someone in charge of restocking (for example, whoever is managing the bartending).

• Offer guests plenty of options. Different people have different tastes—and that includes with mimosas. To make sure your mimosa bar has something for everyone, offer guests different flavor options (like different juices). You could even offer different sparkling wine options—like prosecco in addition to champagne.

Mimosa Bar Ideas

Want to really impress your guests with your drink station? Here are a few mimosa bar ideas to ensure your bubbly bar is one your guests will never forget:

• Put the champagne on ice—literally. You could put your champagne on ice to keep it cold. Or, if you want to do something different, you could put champagne in ice—or, in other words, store champagne in buckets carved out of ice blocks.

• Add fresh fruit to dress up the mimosas. If you want to add some extra oomph to your mimosa bar, set up bowls of fresh fruit next to your fruit juices. Not only will adding fresh fruit to the mimosas make them look more elegant, but slices of fruit can really punch up the flavor.

• Have fun with your display. How you display your mimosas is just as important as the ingredients—so have fun with your display! Incorporate elements that go with your theme—or, instead of displaying your mimosa bar on a table, use another fun piece of decor, like a bar cart.

• Add a popsicle. Getting married in the summer? Consider adding popsicles to your mimosa bar. Not only will popsicles help guests cool off, but dropping the popsicle into the mimosa can add another layer of flavor (and cause a cascade of extra bubbles!).

• Create to-go mimosa options. Want your guests to be able to take a mimosa to go? Consider adding individually sized champagnes and fruit juices to your mimosa station.