Champagne at the cliffs
A favourite Champagne after the ceremony, while your guests are still taking in the Shoalhaven gorge.
BYO at Caoura Cliffs
Your drinks. Your choice.
You supply the Champagne, wine, beer, spirits and non-alcoholic drinks for your wedding. We help you work out the list and the quantities, and the order comes straight to the property.
- Complete choice
- Expert guidance
- Delivered to the venue
A more personal way to celebrate
A drinks list with a story.
You'll spend months on the food, the flowers, the music and who sits where. The drinks are worth the same attention.
Rather than choosing from a set wine list, you can build the whole thing around what you actually like to drink.
That might be Champagne on the clifftop, an Australian Chardonnay with dinner, local beer through cocktail hour, a martini after the sun goes down, or alcohol-free drinks made with the same care as everything else.
- Champagne you've always wanted to open
- Wines chosen around your menu
- Australian producers you already follow
- Local beer and spirits
- A cocktail that means something
- Alcohol-free drinks worth ordering
- Bottles out of the family cellar
It doesn't have to be the most expensive bottle on the list. It has to be one you're glad to pour.
On the clifftop
Champagne poured where the land drops away.
Down the long table
Wine chosen to sit beside the menu you have written.
After dinner
One cocktail, chosen properly, and named after something.
Bottles with history
Some bottles have been waiting for this moment.
For a lot of families, the wine has a history of its own.
Parents build a cellar over decades. A bottle gets put aside for a birth year, a good vintage, an anniversary, a trip. There's often a twenty-year-old Shiraz somewhere in it, or a single bottle of Grange, or a case bought years ago with a wedding already in mind.
Those bottles don't have to stay in the cellar. They can be opened at dinner, poured through the speeches, or shared quietly with the people they were bought for.
“Some bottles are too good to leave in a cellar. This might be the night they were being saved for.”
We can help you work family wines into the wider plan: how many bottles, when they are poured, and how it is handled with your caterer and bar team.
Expert support
BYO doesn't mean doing it alone.
Ordering drinks for a hundred people is a different job from picking a couple of bottles for dinner.
How much Champagne do you need? How does the season change what people drink? How much red goes with a winter menu? What do you put in front of the guests who aren't drinking? How do you avoid running out, or ending up with eleven untouched cases?
That is the part we help with. Tell us the shape of the day and we will work through the list and the quantities with you, the same way we do the run sheet.
If you would rather not chase the buying at all, your caterer or bar provider can often put the selection together and deliver it. Either way the choosing stays yours.
The freedom to choose, and someone to check your working.
How it works
From the first conversation to the last case.
Five steps, and you are only ever asked the questions you can actually answer.
01
Understand
What do you love?
Your preferences, the style of the wedding, the menu, guest numbers and the budget. That includes the bottles you drink on a Tuesday, the Champagne you save for something, and any family wines you're hoping to serve.
02
Curate
A selection built around you.
We help you balance the list across Champagne, wine, beer, spirits, cocktails and the non-alcoholic options, so nothing gets left until the week before.
03
Calculate
Order with some confidence.
Quantities are worked out against guest numbers, the season, how long the day runs, how the drinks are served, the food, and how your particular group actually drinks.
04
Source and deliver
Delivered to Caoura Cliffs.
Buy it yourself, or ask your caterer or bar provider to put the order together. Either way it comes to the property rather than to somebody's garage, so nobody is driving a wedding-sized order down the Hume on the Friday.
05
Chill
Cold before you arrive.
Your drinks land ahead of the wedding and we chill them, so nothing is being iced down in a tub while you are getting ready.
It depends entirely on where you buy. Some retailers take back unopened stock and some do not, so it is worth asking before you order, because the answer changes how much you are comfortable buying. It is not something Caoura Cliffs can arrange for you.
Where the money goes
Better drinks. Smarter spending.
Spend less, serve better, or a bit of both. It stays your call.
Beverage packages are usually priced per guest and drawn from a set range.
Here, you decide what the drinks budget buys.
Some couples spend less than they would have. Others spend about the same and pour better wine, better Champagne, proper cocktails, or alcohol-free drinks that aren't an afterthought.
The point is having the choice.
- Save
- Build the order around what your guests will realistically drink, rather than around a headcount.
- Upgrade
- Put more of the budget into the handful of bottles and moments that actually matter to you.
- Personalise
- Bring in family wines, the producers you already follow, and drinks attached to something.
- Balance
- Plan properly for drinkers, light drinkers and the guests who aren't drinking at all.
Wedding Drinks Planner
What could greater choice mean for your wedding?
Compare a typical per-person beverage package with the personalised drinks experience you're considering for Caoura Cliffs.
Who is actually drinking
Not everyone drinks the same way.
Some guests will have wine right through dinner. Some will have one beer. Some will want a non-alcoholic spritz, and some won't drink at all.
A plan you build yourself can reflect how your group will really celebrate, instead of treating every adult on the list as identical.
- Non-alcoholic wine and sparkling worth putting on the table
- Alcohol-free cocktails made the same way as the others
- Sparkling water and botanical drinks
- A better-judged split between beer, wine and spirits
- Smaller quantities where the guest list runs light
- Quality instead of volume
The aim is to put out what people will actually drink.
Six ways couples do it
Make the drinks part of the day.
None of this is a package. It's what couples who care about the drinks have actually done.
A bottle from the family cellar
A significant vintage opened at dinner, with a short word about why it was put away in the first place.
Australian wines around the table
A list built from the producers, regions and bottles the two of you found together.
A signature cocktail
One cocktail, chosen properly, named after a place or a night you both remember.
A proper alcohol-free menu
Sparkling tea, alcohol-free wine, botanical spritzes. Drinks that were ordered on purpose.
Whisky after dinner
A quieter hour at the bar or by the fire, with a whisky or a digestif somebody actually chose.
The practical details
Choice without the complexity.
You supply the beverages for your wedding, with as much or as little help from us as you want. Nothing here is compulsory, and nobody is buying through a supplier they did not choose.
Alcohol at the wedding is served by appropriately qualified RSA staff through your approved caterer or bar provider, in line with the venue's current requirements. It's BYO, and it's never self-serve.
- Caoura Cliffs
- Helps you plan the list and the quantities, and confirms the operational requirements for delivery, storage and service. There is an ice machine on site and a commercial kitchen for your caterer, and we chill your drinks ahead of the wedding. We do not sell alcohol.
- Your caterer or bar provider
- Supplies appropriately qualified RSA bar staff and is responsible for serving the drinks on the day. Some can also put your order together and have it delivered, if you would rather not buy it yourself.
- You
- Approve the selection, the budget and the suppliers.
Glassware is included with the venue, and there's an ice machine on site alongside the commercial kitchen your caterer works from. Mixers and garnishes sit with your caterer or bar provider, and we confirm exactly who's bringing what during planning.
Questions couples ask
Supplying your own drinks, answered.
Can we supply our own alcohol at Caoura Cliffs?
Yes. Couples supply the beverages for their wedding, subject to our current event, delivery and service requirements. Alcohol must be served by appropriately qualified RSA staff.
Does BYO mean our guests bring their own drinks?
No. BYO here means the couple supplies the drinks for the wedding. Your guests aren't expected to bring anything.
Do we have to buy our drinks through you?
No. Most couples buy their own drinks, and we help them get the list and the quantities right. If you would rather hand the buying over, your caterer or bar provider can often put a selection together for you. We share our recommended suppliers with couples during planning.
Can we serve wine from our family cellar?
Yes. Personally owned and family-cellar wines can be worked into the plan, subject to sensible transport, storage, handling and service arrangements.
Can we serve a rare or older bottle?
Yes, though older and valuable wines need more care: how they travel, how they are stored, how they are opened, whether they want decanting and who pours them. Raise those bottles with us and your caterer early rather than on the day.
Can our drinks be delivered to the venue?
Yes. Deliveries come to the property, and we chill them ahead of the wedding. Confirm the delivery window with us when the order goes in, so somebody is there to receive and check it.
Can we return what we don't open?
It depends entirely on where you buy. Some retailers take back unopened stock and some do not, so it is worth asking before you order, because the answer changes how much you are comfortable buying. It is not something Caoura Cliffs can arrange for you.
Who serves the alcohol?
Appropriately qualified RSA staff, arranged through your approved caterer or bar provider. It's never self-serve, and Caoura Cliffs doesn't serve alcohol itself.
Can you help us work out how much we need?
Yes, and it is the question couples most often want help with. We look at guest numbers, the season, how long the day runs, the menu, the service style and the drinking habits of your particular group.
Can we choose premium Champagne and wine?
Yes. That's the point of supplying your own: the producers, labels and price points are yours to pick.
Do we have to serve alcohol at all?
No. A fully alcohol-free or mixed drinks list is entirely workable, including non-alcoholic wine and sparkling, spritzes, sparkling teas and botanical alternatives.
Are mixers, ice and garnishes included?
Glassware is included with the venue, and there's an ice machine on site alongside the commercial kitchen your caterer works from. Mixers and garnishes sit with your caterer or bar provider, and we confirm exactly who's bringing what during planning.
Will supplying our own drinks save us money?
It might. Some couples reduce their total beverage cost, and others spend a similar amount on better or more personal drinks. It depends on the products, the quantities, the service costs and the supplier arrangements you settle on.
Can we have a bar at the ceremony site?
Yes. A bar at The Cliffs works as long as a qualified RSA staff member serves it and the logistics are coordinated with your catering, beverage and hire teams. A trestle table can be provided. The bush road back to the Pavilion is bumpy, so Champagne stems stay with your drinks server at the bar.
Bring the good bottles
Serve something worth remembering.
From a bottle your parents put away twenty years ago to the Champagne you've always wanted to open on the clifftop, what gets poured at your wedding is yours to choose.
Choose what you love. Bring what means something. Let an expert take care of the rest.
Complete choice. Expert guidance. Delivered to the venue.
Start the conversation
Tell us about the wedding.
Send us the shape of your day and we will come back to you, including how the drinks would work and what we would suggest for a group your size.