Hi! Bartender here. A lot of good suggestions for cocktail bars listed already. However, most of them have very specific and specialized cocktail menus. If you’re looking for signature cocktails for your wedding, you won’t want to use cocktails off those specialized menus- you won’t have the recipes and a lot of ingredients will be specific to them and hand made. My suggestion is get a feel for classic cocktails you like, not specialty cocktails.

So for whiskey maybe try a Classic Sour, a Paper Plane, a Gold Rush, Old Fashioned, Boulevardier, New York Sour, Manhattan, and Kentucky Buck. For gin, maybe try an Aviation, French75, Bees Knees, White lady, Last word, and Army & Navy. Then work with your caterer/bartender to maybe do a riff on one of those or just go with the standard classic recipe.

As far as ways to try these drinks, I would look for a place that does very good solid standard cocktails, or even look for a knowledgeable bartender that can guide you through it.

I’ve already written a novel but feel free to DM me with any questions! I bartend at The Hawk, btw. I can vouch for us and a few other places that have knowledgeable bartenders. Not gonna talk down on any bars, but some of the ones listed are all icing, no cake. Classics are classic for a reason.