Dotty’s Journey
Welcome to our Cocktail & Mocktail delivery service, Dotty Delivers! To order your cocktails for delivery on Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th of July 2020, please message 07817 101919 ASAP to get yours!
See our menu below and T&Cs.
While we all remain stuck in lockdown and adjust to our new lives ruled by social distancing and hand washing, it gets increasingly harder to not see our friends and family and not give them a long-awaited hug. So, for as long as hugs are off-limits, the Dotty Mares decided to give out free cocktails!
From a choice of 4 classic cocktails; Espresso Martini, Mojito, Negroni and a Pornstar Martini, the Dotty Mares followers got to choose which cocktails they’d like to come and collect from ‘Dotty at home’ on Saturday. Despite the sun having disappeared, the cloudy weather didn’t stop our guests from rolling in to collect their cocktails. It was a fantastic day filled with martinis, mojitos and catch-ups with our friends and we hope you all loved it as much as we did! Have a flick through our image gallery below for some photos of the cocktail collections & the final products!
We are always looking for ways to grow our business and think of new and exciting ways to brighten up your day with a cocktail or two. We are currently exploring the possibility of take-away cocktails as a delivery service, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us with any ideas, suggestions and thoughts!
While we’re all stuck indoors, we thought it would be a great idea to share some quick and easy cocktail recipes that you can try and test out at home!
This is the first one of our mini-series of Quarantine Cocktails - a Blueberry Tequila cocktail.
Watch the video for a masterclass in making this refreshing, summer cocktail!
You will need:
- 2 glasses 🍸🍸
- Ice 🧊 (enough to fill the glass)
- Salt 🧂 (for the rim of the glass)
- Limes 🍋 (+ extra for garnish)
- Blueberries 🍇 (+ extra for garnish)
- Tequila🧉 (1/2 cup)
- Sugar syrup 🍬 (3 tbsp)
- Angostura bitters🍹(a dash)
As 2019 drew to a close, the Dotty Mares took some well-earned rest and relaxation over the festive period and had the chance to reflect on what a year 2019 was! Not many months went by which weren’t filled with pouring gin and tonics or mulling hot spiced gin, and so we’ve decided to take a look back at all the incredible events which made 2019 such a special year for the Dotty Mares…
January and February opened with a number of wedding fairs, from Pinner to Kingston, Phyllis Court, the Dotty Mares had a great start to the year chatting to excited brides and grooms about their special day, all done with a glass of fizz in hand (of course)! As they moved into Spring and the sun began to poke its head out of the clouds, the events started to move into food festivals and summer fetes.
To mark the start of the summer sunshine, the Dotty Mares attended a wide range of exciting events, including North End Road Spring Market, the 3-day food and drink festival in Hammersmith in May, JC Farming County Fair, Sherfield Beer Festival and Childwickbury Arts Fair. Along with the sun, the summer months also brought the chance for some private events - including a number of special birthdays and a corporate summer party – but also brought us new and refreshing drinks to sip on in the summer sun! The prosecco and gin & tonics were joined by Aperol Spritz, Pimms on the menu. Alongside the food and drink festivals, 2019 brought the opportunity for lots of charity events which the Dotty Mares have loved attending. These include the Breast Walk Ever in aid of Breast Cancer, Dogs Trust summer family fun day, and Windsor 10K.
A particular highlight was attending Longridge Activity Day on Mother’s Day to raise money for Maggie-Mae's Brighter Future Fund which was set up to support Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital's research into hard-to-treat cancers and chemotherapy resistant leukaemia. Here the gin and tonics were replaced with family favourites, an Oreo and Unicorn Hot Chocolate!
Moving into the colder months and with Christmas around the corner, Pimms was swapped for its Winter Pimms alternative and Aperol was pushed aside to make way for the Snowgroni, a wintery take on a summery negroni with Gin, Advocaat, Vermouth and lemonade. To keep us warm was Mulled Wine, Hot Spiced apple juice which went down a storm with an additional splash of gin or rum! So, when the time came to pull down the hatches, pour the last Mulled Wine of the season and head off home for the festive period, the Dotty Mares welcomed the chance for some rest and relaxation, now back to the planning for 2020…!
On Sunday 5th May, the Dotty Mares were up and early heading to Beale Park in Reading to serve Prosecco and Gin & Tonic’s to 200 exhausted walkers after completing a 26, 13, or 6-mile walk!
With the beautiful setting of Beale Park around them, the walkers let out a huge cheer at the start when it was announced that there was a Prosecco van waiting for them, with many of them using the glass of chilled Prosecco as motivation for the final push in their walk.
Fortunately for the Dotty Mares, the weather stayed dry while Prosecco was flying off the shelves and it was a fantastic day with lots of opportunities to chat to a wide range of people.
Overall, it was a wonderful event, and the beautiful mobile horse box bar looked stunning just past the finish line, but most importantly, it raised awareness for a fantastic cause, something very close to the Dotty Mares’ hearts. To read more about Against Breast Cancer, click here to see their Facebook page.
Mother’s Day saw the Dotty Mares take on a charity event in Marlow, raising money for Great Ormond Street children’s hospital. The event was held at Longridge Activity Centre, and despite the sun having disappeared for the day, the Dotty Mares were up bright and early ready to serve a different kind of drink!
As you all know the Dotty Mares usually serve gin, prosecco, beer and other alcoholic drinks, but this time they decided to try out something new in the hot drinks department. The morning was definitely not the easiest with the power tripping out and our milk urns burning, but this certainly did not stop the Dotty Mares. Despite the lack of hot milk and intermittent power supply, they soldiered through and found multiple solutions for the problems they’d had in the morning.
With one small coffee machine, one milk frother and a load of marshmallows - the families poured in over lunchtime, with the Unicorn and Oreo Hot Chocolates going down a storm with the children after they’d spent their mornings rock climbing and canoeing! Not to mention the donuts, which were selling like, well, donuts to children!
The hot chocolates were great fun, both to drink and to make, and also was a fantastic opportunity for the Dotty Mares to try out something new, although when armed with only one very small milk frother, it was challenging to say the least but nevertheless a fun challenge as always.
Exhausted and never wanting to see or smell a coffee again, the Dotty Mares cleaned up Dotty and headed home for a good night’s sleep, until next time!
It’s been an exciting week for the Dotty Mares! Not only with a successful wedding fair under their belt and a Marlow Family day coming up this weekend, but they have also won a competition!
Just over a week ago, we decided to enter the #SBS (Small Business Sunday) competition which runs weekly on Twitter every Sunday night. The competition was started by former Dragon, Theo Paphitis who asks his followers to tweet him describing their small business within a certain time slot. After one unsuccessful attempt, the following week after the fabulous wedding fair at Morden Park House, our second-time lucky tweet was sent with a lovely photo of Dotty attached.
A little while later, Dotty Mares HQ was being bombarded with messages of congratulations and a spike in over 100 followers, only to find out that the Dotty Mares were one of 6 lucky winners chosen by Theo Paphitis himself! With his twitter platform reaching nearly 500,000 followers, the Dotty Mares were overwhelmed with the boost that winning this competition has provided and were up until midnight sending their thank-you’s to all the tweeters! On top of the huge social media boost this provides, they also now have a shiny little badge which you can see on the left.
This has been a fantastic win for the Dotty Mares and just shows the power of social media and how important it can be to connect virtually with other like-minded small business owners and have the endorsement of Theo Paphitis behind them!
From now, it continues to be onwards and upwards for the Dotty Mares, hoping to see lots of lovely mothers and their children at this weekend’s Activity Day in Marlow raising money for Great Ormond Street’s Children’s Hospital and their research into leukaemia, see here for more details!
On a pleasant, spring Sunday morning, the Dotty Mares crew headed off bright and early, with their pink-spotted mobile horse box bar on the M25 to arrive at their location for their wedding fair; Morden Park House.
They drove into the beautiful location to be greeted by the lovely and friendly staff members, before putting Dotty in place for the day in the rear gardens. With the newly designed wedding garden, there is a beautiful paving area with astroturf and a wonderful pavilion, making Morden Park House the perfect location to tie the knot.
To mark the occasion, Dotty had a little make-over with some new accessories on the new Pimp Your Prosecco stand, along with some mini-Dotty’s in the form of miniature horse boxes, both of which went down a storm with all the guests! Across the day the sun kept shining and Dotty served Prosecco and Buck’s Fizz to all 400 visitors, all whilst being serenaded by two fantastic wedding singers.
Before they knew it the day had flown by, drinks had flowed but the day was drawing to an end, but had given the Dotty Mares a great chance talking to some great couples all in the exciting wedding-planning stage. One couple even wanted the Dotty Mares to attend her wedding in South Africa - maybe Dotty needs a passport!
The Changing Face of Marriage in 2019…
When you think of weddings, the first thing which comes to mind is the classic Church ceremony followed by a 3-course meal in a hotel, however, in recent years the growing trend of outdoor weddings has provoked a new change in the law for the first time in 180 years.
The laws surrounding UK marriage can be traced back to 1837 and such laws prevent couples from tying the knot in the great outdoors. So those dreams of having a wedding in the beautiful countryside or in a marquee ceremony have been swiftly stopped due to the law. The legal reform coincides perfectly with the growing popularity of travelling bars, which will now flourish in the changing face of outdoor weddings.
In the Budget announced on the 29th of October, it was announced by Philip Hammond, the chancellor, that there will be a legal reform which will allow couples to wed at one with the natural landscape. The average cost of weddings has reached its all-time high at £32,000, with the cost of a wedding making it increasingly more difficult to settle down and find a house. The ease of finding a venue under this new law should hopefully allow couples both the freedom of wedding where they like, but also, the chance of spending less on their wedding and making the cost of living more affordable. The growth of alternative style weddings and the move away from tradition means that this law keeps in touch with modern trends and is set to cause a positive change for couples tying the knot in the future.
The beauty of outdoor weddings gives couples the freedom to not be dictated by set meal times and stringent traditions, but rather, a relaxing day where their special day can be as personalised as they wish. With personalisation, comes the wide range of mobile bars and food trucks which are seemingly now more popular than ever. With the growing craze of outdoor weddings, the Dotty Mares are right on trend with their converted Horse Box Bar, which serves bespoke drink packages to give your special day a touch of sparkle and takes away all the stress of managing the drinks on your big day.
So, if you’re tying the knot next year in lieu of the new law, then the Dotty Mares and their mobile horse box bar are here for you!
