The excitement is building. You\u2019ve purchased your wine, your beer, your snacks. Most importantly, you early-birded your tickets and saved some moola, and now the evening is here and you\u2019re heading down to Uncorked Inspiration for your very first paint and sip class! Yes, it IS this exciting. Yes it IS going to be fun. And yes, there are a few things we love for people to know about when they come down. After all, we want this to be a fun, enjoyable, memorable, safe, and comfortable event for you to attend. So here\u2019s a little bit of the low down on what you can expect, and a few general paint and sip etiquette items.
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BYOB – Some basic etiquette and some legal stuff<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the most awesome things about paint and sip with Uncorked Inspiration is that it\u2019s a BYOB event. We know you know this, but if you don\u2019t, BYOB simply means \u201cBring Your Own Bottle\u201d. Now, depending on how old you are, what that bottle contains is entirely up to you. For our BYOB events, most of our friends bring wine, beer, sparkling adult sodas, etc. However, Kansas law allows you to BYOB wine, beer, and spirits\/hard liquor. Once you\u2019re at Uncorked, you can even mix your own drinks with the stuff you bring, but you must be the one to bring it. We don\u2019t have a liquor license at this time, so none of our staff are allowed to provide any type of alcoholic beverage or serve any type of alcoholic beverage. We can uncork your wine for you, pop your beer top for you, and even open your bottles of liquor, but we cannot, under any circumstances serve it to you. This even means we can\u2019t pour it into your glass. We figure you can handle that, anyway, though. Legally, you also need to not only be 21 to drink alcohol, but you must always keep your booze with you. So basically, if you bring a bottle of wine or a six-pack of beer, keep it close by your canvas on the table or in a cooler underneath the table at your feet. Some other legal stuff is that you\u2019re technically not supposed to leave with an open container of any type of alcohol. There are a couple of ways to solve this, though. First, simply leave it with us and we\u2019ll \u201cdispose\u201d of it properly. And by dispose, we mean we\u2019ll most likely drink it. Keep in mind that Andrea loves Moscato, so you\u2019re welcome to leave Cupcake or Roscatto with her. I\u2019m into reds and good beer, and the occasional pinot noir, or a good solid white. Come to think of it, I\u2019m really not that picky when it comes to good booze. That being said\u2026 if you have a sealable bag, you can take re-corked wine home with you. A beer growler that can be sealed (usually with electrical tape). Unsealed remaining beers in a six-pack can be taken home, obviously. And while we don\u2019t recommend it, you can re-cork your wine and place it in your trunk so that you cannot access it while you drive. This is important, though\u2026 if you have a hatchback, mini-van, station wagon or other trunkless vehicle, you really shouldn\u2019t travel with an opened bottle, even if it\u2019s been re-corked. Open container is no joke and we don\u2019t want you to lose your license because it would suck for you to have to ride the Green Apple bikes to our events. Another very general thing is that you are absolutely welcome to offer Neal or Andrea a glass of your hooch. Most likely we\u2019ll turn it down, simply because we feel you\u2019ve paid your hard earned money for it, so you should get to drink it. But, every now and then, we may accept, but we\u2019ll likely have to make a toast! One final thing about drinking at our events. We love it when you have a couple of glasses of wine. I personally think it helps loosen up the creative flow, and I even joke about how if you drink another glass of wine, your painting will look better! But the reality is that drinking too much can be really dangerous. You know yourself better than anyone, so just know when you\u2019ve reached your limit, and please, under no circumstances should you ever get behind the wheel of your car if you\u2019ve been drinking. We are more than happy to call an Uber or a taxi for you. Hell, if it comes down to it, I\u2019ll even drive you home myself. We love all of our friends who come to paint with us, and we want to make sure that you can come back if you want. One thing to keep in mind is that we may or may not have glasses or cups, so it\u2019s always a good idea to bring your own. Should we bring snacks?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Absolutely! We also love it when you bring snacks! Two hours can be a long time to go without a yummy snack, so feel free to bring your charcuterie, your meats, your cheeses, your crackers, cakes, cookies, or whatever other yummy items your tummy craves. When you bring snacks, you\u2019re welcome to share with whomever you choose, or keep them all for yourself. Entirely up to you. We\u2019ve had people bring entire spreads of snacky food to share with their group and others, or just for themselves, and we\u2019ve had people bring nothing at all. It\u2019s really just a personal choice. Try to avoid splattering your friends\/neighbors<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n One minute, you\u2019re just painting and sipping away, having a great old time. The next, you notice little colored spots on your canvas that you didn\u2019t put there. Or worse, you realize you just splattered your neighbor\u2019s canvas with the color paint you were just using! Okay, so it\u2019s not a YUUUUUUUGE deal. And yes, you can paint over the little splatters. But it can be kind of inconvenient. The bottom line is that in a well-attended paint and sip, we may have 30 painters just painting away having a blast, but we do have to sit fairly close together. So, just remember to kind of keep your brush in check as you paint those gorgeous brush strokes onto your canvas. Where should we sit?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Seating can be a crazy thing at a paint and sip. Sometimes people come by themselves. Other times they bring a friend, or three, or five. That\u2019s when seating can get tricky. We usually tell our single friends to try and sit by someone. This helps keep free spaces for groups and couples open without us having to ask people to play musical chairs so that everyone can sit with the group they came with. We always feel badly when we have to ask people to move, but we\u2019ve found everyone is generally very understanding. If you come as a single try to sit next to someone, they might become your new best friend. We\u2019ve actually seen this happen. People come down, sit by each other, chat, share a few laughs, and the next thing you know they\u2019re going out for dinner together afterward. It\u2019s one of our favorite things to see happen at an Uncorked Inspiration event. Speaking of coming with friends, it\u2019s definitely okay to save seats for them. We suggest grabbing the number of aprons you need, and draping them across the stools you need to save. Easy peesy happy little treesies. Be on time<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Okay, so yeah, this one is kind of a sticky subject. We know sometimes traffic sucks. Finding a parking space can be a pain. Or sometimes the darn kids won\u2019t listen to the babysitter and you end up getting stuck at home for a few minutes while you call in reinforcements. We really do get it, and most of the time, I can get people caught up on the painting if we\u2019re forced to start without them. The one thing we do ask is that if you have a bit of a drive, try to plan ahead. We love to start on time because it\u2019s more about being considerate of our friends who are there painting than it is about us. What if you don\u2019t want to use our brushes?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Then by all means, if you have some of your own awesome paint brushes, you are absolutely welcome to bring them. You can even bring palette knives and paints if you want. Our friend and local artist Mitch Steimers does this all the time. We\u2019re pretty \u201ccas\u201d (is that how it\u2019s spelled?) as Andrea likes to say, and as we all know, there just aren\u2019t that many rules in painting or making art. So we\u2019re even happy when people bring their own ideas and do their own paintings at our events. Are you an extravert like me?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Great! Socializing is completely acceptable. We also think it\u2019s cool when our friends get up, chat with other friends, walk around the tables to look at everyone\u2019s paintings, compliment others on their paintings, and just having fun. Neal did such an amazing job, we want to tip him.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Awe, you guys are so sweet. I assume you mean money and not some really good advice? I mean, I\u2019ll take either. All kidding aside, tipping the artist at our paint and sip events is absolutely unnecessary. That\u2019s not to say it isn\u2019t unheard of, or unacceptable. It\u2019s just that you\u2019ve paid for your ticket, your wine, your gas to come down. We\u2019re perfectly fine with that. Which is why we don\u2019t put a tip jar out. (I like $20\u2019s by the way, though. IJS). Cleaning up your personal space after the event<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Okay, we get it. Some of you have told us that you just have to clean your area up or you\u2019ll feel weird. We won\u2019t try to tackle you and keep you from doing it, but keep in mind, this event was your time to unwind, socialize, have fun, have a few drinks, and paint a cool painting. You paid us for that experience, and part of that experience is not having to clean up your area. So, as I tell everyone, let me clean your area up. Let me take your easel down. Let me put the lids on your painting and take your empties to the recycling bin. I love doing it. It\u2019s the most glamorous part of the paint and sip business! Plus, it\u2019s very rare that a group of women get to watch a man clean anything up. So, there you have it. No real rules, but just some general etiquette thoughts about what to do or not do once you come to one of our paint and sip events. As always, we love having you here so come on down and meet up, paint up, and drink up. The excitement is building. You\u2019ve purchased your wine, your beer, your snacks. Most importantly, you early-birded your tickets and saved some moola, and now the evening is here and you\u2019re heading down to Uncorked Inspiration for your very first paint and sip class! Yes, it IS this exciting. Yes it IS going to be fun. And yes, there are a few things we love for people to know about when they come down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uncorkedinspiration.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uncorkedinspiration.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uncorkedinspiration.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uncorkedinspiration.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uncorkedinspiration.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/uncorkedinspiration.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71,"href":"https:\/\/uncorkedinspiration.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions\/71"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uncorkedinspiration.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uncorkedinspiration.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uncorkedinspiration.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uncorkedinspiration.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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