Need help with sparkling wine!

I'd go for something dry and light - I tend to recommend Deutz, a sparkling wine from New Zealand, when this sort of question gets asked. Majestic Wine is a good place to look. We tend to get better deals there than the supermarket offers. They'll accept returns on what you don't drink too.

As for how much, well, it depends on what you want to spend per bottle. We bought in bulk and it ended up costing us around £9 a bottle for the sparkling wine and £18 for the Tattinger.

I far prefer a good Cava or Prosecco to a Aussie vineyard-branded sparking wine...

At full price, you might expect to pay £10-15 for a drinkable Cava. But places like Tesco will run deals so keep an eye out.

We got a prosecco called Luna Argenta from Majestic (I think?) - it was about £8/9 a bottle and very good for the price.

There are loads of fabulous sparkling wines and I would agree that cava and, my favourite, prosecco are nice choices. Remember that Champagne is only called such because it comes from the champagne region and can therefore demand a premium price. Lots of other sparkles are just as good as champagne but just can't be called by that name. We are having loads of lovely cava and were invited to taste it first from the local winemerchant we purchased it from.

There are a lot of english sparkling wine that is a lot nicer than champagne

It tends to be expensive though.

I personally dislike most Cava, and champagne too. I do like Prosecco and we are actually have a New Zealand sparking pinot noir chardonnay - think its about £13 a bottle from waitrose, but caterer has to get it - so we'll see what he says price wise, but he knows we know that you can get it on a case deal from Waitrose too!

I would suggestt Cava or Prosecco.

You can really cheap cava from Tesco and it's quite nice too. Somewhere around £3 a bottle

If you're somewhere you can provide the drinks or with reasonable corkage, I'd suggest a little mooch around France, tasting and buy what you like best.

We went for a Valencay region Methode Traditionnelle Vin Mousseux (champagne from wrong region) at the princely cost of 5 Euros/bottle, because we like it a lot (parents have it for special occasions!). Cremant d'Alsasce and Burgongne would probably be a similar price from the vineyard, and might appeal. Think the Jura also has some cremants/vins mousseux. Easy to get hold of in French supermarkets, pretty well impossible over here (generally we have prosecco or cava as they're more well known as names), but definitely prefer trying at a vineyard.

Thank you for the replies so far!! Are there any brands in particular which I could be looking at or any that I should avoid?

Actually, I have a question about wine too if I could piggyback the thread? Our house wine will be roughly £13 and sparkling wine is £15. If we bought out own then corkage would be £7 per bottle (I believe). Is it possible to buy nice drink for £6/8,or should I stick to the house stuff?

I used to sell wines few years back and can definitely say yes to that. The house wines at weddings are usually awful and overpriced.

It's important to know your menu and what you like and what goes with what. And start the limitation process to find the right ones. What's your menu like?

For example I always start with a continent: i love European wines but don't like "the new world "wines (australia, south amerina etc.) and than just find the right paring.

Try to narrow your choices to 3 red, 3 white and 3 sparkling and go buy them and choose the one you like the best.

It's quite complicated but totally worth it.

Hope that helps.