Tonight we're presenting our friends Lise & Douglas with a bottle of champagne. This isn't just any champagne mind you. It's the BEST champagne in the world.

And it only cost $2.99!

Seriously! A while ago, maybe six years now, we were on our way to a birthday party and called the hostess and asked if she wanted us to pick up anything on the way. She was happy we called and asked if we could pick up a bottle of cheap champagne just to do a quick toast.

We drove around for a bit looking for some place to buy a bottle. We stopped in this store that was a discount something or other and grabbed a bottle. Three bucks. Not bad! It was more as a joke than anything.

We got to the party and stuck it in the freezer. A couple of hours later it was ready for the toast. We pulled out cheesy plastic cups and toasted the man of the hour with silly stories about how old he was (a whopping 33) and wished him the best, and sipped the wine.

Oh! My! Gawd!

This stuff was the BEST STUFF EVER! We all looked at ourselves and talked about how yummy it was.

Since that wasn't our normal neighborhood, the next time I was in the area I stopped back at that store and bought out the rest of their stock, about a case and a half. And best part was that it didn't cost much!

So we had about 30 bottles which we stored away. We'd bring them to parties, pop them open for any occasion.

I had to go into the city for some event so decided I might as well make another champagne run. Everyone really loved this champagne. I went back to the store and they didn't have any more. I went up to the people working there and inquired about it.

The woman told me that they just get extra runs - overstocks, left overs, that sort of thing. It was always a changing stock, and total hit or miss. She told me to stop back in again but usually they got a run and that was all they got.

I thought to myself that if they had some there were probably others. Looking around I found some at a different wine store, but it wasn't the same year. I bought some and brought them home. We took a bottle to another party and opened it - and it wasn't all that good. It was just some fluke run of this series that made the best champagne ever.

So now we have about 10 bottles left and we only dole them out on VERY special occasions. We've given them to friends for:
- landing a dream job after a long, long and rough road
- launching of Story of My Life
- birth of a baby after a very difficult pregnancy
- graduation for a friend (at let's just say no longer in her late teens/early 20s!)
and a couple of other happy moments.

Tonight is one of those nights as our friend Lise & Douglas recently got married (yay kids! in Scotland, where Douglas is from) about a month ago. They've been non-stop partying every since (just kidding, but I do think they've been enjoying being Mr. and Mrs.). The second time around for both of them, and we want them to have a great, happy, long and fun life together.

So we'll present the wine, carefully wrapped and lovingly and longingly departed with. Tell them the story about the cheapest bottle of champagne in the world that is so good it's priceless. And drink to a long happy marriage.