How Much Alcohol for a Wedding Reception?
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I got married last December and one of the hardest planning decisions we had to make was how much alcohol we should order for the reception. What if we overordered? Worse still what if we ran out in the middle of the event? Yikes!
Estimating the amount of alcohol for your wedding celebrations is tricky. To help you figure out the fine balance between having enough to keep the fun flowing and avoiding excessive waste, we consulted 10 wedding experts and mixologists. Most wedding planners recommend estimating a bit higher on alcohol amounts to ensure you are prepared for your guests’ drinking habits.
How Event Type and Time of Day Affect Wedding Alcohol Quantities
The setting and vibe of your celebrations significantly influence guests’ drink choices and consumption.
Your alcohol needs will depend on the time of day, according to Devanshi Patel, a wedding planner and founder of Shreem Events. According to her, “Lighter options such as wines and beers work beautifully for daytime celebrations, while hard liquor is typically reserved for the evening.”
Alcohol needs for a sit-down reception vs. a dance party also greatly differ. At a formal dinner you’ll need more wine and champagne, whereas for a dance party you should stock up on more hard liquor. The consumption preferences for a summer wedding will be different from those of a winter one.
“A hosted bar with craft cocktails will require very different planning than a wine-focused reception,” remarks Kirsten Trelenberg, director of events at Juniper and Ivy. “Also, when calculating how much alcohol, the time of year will affect guests’ preferences and drink choices. Overestimate for summer, people drink more when it’s hot!”
Customizing Your Wedding Bar Menu: Guest Drink Preferences and Signature Cocktails
Knowing and communicating your guests’ drink preferences to your vendor will ensure that your wedding bar is well stocked with their favorites.
For instance, if your family and friends prefer wine, you’ll want to make certain that’s the bulk of your alcohol order, notes Sara Bauleke, wedding planner and owner of Bella Notte. “General guidelines for alcohol needs are a great place to start, but customizing to the preferences of your guests ensures you won’t run out of a favorite beverage.” For wedding planning, it’s important to know how many guests are of drinking age when using an alcohol calculator.
At parties and events leading up to your wedding, keep an eye out for what your friends and family prefer drinking and incorporate those cocktails or spirits in your bar menu. When I was planning my wedding, I noticed that my circle of friends enjoyed tequila cocktails so I made sure those were on the menu.
Vijay Goel, wedding expert and co-owner of 440 Elm by Bite Catering Couture, reiterates this point. “We recommend signature cocktails over spreadsheets and generic formulas. Most drink calculators are built for bars, not weddings. They won’t know your family has a genetic red wine intolerance or goes hard on Hennessy!”
How to Create a Simple and Effective Wedding Bar Menu
Don’t feel pressured to offer an endless range of alcohol options. A smaller but well-curated bar menu will be less stressful. This way you’ll be able to manage costs and you won’t run out of your guests’ favorites.
Keep the bar menu simple, balanced, and guest-focused, declares Nick Hirsch, mixologist manager for RMD Group. “Offer a curated selection. Think one signature cocktail, a red and white wine, a light beer, and a couple of versatile and broadly accepted spirits like vodka, tequila, and whiskey,” he adds.
Counting Heads: Guest Demographics and Drinking Habits
When accurately calculating how much alcohol to order for your wedding, you should factor in the demographics of your guests.
Keep in mind your guests’ average age, culture, and drinking habits and the time and duration of your event, remarks Ankit Oza, luxury wedding and event planner and founder of Aria Events.
“Start with a baseline of calculating 1-1.5 drinks per guest, per hour for a five-hour reception. A split of 30% wine, 35% spirits, and 35% beer. Then adjust based on your guests. If you come from a culture where drinking is a big part of the wedding festivities, make sure to order a little more than the baseline,” he adds.
Estimating the right amount of alcohol for a wedding involves balancing guest count, drink preferences and event duration.
Pamela Wolter, director of sales at The Resort at Pelican Hill, adds, “Estimating two glasses of wine per person for dinner service and one glass of champagne for the toast is the general rule of thumb. A general standard is a wedding reception for six hours. So typically we start our estimates at six drinks per person, two glasses of wine per person and one glass of champagne.”
Getting Down to the Numbers: A Practical Guide
Okay, let’s get into the math. Using a wedding alcohol calculator online can be a good start, but here’s a simple way to create your own estimate.
Start with Your Guest List: How Many Guests Are Drinking?
First, look at your guest list. Your total guest count is not the number you’ll use. You need to figure out how many guests will actually be drinking. Start with your confirmed number of attendees and subtract anyone who is under the legal drinking age or who you know doesn’t drink. This will give you a much more accurate number to base your calculations on.
The Big Question: How Many Drinks Per Person?
The general rule of thumb is to plan for one drink per guest per hour of the reception. So, if your reception is five hours long with 100 drinking guests, you’d plan for about 500 drinks. It’s always a good idea to round up a bit, especially if you know your crowd includes some heavy drinkers. For a typical wedding, you can probably expect each guest to have about five drinks over the course of the night. A common guideline is to plan for two drinks per person during the first hour and one drink for each additional hour.
Breaking it Down: Beer and Wine
If you’re only serving alcohol like beer and wine, the math is a bit easier. A good starting point is a 50/50 split. If you know your guests have a preference, you can adjust. For example, if you know you have more wine drinkers, you might do a 60/40 split in favor of wine. For the wine itself, the split between red wine and white wine often depends on the season and your food menu. If you are only serving wine and beer, you will need less variety but may need to purchase larger quantities.
From Drinks to Bottles: How Many Bottles of Wine to Buy
So, how does “number of drinks” translate to “how many bottles”? For serving wine, you can generally expect to get 5 glasses out of one bottle.
Here’s an example:
- You have 100 drinking guests.
- You estimate they’ll have about five drinks each over the night. That’s 500 total drinks.
- If you do a 50/50 split between beer and wine, you need 250 wine drinks.
- Divide 250 by 5 glasses per bottle. You’ll need about 50 wine bottles.
Don’t Forget the Champagne Toast
You don’t need a full glass per person for the champagne toast. A standard bottle of sparkling wine will give you about 8-10 toast-sized pours. This is a great way to save money, as you won’t need to buy nearly as many bottles as you would for full glasses. Guests often prefer to stick with their drink of choice for the toast, which can result in many unfinished glasses of champagne if distributed to everyone. For a micro wedding, using mini bottles as favors that double for the toast can be a fun touch.
Tips for When You Buy for Your Wedding
If your venue allows you to bring in your own alcohol, it can be a huge way to save money.
Where to Buy Your Own Drinks
Your best bet is a large retailer like Total Wine where you can compare prices and buy in bulk. Most importantly, ask about their return policy. Many stores will allow you to return unopened bottles, which means you can buy a little extra to ensure you have enough alcohol and then return whatever you don’t use. This takes a lot of the stress out of the process. Also, be sure to ask your venue if they charge a corkage fee for each bottle you bring in. A DIY bar option involves buying your own alcohol and potentially hiring bartenders.
Bar Type: Open Bar Packages vs. Cash Bar Service
Deciding how you’ll pay for the alcohol, either a fixed package or based on actual consumption, is an important financial decision. Think about how much alcohol your guests typically consume and the kind of vibe you desire while deciding on your alcohol needs.
“I always recommend choosing a bar package if you’re expecting a lively crowd that’s ready to party,” mentions Olivia Wiley, catering manager at the Kimpton Canary Hotel. “That way, you don’t have to worry about how much your guests are drinking or get hit with a surprise tab at the end of the night.” An open bar is a hosted bar where guests do not pay for drinks, but it is the most expensive option.
It’s also a good idea to check with your wedding venue if they offer a combination of both packages. Some venues allow couples to choose an unlimited package bar to start, followed by a consumption bar.
“See if your venue allows you to start with a package bar (a set hourly rate per person per hour), then switch to a consumption bar,” states Jenna Nickl-Jones, senior catering manager at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa. “Most weddings taper off towards the end of the night, so starting with a package bar covers the heaviest drinking time. Then you can switch to just hosting on consumption when things have died down.”
Final Thoughts
Figuring out the alcohol for your wedding can feel like a stressful high school math problem you didn’t study for. But it doesn’t have to be that complicated. All these calculators and rules of thumb are really just a starting point. The most important tool you have is your knowledge of your own friends and family.
You know if your college friends are going to head straight for the tequila or if your grandparents will stick to one glass of white wine all night. Trust that knowledge as you make your final order. At the end of the day, the goal is just to have enough on hand so everyone can raise a glass to you. If you end up with a few extra bottles of wine, that’s just a great way to stock your new home together.
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