How Much Alcohol Do You Need For Your Wedding
The one thing you absolutely do not want to happen at your wedding? Running out of alcohol. This will likely be one of the most costly line items on your wedding budget sheet, but there are some ways to work around that . We consulted with experts Patrick Davila and Juan Castillo to calculate how much alcohol you’ll need for your wedding and what factors to consider while doing it.
Meet the Expert
- Patrick Davila, now the Director of Operations, has been with Meadowood Napa Valley since 2005.
- Juan Castillo is the Banquet Manager at Gurneys Montauk Resort, a popular wedding venue in the Hamptons.
Where To Buy Wedding Beers
There are several places that you can order your wedding beers from, including:
- Your wedding venue: Depending on where you’re hosting your reception, your wedding venue may be able to take care of sourcing all the beers you want.
- Local supermarkets: If you’re looking to buy in bulk and you want a nice variety, supermarkets can be a good option for buying wedding beers and you can also get them delivered to your home or wedding venue.
- Beer shops: Why not support your local beer shop? Speak to the owners about cans or bottles in bulk as they might be able to do you a deal.
- Breweries: If there’s a particular brewery that you really like, you may be able to order batches of wedding beer from them. If you want to buy Small Beer for your wedding, contact us today as we are create special rates for customers spending more than £500.
Save Your Wedding Budget By Having Your Wedding At A Byo Venue
The alcohol bill can take up a large chunk of your wedding budget, so buying it yourself can save literally thousands of dollars. Of course, the ability to do this depends on your wedding venue itself. Some wedding venues have cheaper hire fees, as theyll make their money through the bar takings.
So if you want to bring your own alcohol in, make sure you consider whether the wedding venue actually allows BYO for your wedding reception.
Recommended Reading: Brandy Chase Apartments Cincinnati Ohio
Calculating How Much Alcohol To Serve At Your Wedding
BySara LeDuc on Sep 08, 2021
Figuring out how much alcohol to buy and serve at your wedding can be challenging. Many brides and grooms dont even know where to start when it comes to this topic, and it may end up being quite a guessing game if youre not clued into different methods of how to figure this one out. Luckily for anyone purchasing alcohol for their reception, we have some great tips and tricks for ensuring you buy the perfect amount to serve your guests.
Nuptial Sips By The Numbers
For a typical four-hour reception, you can expect a smaller crowd of 50 or so guests to enjoy around 200 drinks. We divvied this up according to the alcohol ratios above, but you can add to or take away from any category youd like. The reception time also affects how much alcohol to serve. If youre having a brunch wedding or tying the knot in the early afternoon, guests will be less inclined to drink than at a nighttime celebration.
You May Like: Where To Buy Pussers Rum
Bar Options For Weddings:
Open Bar:
An open bar is one of the most common bar options for a wedding. As its name suggests, the wedding hosts will pay a set amount for the bar, allowing guests to drink as much as they want. The key to an open bar is to think about how much money you want to spend beforehand and decide whether or not that is feasible for you.
Cash Bar:
When you have a cash bar at your wedding, your guests are paying for their own drinks. That being said, the onus is on you as the host to make sure there is enough alcohol available for all of them. This option can help maintaining a budget as you will not be covering the cost of the drinks.
- Beer & Wine Only: The bar serves beer and wine but no liquor.
Dry Bar:
The bar only serves nonalcoholic drinks. This can be for religious, cultural reasons or due to venue limitations, but serving non-alcoholic drinks will help reduce the cost of a wedding significantly.
Wedding Alcohol Guide: How Much Will You Need
My Wedding Guide
Choosing your wedding alcohol? Sauvignon-blanc, rose or craft beer: theres more to wedding alcohol than meets the eye. Your guests will like different things, have their own favourites and drink different amounts. How will you know what to order, and how much?
Thats where we come in. Weve put together this handy wedding alcohol guide which explains everything you need to know when organising the booze for your wedding.
Don’t Miss: Hotels Near Papas And Beer Rosarito
Things To Consider With A Byo Venue
- You may need a special license from the Council if you BYO alcohol and then plan to sell it to guests to recoup the costs.
- Its also good manners to let guests know before your wedding if you are planning on charging guests for their alcohol. Take a read of our article, Do I Need to Inform Guests Its a Cash Bar Only? for details on how to do this.
- If you have a special license or liquor license, you will need to have a duty manager.
- Miscalculating how much alcohol you will need.
- Organizing your glassware can be hard to manage. Will you hire it and how much will you need? If you do not have enough, how are you going to clean it? Will you be able to wash it before returning the glassware?
- Some venues require couples who allow guests to BYO their alcohol to pay for or provide security to keep both people and property safe.
- Who will your bar staff be? They are required to follow the law in that intoxicated people cannot be served, shots must be measured accurately and only those above the legal drinking age are consuming alcohol.
Different Beers To Supply
In order of importance, in my opinion:
- American Lager. This can be your Coors Light, PBR, etc. Get a little more of this than other beers just to provide standard “drinking” beer for those guests that really don’t care what they’re drinking.
- Amber Ale/Brown Ale
- IPA or Pale Ale
- Wheat/Fruit Beer. I supplied New Belgium’s “Snapshot Wheat” ale which has some great fruity notes in it, but if you aren’t feeling as adventurous, Pyramid Apricot Ale or even Blue Moon or Shock Top will be safe choices.
- Pilsner. In addition to your standard American Lagers, why not provide some good craft pilsners for guests that want something light, but want to actually taste something in their beer? hehe. A good example of this would be North Coast Brewery’s Scrimshaw Pilsner.
- Porter. I served Anchor Porter at my wedding for the dark beer drinkers. Its my favorite porter out there.
**Worried about seeing bottles and cans of beer at your wedding? We provided mason jars for everyone to pour their beer and wine into . If you are really worried, make a sign near the bar area asking guests to pour their beers into their personal glasses. But don’t worry, you will be so busy at the wedding that you won’t notice any bottles out anyway.
Read Also: Is Pinnacle Vodka Made By Grey Goose
Is It Cheaper To Buy Your Own Alcohol For A Wedding
1. Buy Your Own Booze. Buying booze at your go-to spot is a lot cheaper than purchasing drinks directly through a caterer. If your venue and caterer let you supply your own liquor, wine, and beer, you can hand-select your favorite brands without breaking the bank.
Beer And Wine Only Bar
The most affordable approach is to serve your guests a nice variety of beer and wine. Choose a few beer options and a red wine and white option for variety. Most commonly, people purchase 60-70% wine and 30-40% beer.
If you fear some of the heavier drinkers in your party may get out of hand during your wedding, choosing a beer and wine only bar at the reception will be a safe choice. Weve noticed the consumption of alcohol greatly diminishes when you do not offer hard liquor.
How much wine do I need for a wedding? you ask. Great question! Choose your wine selection based on temperature and food pairing. If its hot, and youre offering lighter courses, stock-up on more white and rose wine. If its fall or winter, and youre planning on serving beef or pasta, choose more reds.
How many kegs do I need for a wedding? Again, great question! Well, you can typically get 165 glasses of beer out of a full sized keg and 80 glasses out of a pony. These keg calculations are based on a standard 12-ounce pour.
Read Also: How To Make Vodka Martini Without Vermouth
How Much Do You Tip The Bartender At A Wedding
The standard rate of tipping a wedding bartender is 20% of the final bar bill.
And there you have it! Weve answered how much alcohol to buy for a wedding, how to keep it cold, how to calculate the number of drinks per guest, how many bottles of wine, liquor, and beer you need, and so much more. I hope this helps to answer any questions you have!
If youre still stumped, leave a comment below and well swoop in to help.
Happy Planning!
Emma
What Are Your Expectations
Its also good to check in about your own expectations around a wedding, and specifically, think about if youre willing to run out of alcohol. I spoke with Chase Daley of Bar Baby Co., a mobile bar specializing in custom signature cocktails at weddings and events in Sacramento, California, and he said each host has a different relationship to running out.
Some people like to run out towards the end, and some people never ever want to run out, and thats an important part of how you round up or down when figuring out how much to buy.
You may decide that running out of booze is your worst nightmare and youd rather have leftovers to enjoy on your anniversary, or you may decide that running out of things towards the end of the night is no big deal.
Recommended Reading: Can You Order Vodka Online
Main Drink Type At Wedding Reception
What We Recommend
While we arent professionals in the drinking department, we are professionals in the wedding expert department. When purchasing beverages for the reception, its best to just ask people what theyd like to drink.
If Bud Light is everyones favorite drink, plan on buying that as the main choice for the evening, thats a no brainier. But, if you dont know the answer to your question, plan on having a fairly generic type of beer or wine.
Wines
If you dont know much about wine, we can tell you that younger people tend to enjoy the more fruity, sweet wines and older people prefer drier, more bold wines.
Having a good mix of both in red and whites is ideal if you have a big spread of people attending the reception.
Also, if youre wedding is close to a winery, we suggest asking a couple of local wineries about getting cases at a discount for your wedding.
Spirits
Since this is the least popular, we suggest that you stick with 3-4 kinds of booze, bourbon is a great choice and you can never go wrong with that, rum is also very popular and so is tequila.
No matter what you wind up choosing, try to have at least 3/4 styles to let people try different things.
Beers
Also with beer, you basically have a couple of options, large companies or small.
How Much Wine Should I Buy For A 100 Person Wedding
When planning for a wedding, one of the most important decisions is how much wine to buy. There are many things to consider when making this decision, such as the type of wine, the number of guests, and the budget.
When it comes to the type of wine, it is important to choose a variety that will please most of your guests. If you are not sure what type of wine to choose, ask the opinion of a wine expert. They will be able to recommend a wine that will match the style of your wedding.
The number of guests is also an important consideration when buying wine. For a smaller wedding, around 100 guests, you will need around five bottles of wine. For a larger wedding, you will need more wine.
Finally, you need to consider your budget. Wine can be expensive, so make sure you factor this into your decision. If you are on a tight budget, consider buying a less expensive wine.
All these factors should be considered when deciding how much wine to buy for a wedding. By taking all these things into account, you can be sure that you will have enough wine for your guests.
Read Also: How Much Is Ciroc Vodka
How Do You Figure Out How Much Alcohol To Buy For A Wedding
To figure out how many bottles you need, just divide the number of liquor drinks needed by 16 to be safe. Remember that for each bottle of liquor, you will need to figure in about 1 quart of mixers for every 3 guests or for every bottle of liquor figure in 3 bottles of mixers.
Know The Rule Of Thumb
There are general rules of thumbs for what you can expect an average drinking wedding guest to consume at your wedding. Research shows that most guests consume two to three beverages each during the first hour of your reception and then one drink per hour after that. Obviously, some guests consume more than this and others consume less, but this can be used as a general guideline.
Don’t Miss: Is Cognac Same As Brandy
How Much Beer Should I Buy For A Wedding
When it comes to weddings, there are a lot of things that need to be planned and taken into consideration from the venue and the catering to the music and the dress. But one of the most important decisions that needs to be made is how much beer to buy.
How much beer you need for a wedding will depend on a few factors, such as the size of the wedding and the type of beer that will be served. But, generally speaking, you will need around one case of beer per 50 guests. If you are serving cocktails as well, you will need around one case of beer for every 75 guests.
If you are serving light beers, you will need around 18-20 cans per case. If you are serving dark beers, you will need around 14-16 cans per case. And if you are serving premium beers, you will need around 12-14 cans per case.
It is important to remember that not everyone will drink beer, so you will also need to factor in non-beer drinkers when planning how much beer to buy. If you are not sure how many non-beer drinkers will be at your wedding, it is best to overestimate and buy a few extra cases.
When buying beer for a wedding, it is also important to consider the type of venue you are hosting the wedding at. If the wedding is being held at a venue that does not allow alcohol, you will need to buy non-alcoholic beer.
How To Serve Beer At A Wedding
There are a few different options when it comes to serving up beers to your wedding guests. Bottles are easy to store in a fridge or for a more stylish touch, you can use vintage ice buckets to keep the bottles cool. Cans are even easier to store and transport, but they might not match the mood youre trying to set in quite the same way.
The big benefit of bottles and cans is that if you have any unopened beers at the end of your wedding, you can pack them up and take them home, rather than wasting anything.
If you would prefer to serve draught beer at your wedding, you could rent a keg from a local brewery or get in touch with a specialist company that arranges keg hire. A keg like this will typically contain up to 50 litres or around 88 pints of beer .
For something a little more manageable, we stock mini beer kegs in the Small Beer online store, which could work perfectly for smaller wedding parties. Mini kegs are filled with around nine pints of fresh beer that your guests can easily pour themselves without the need for any special equipment.
If you want a beer keg at your wedding you will, of course, need to stock up on reusable cups, but these are likely a lot more suitable for the dance floor than glass bottles!
Recommended Reading: What Is The Price Of Don Julio Tequila
How Do Your Guests Like Their Drinks
Taking note of who will attend and what their preferences are is helpful. If your loved ones are non-drinkers or light drinkers, you can have a pared-down alcohol list . Maybe if you have wedding guests that love wine, you can offer a sparkling wine or a red wine at the wedding bar. However, if your crowd includes connoisseurs with expensive tastes or heavy drinkers, you may need to offer higher quality drinksand more of them.