OMG the GREAT DRINK DEBATE!

beethery · June 2014

My god, I think my guests (some of them are biiiiiiig drinkers) would riot if I only got that much.

FILs are buying the booze for our wedding, and they bought for FBILs wedding last year. I think the final guest count for that one was 90. They bought 24 bottles of wine, 8 cases of beer, and I think 13-15 bottles of liquor (can't remember exactly). I don't know if they used it all, but whatever liquor or wine didn't get opened got returned to the liquor store, which is a VERY good thing to check into if you think all of it won't get used.

Plan for extra, then there's less possibility of running out.

onlyjamielynn · June 2014

I thought it was low too but I've never bought for something like this before. Half of our wedding is not big drinkers at all. But some of the others are. I guess they might have some sad wedding attendees if that's their normal formula...

Cookie Pusher · June 2014

Our guest list is mostly wine or beer drinkers. For about 100 people, we've ordered like 400 bottles of beer and 20 1.5L bottles of wine in addition to 20 bottles of liquor. People would riot if we ran out of booze!

Swazzle · June 2014

People can surprise you and those that aren't really big drinkers might actually have a couple at a wedding. I would speak to the friend that you're getting your alcohol through and see what he/she recommends and then maybe even add a tiny bit more to that just to be on the safe side.

beethery · June 2014

@Swazzle is right. People cut loose at receptions and do shit you would not expect.

FFIL tied his necktie around the top of his head like Rambo and led a conga line. Somebody got FMIL to do shots and she said spanx are going to get in the way of 'getting hers' that night (baaaarf lol), and FSIL's born-again weirdo family got wild and danced a LOT.

Fortune favors the prepared. Get extra booze.

kannf1982 · June 2014

A friend of mine has run a wedding venue for about 20 years...when we were entertaining doing all the alcohol ourselves I asked him for their calculations....so here is his info, for what it's worth....

My basic thinking is one drink per hour plus one... so one hour equals two drinks, two hours equals three drinks, three hours equals four, and so on. It used to be beer and wine drinkers were a 75% to 25% split but wine drinking seems to have grown a bit in the last few years. I also usually have a three to one ratio of white to red but this varies by family. You probably have an idea what your people drink.

Other basic information; one bottle of wine is approximately five 5-oz servings which is what should be poured into on 8-oz glass. If you are doing draught beer you should get about 130 16-oz beers per half barrel. Technically it should be 150 but it depends on the system. I figure 120 at our place because of waste. Champagne gets a little more mileage. I figure that at 8 glasses per bottle for a toast.

kannf1982 · June 2014

** BTW this is if you just want to do beer/wine

tammym1001 · June 2014

Double post

tammym1001 · June 2014

I can't speak for our wedding reception because we had an open bar so I don't know how much we went through, but we had an after party where we provided the alcohol. We had 15 people at the after party drinking. This is what we went through with 15 people after they had already been drinking for 4 hours at the wedding reception:

2 bottles of wine

1 case of beer

2 bottles of vodka

1 bottle of whiskey

1 bottle of moonshine

So basically, 15 people went through half the amount of hard liquor that your calculator is telling you to buy. I'm sure it's a know your crowd thing, but just based on the numbers we went through I don't think 8 bottles of hard liquor is anywhere near enough for 100 people. I also think you need to increase your wine. Wine is very popular right now and even people who you think don't drink will have a glass of wine on a special occasion. My mom who never drinks ever had 2 glasses of wine at my wedding.

FWIW, we also had several people who I've never seen drink at family events standing at the bar with our friends downing shots. You just never know how people will act at a big celebration like a wedding.

ETA: TK ate my paragraphs!

penguin44 · June 2014

We are supplying our caterer with alcohol. This is what they recommend for 120 people for 5 hours.

6 bottles each of vodka & bourbon, 3 bottles of gin, 1 case each of red & white wine & 2 kegs of beer. I would definitely get a variety of mixers including soda pop & juices.

Obviously we aren't having as much variety in liquor, but we picked ones we like in case we need to finish any opened bottles after the reception. We are doing 1 keg of wheat beer from a local brewery and bottles of light beer, most likely bud light, instead of the 2 kegs. Now I'm just trying to figure out mixers...

bethanysd · June 2014

We had about 85 people at our wedding who were drinking....we went through 50 bottles of wine and 3 kegs of beer. Not a ton of other liquor but some. We originally only had 2 kegs but our venue had all the alcohol so they could tap another one with our authorization!

OMG the GREAT DRINK DEBATE!

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