Too much alcohol?

Re: Too much alcohol?

• artbyallie mod

  

  April 2015

  The usual advice is to plan for every person 21 and up (regardless of whether you know they're non-drinkers) to have 1 drink per hour of the reception. That helps balance your non-drinkers/one and done drinkers against your falling-down drinkers. I would then divide that number by 3 or 4 and buy at least that many 'drinks' (1oz liquor, 5oz wine, 12oz beer) in each category.

  

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• Knottie30291358 member

  

  April 2015

  This can depend on the crowd and norms of what "heavy" and "light" drinking are. When my dad worked for a catering company, Italian names would get a truck full of wine, Irish names would get a truck full of whiskey, and Jewish names would get mixers. On the rare times I can afford it, I usually like something bitter before a meal or with appetizers (Manhattan, Old Fashioned, a sour for my fiancee), a long drink (beer, whine, highballs/collinses) with the main meal, and a brandy or sweet digestif cocktail afterward or with the savory course. And then I fall over because I'm Jewish and I already told you about our tolerance. Depending on the meal you're serving, you might want to go with one long drink serving per person per course, and I suspect varioations in cocktail hour drinking will be made up for by how few people drink after they have coffee these days.
  

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• lnixon8 member

  

  April 2015

  You should shop around and find a liquor store that will accept returns for unopened bottles. My Dad owns a liquor store in Maryland and he accepts returns as long as the person has their receipt and the bottles in question weren't just bought in order to get a quantity discount.

  
  

  Kegs are fine- as long as you and your guests finish it or won't kick yourself if you don't.

  
  

  I would get AT LEAST a case of red and a case of white. My family of 4 will finish 2 bottles of red and a bottle of white during Christmas , but then again we're drinkers and always have tons on hand.

  
  

  Have you thought about having a few bottles of rum or gin? Gin and tonic and rum and coke are pretty common drinks and the jim/bullet you're already getting are pretty similar.

  
  

  
  
  

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• madamerwin member

  

  April 2015

  lnixon8 said:

  You should shop around and find a liquor store that will accept returns for unopened bottles. My Dad owns a liquor store in Maryland and he accepts returns as long as the person has their receipt and the bottles in question weren't just bought in order to get a quantity discount.

  
  

  Kegs are fine- as long as you and your guests finish it or won't kick yourself if you don't.

  
  

  I would get AT LEAST a case of red and a case of white. My family of 4 will finish 2 bottles of red and a bottle of white during Christmas , but then again we're drinkers and always have tons on hand.

  
  

  Have you thought about having a few bottles of rum or gin? Gin and tonic and rum and coke are pretty common drinks and the jim/bullet you're already getting are pretty similar.

  
  

  Thanks for the wine advice! And we are considering getting a few bottles of rum, we know we will have some rum drinkers there (though they would be fine with the options we are already providing as well).

  
  As for unopened bottles - we won't be disappointed if we end up with leftovers at the end. We'll just stick them in our basement and use them as needed after the wedding. We buy basically all of our liquor in bulk in CA because it's so expensive in Oregon, so it's no skin off our back if we have some extra

  
  

  artbyallie I have heard the one drink per person per hour rule as well. Totally makes sense, but I'm worried about the proportions of wine vs. beer vs. liquor. What if I'm underestimating the wine drinkers, and everyone wants wine and we run out? I'm over-thinking this, right?

  
  

  Side note, I had a wedding anxiety dream last night. It was the day of my wedding, and I had never followed up with the dozens of guests who never RSVP'd, and we did not have food or alcohol, or any decorations. It was awful.

  

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• iloveu4ever member

  

  April 2015

  Personally I think it is enough. My fiancé wants us to get vodka and other liquor. But I just want beer.

  
   

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• blabla89 member

  

  April 2015 edited April 2015

  Take a look at A Practical Wedding, they had some good info on this.
  
  I don't think kegs are a good idea, because it could be messy and would likely be more beer than you need. I personally prefer bottles over cans, but that's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
  
  ETA: Also, if you have leftover beer in a keg it goes to waste. If you have leftover beer in cans or bottles, someone can take it home and enjoy it later.
  

  

  
  
  

  
  

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• madamerwin member

  

  April 2015

  blabla89 I will look at A Practical Wedding for booze info. I was kind of feeling the same way about the kegs - what happens if we have, like, a keg left over? I'm going to broach the topic with FI again. Maybe we do one keg, and then bottles? There are also a ton of microbreweries in our area that do good beer in cans, do I guess that's an option.

  

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• amelisha member

  

  April 2015

  Even worse is if a keg is tapped but then not much is used, because then you have a bunch of beer wasted and no way to even keep it to drink afterwards because you have to return the keg. At least you can store leftover bottles.

  
  

  
  

  
  

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• augsum15 member

  

  April 2015

  the "formula" I've seen mostly has been:

  
  

  # of guests X 1.5 drinks X # of hours

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