How is this enough booze?

ahoywedding · October 2016

I realize we still have WAY more than enough time to finalize exact numbers for drinks, but I still can't figure this out. We're planning for 150 people. Our caterer (also bringing the beer & wine) has suggested 36 bottles of wine (for a total of 180ish servings?) and 288 bottles of beer. We'll also have water, soda & iced tea. We're not having a cocktail hour; dinner is at 7 and the party ends at 11.

For the life of me, that just does NOT seem like enough. The beer especially seems low. My family are all pretty heavy drinkers and this seems to only allow a couple drinks per person. We're able to keep anything that's left over, so that's not a problem.

Any suggestions? Most of my family is from WI, so please apply cheesehead math.

charlotte989875 · October 2016

ahoywedding said:

I realize we still have WAY more than enough time to finalize exact numbers for drinks, but I still can't figure this out. We're planning for 150 people. Our caterer (also bringing the beer & wine) has suggested 36 bottles of wine (for a total of 180ish servings?) and 288 bottles of beer. We'll also have water, soda & iced tea. We're not having a cocktail hour; dinner is at 7 and the party ends at 11.

For the life of me, that just does NOT seem like enough. The beer especially seems low. My family are all pretty heavy drinkers and this seems to only allow a couple drinks per person. We're able to keep anything that's left over, so that's not a problem.

Any suggestions? Most of my family is from WI, so please apply cheesehead math.

Yah, you're way under I would expect. The rule used around here often is 1.5-2 drinks for the first hour, and a drink an hour after that. Even using a one drink an hour rule you would need 6000 servings for 150 guests (150*4=600). If you were to use two drinks for the first hour and a drink an hour after that you're looking at 750 servings.

Now if you have a sizable portion of your guest list that doesn't drink or is underage, that's a different story, but from what you're saying it doesn't sound like quite enough.

SP29 · October 2016

Yeah, that seems way under. Not even 2 beers per person, and one glass of wine per person. Definitely not enough.

ahoywedding · October 2016

Thanks for backing up what I was thinking! We do have a small handful of people that are underage or don't drink but definitely not enough to close this giant gap. I was hesitant to question her right away because, well, they plan more weddings than I do, but it still really just did not seem right. I'll re-figure using 2 the first hour and 1 per hour after that.

jacques27 · October 2016

There are calculators online. According to a couple I consult with, they recommend double that in beer and triple that in wine (like 108 bottles of wine) if you have mostly heavy drinkers. I wonder if 1) they didn't use a calculator that let's you adjust light/avg/heavy drinkers and 2) they didn't use a calculator that adjusts for no liquor. Those numbers they quoted are much more on par for what I would expect if it was a full bar with liquor for light to average drinkers. With soda available, I think you'd be fine doubling what they recommended - maybe a titch more just to be safe if you're able to keep and/or return unopened bottles.

SP29 · October 2016

I would ask the caterer what their plan is for if the alcohol runs out?

Is it something where it is easy for them to re-stock if beer and wine are getting low? Then I'd say OK, do whatever you want. But if that is all they plan to bring to the event, I'd put up a fuss.

SaintPaulGal · October 2016

Yeah, that is nowhere near enough alcohol. Everybody gets just slightly over one glass of wine with dinner and then 1.9 beers for the remaining three hours of party? Even a pretty darned light drinker would probably want more than that.

Personally, I would WAY rather over-buy than run out. Can you return unopened leftovers? If so, I would probably go for 500-ish servings of each beer and wine (or if you know your crowd prefers one or the other, then weighted toward that.) Maybe a bit less if you are stuck with the remainder, but not a whole lot less.

ahoywedding · October 2016

SaintPaulGal said:

Yeah, that is nowhere near enough alcohol. Everybody gets just slightly over one glass of wine with dinner and then 1.9 beers for the remaining three hours of party? Even a pretty darned light drinker would probably want more than that.

Personally, I would WAY rather over-buy than run out. Can you return unopened leftovers? If so, I would probably go for 500-ish servings of each beer and wine (or if you know your crowd prefers one or the other, then weighted toward that.) Maybe a bit less if you are stuck with the remainder, but not a whole lot less.

We can't return any leftovers, but we can keep them. I'm completely fine with that, as whatever is left will get drunk (or sent home with family/friends who drove in!). I think I may have to just re-calculate myself based on the calculators everyone shared. I know everyone's preferences and drinking habits so that shouldn't be too hard.

kimmiinthemitten · October 2016

I agree that's way too low, but I'd also confirm the size of wine. A 750 ml bottle can get you up to 6 glasses (4 realistically) and the 1.5 L can get you up to 10 so there's a significant difference there.

I'd ask how they portion and what their back up plan is.

kvruns · October 2016

Not sure in your state but here we were able to return unopened items to Sam's club. We returned some wine and I think one case of beer because they weren't items we were normally drink. We definitely didn't want to run out and overbought to be safe plus gave some leftovers to family members

How is this enough booze?

Re: How is this enough booze?

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