Is this accurate?

Zimsgirl

I googled how to estimate wine for your wedding and found a neat calculator on real simple Clicky for those of you interested. I put in 140 guests because that's what's on the guest list. I didn't want to underestimate it and I'm trying to do a budget spreadsheet as accurate as possible. This is what it came back with:

100 Guests

Beer: 200 bottles

Champagne: 30 bottles

Red wine: 36 bottles

White wine; 36 bottles

150 Guests

Beer: 300 bottles

Champagne: 45 bottles

Red Wine: 53 bottles

White Wine: 53 bottles

We're doing a keg and not sure on champagne so it's really just the wine I'm looking at.

That seems like a lot. Do you guys think this is accurate?

franklissa

I think it just depends on how much or how big of drinker the guests at your wedding will be. We are having a paid bar but decided to put a cap on it. We figured out "who" was a drinker and basically how much they should drink. We figured if they wanted more after that they could go out and use the venue's regular bar. Our wedding is small so it was easier to figure this out versus if we were having a large wedding.

57rainbows

That seems like a lot to me! Is that inteded to be a list where you buy everything, or is it like If you're having beer, buy 200 bottles. If you're having wine, 35, etc? 'Cause it seems like if you buy everything on that list it'd be enough for each guest to have like 5 servings of alcohol or more... I haven't been to many weddings with heavy drinking though so mayber that is accurate. If I were at a wedding I'd have one, maybe two servings. So it seems like overkill to have enough booze for everyone to have two beers plus one of each wine plus one champagne, etc etc. 

You know your guests the best though! Think about who you're inviting, and their preferences.

jeberes08

I think it depends on your crowd.  For example, 150 guests with 300 bottles of beer would never work with my family.  We would run out in probably less than two hours- and I would never get that much wine. So, it really depends on your families.  Although it seems like a lot of alcohol overall, you have to remember that not everyone will drink all 4 drinks.  For me, I would never buy 106 bottles of wine, but again it all depends on your family. 

Getting the alcohol was a big stressor for me because they RAN OUT of alcohol at my Dad's wedding- and I did not want that to happen to me! But you don't want to buy too much so you have a ton left over either.

Olliee1607

How many of those guest are adults old enough to drink? Of those people do they seem like they'd have a couple glasses of wine? A normal bottle of wine, usually has, depending on glass size - 2-4 glasses of wine in it.

I would base the number you use to calculate on the number of drinking adults. Decide whether they're big drinker or not and go from there. Overestimate a bit to be safe.

Try this calculater it lets you put in more details

clicky here

Carebear62584

As pps said it all depends on your guests. As a bartender there are some weddings where I go through 5 bottles of wine and others where we go through 2+ cases of wine. Each bottle of wine is about 4 glasses. If you are only serving beer and wine you should think about those people who normally drink hard alcohol. If hard alcohol isn't available, are they more likely to drink beer or wine? The other thing to consider with wine is whether they drink white or red. Again, from a bartenders point of view we normally stock the bar with 1 case of merlot, 1 case of Cabernet Sauvignon, 1 case of Chardonnay, 1 case of pino grigio, and about 3 bottles of white zin. Again, you know your guests but this is standard for when I bartend at weddings.

Zimsgirl

Thanks everyone

doeie04

For my family, 5 drinks isn't that much. Plus, if your reception is hours long, 5 drinks really isn't too much.

Zimsgirl

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_june-2012-weddings_this-accurate?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:3ae4d68d-f10a-4dec-8810-da13c14a7b86Discussion:78fd0cdd-d40b-4884-bdaf-bca8711ec79fPost:5d3bd18c-263c-4e79-b8d0-f3dbaba3dd6d">Re: Is this accurate?</a>:
[QUOTE]For my family, 5 drinks isn't that much. Plus, if your reception is hours long, 5 drinks really isn't too much.
Posted by doeie04[/QUOTE]
We're doing 1 keg, chardonnay, merlot, then soda, lemonade, etc. I'm not really sure on some of the guests because they're family I'm not around a whole lot because they don't live in the area and some are co-workers of my mom. I'll probably ask our banquet manager what he recommends because he told us we'd only need one keg. I just wanted to try to do an as accurate as possible spreadsheet. We're $2500 under budget and that includes our RD so I'm really excited. My dress is also in there because my mom is paying for it but right now it's on my credit card so if she pays me for that and FMIL and FFIL pay the RD we'll be even more under.

SSaltzman87

I'd consider how many people are over 21, actually drink and how much they would drink (if you know their habits that is). Congrats on being under budget, that's super awesome :-)

MMRoberts11

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_june-2012-weddings_this-accurate?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding Club BoardsForum:3ae4d68d-f10a-4dec-8810-da13c14a7b86Discussion:78fd0cdd-d40b-4884-bdaf-bca8711ec79fPost:886f5f62-cdec-45e6-bb28-162015d020b7">Re: Is this accurate?</a>:
[QUOTE]I'd consider how many people are over 21, actually drink and how much they would drink (if you know their habits that is). Congrats on being under budget, that's super awesome :-)
Posted by SSaltzman87[/QUOTE]

I agree with all this.  For our guest list, that would definitely not be enough but for other it may be fine.