Liquor!!

kristi0618

Alright ladies the FI says that we only need 4 bottles at the wedding and a keg. Now I've been around his family and on New Years its normally only like 20 of us and we go thru way more than 4 bottles. WTH is he thinking? He knows his family full of lushies lol. Now the way he figure it 80% will drink beer, but I'm not a beer drinker and wont become one anytime soon (not going to say never). Plus our families both prefer liquor. I understand from a budget stand point we don't want to spend a whole lot on liquor, but 4 bottles. WOW. Then he had the nerve to say he didn't want to run out of liquor. My plan was to have like 5 signature drinks plus a keg. And only spending like 300-500 all together. So tell me what do you think of him and his four bottles and what is your drink budget???TIA

feleciae19

I do not think that four bottles will be enough. One-four bottles per table? I am not having any drinks at my wedding so they will just be SOL! I am not having  anybody "acting a fool at my wedding". LOL!!

OFF

4 bottles will make for an early night. That won't even last you past the toasts. I like you ridea of doing signature drinks and a keg. Your caterer or venue should be able to tell you how much alcohol you need for the amount of guests you are having.

kristi0618

Our venue is in a park so hopefully the caterer will be able to give me an idea of how much liquor I would truly need. But I know damn well 4 bottles isn't going to do nothing but supply the wedding party lol.

Lovie 129

We are having an open bar, but breaking the alcohol time up. I really don't know what the alcohol budget was, it was added with our reception bill. Four bottles is definitely not enough though, unless you use barbie glasses. LOL

adgenya

People will probably want liquor over beer. 4 bottles will definitely not be enough. That will get you about 60 not-so-strong drinks (assuming your signature drinks only includes one liquor). How many guests are you having and how long is your reception? If you keep your siggy drinks pretty basic (using just 2 or 3 liquors) I think for your budget you can get a keg and a whole lot more bottles of liquor.

MrClintonsFirstLady09

4 bottles of liquor is not going to work, I am going to just put that out there right now. Especially when you have already put it on the table that FI's family have a few lushes in the bunch. With that being said, have you guys considered buying the liquor you want wholesale? We live in NC and the liquor is mandated and control by the state. Which means it is going to cost us too much money to try to buy liqour here. therefore I am going between Atlanta and my hometown in Florida to do some wholesale liquor shopping. We are having champagne for the toast (which we can buy wholesale at Total Wine) but most people are going to want a real drink and not champagne. but by doing this we are going to spend around $400-500 altogether. No beer will be at my reception because there aren't really any beer drinkers on either side of our families.

mycicybride

4 bottles is not going to work.  How many guests we talking? We are having 80pp and were advised to set up a line item of $2K if we hire a professional bartending service which provides alcohol and bartenders to serve all night. But our whole Hemphill Urban Hangtime Suite theme centers around heavy tapas and alcohol so we need to be on point in this dept. I am praying that I have overallocated on this line item.  Haven't called around yet for estimates. We had 4 signature drinks at the engagement party and that was more than enough for our guests. The more options you give the more expensive it will get. Our guests ended up ordering a lot of martini's that night.

kristi0618

Alright we still haven't done the guest list but when I told him lets only invite 125 ppl and pray only 75-100 come. Oh we couldn't do that he want to invite everyone and they mama lol.So I guess we will have 150-200 ppl ( I say that because at his brothers wedding they had about 175). The reception will last about 3-4 hours. I Believe we can buy liquor wholesale plus I know someone who can get it from the military base at a discount. So I'm not worried about hm and that four bottles because on New Years my point will be made we're throwing the New Years Party(which will also be the E-Party)this year. LOL. And he gon see how they do. LOL.

adgenya

Alright, for 175-200 (which is what we're expecting) and about 4 hours of serving time, we're doing 240 bottles of beer (or a keg and some specialty beer), 12 bottles of liquor (that are 1.5L) and 5 cases of wine (60 bottles). We're getting our drinks from Costco and I've calculated just the beer and liquor will cost $480. It should give us 625 drinks. Remember, it's better to have extra and take them back to the store than to run out.

clross01

4 bottles definitely not enough... I think you can stay within your budget and get more liquor for the reception. I think to do signature drinks is a good idea. We are doing 4 options 2 vodkas and 2 brown liquors..

nitaashanti78

I agree with the other pp's, 4 bottles ain't cuttin it.  I'm actually going through a liquor problem too.  Fi and I want to serve liquor, but my concern is with people getting home safely as our reception site is kind of out of the way and people will have to drive home.  I don't want to have TOO MUCH of it.  What to do?

tamtam7

I'm sure you know by now after reading everyone else's responses that four bottles ain't gonna cut it!  I have no idea what to budget for alcohol either.  My plan is to go to our local wine store (Total Wine and More) and ask one of the (I can't think of what they are called) people that work there how many people we're inviting and how much to budget and how many cases to buy.  We're proabably just going to provide beer and wine.  Mrsclinton'sfirstlady brought up a good point with the wholesale thing.

mycicybride

OK. So now we have the inventory. Other things to think about....which I am sure you have but wanted to mention.In NC, if the bride/groom are serving their own liquor we have to obtain a permit to serve for that night. Do y'all need to get one?Also, who is going to bar tend? For that number of people you may need a few bartenders (3-4).Make sure you take into account these costs as well.HTH

kristi0618

Thanks Ladies. @CICY. We don't need a permit just security. We might as well serve acohol since we would need security anyway being that we're having a DJ. I did look at different bartenders. If we don't get a professional bartender we will pay someone we know to do it, but I'm leaning towards a bartender and I found some good deals. He just all into the wedding planning now because he's on vacation. He'll go back to work monday and everything will go back to normal. LOL.

mycicybride

LOL! Yeah I work better when FI is not paying attention.

lca315girl

If you don't have a lot of beer drinkers amongst your guests, you could look into getting a quarter (aka pony) keg as opposed to a half barrell (the size people tend to think of when talking about kegs), to save you some money.