Drinks: How Much?

cupcake_rampage

We're not getting married at a traditional venue, so we'll have to bring in everything ourselves.  It'll be a late-morning wedding with a lunchtime reception, and we have absolutely no clue how much our friends and family would tend to drink, especially not around noon and into early afternoon.  I can just see us going way overboard trying to buy enough and spending more money than we need to.

We'll look into buying places that allow returns, but I was hoping to get some advice from people who know better than I: should we offer beer and wine, or just wine?  If we're doing self-serve, should we go for bottles of beer or kegs?  Should we estimate based on "light" or "average" drinkers?  For non-alcoholic drinks, how many options should we offer?

lyndausvi

We brought in our own liquor also.  We choose a place that returned bottles that helped when figuring everything out.  We had a full blown top shelf bar.

I would do beer, wine, a rum, a vodka and a whiskey.  Those options normally take care of a lot of people's taste buds.  My VIPs (DH, my mom, most of the WP) drink liquor, so not have liquor was not  an option for us.

If that is more than you want to take on, then at minimum I would have beer and wine.

Kegs or bottles... I pick bottles a self-serve keg reminds me of a college party.  If you have bartender, then I would go kegs.

squirrly

Beer and wine at a minimum - but I'd offer a couple of mixed drinks too.  And really think about mixers - they're pretty cheap, and adding a couple of extras can make cheap liquor much more palatable. 

As for volume - standard is one drink per guest per hour plus one additional drink for each 3 - 4 hour window.  So, for a 4 hour reception, you would assume 5 drinks per guest.  Be sure to count children, light, and heavy drinkers all the same - that formula averages out those variances.  For a reception early in the day like that, you could probably go a little less - just one drink per hour - although I'd stick with the formula, personally.  I hate not having enough of something on hand.

As for bottles or kegs - keg only if you have a minimum of 2 bartenders.  It will take too much time for them to pump the keg if they're solo.  And definitely no keg if it's self service.

lyndausvi

as far as amounts.. on the boat (open bar) people tend to drink 2 drinks per hour the first 2 hours.  Then 1 after that.

We have people from all over the country and it's been pretty standard for sometime  now.

cupcake_rampage

Okay, wow, it actually didn't even really occur to me to have liquor that early in the day.  Not trying to be judgmental at all, just didn't think about it, though depending on what food we choose, it would certainly go well

Okay um two kind of followup questions:

1. Liquor is still okay if we're doing self-serve?  I mean, I really don't foresee anyone overdoing it, getting toasted in the middle of the day, though that would be sort of amusing.  I'm more curious about whether it would look fine to have bottles of liquor sitting there and, I don't know.  I guess people would probably know the ratio of alcohol to mixer to get what they want?  I always make mine too strong


2. Also, should I follow the same number of drinks per person guideline when I am considering getting non-alcoholic drinks, like soda, water, lemonade, etc.?  That is, should I essentially double-up on drinks, getting the appropriate amount in both alcohol and non-alcoholic, essentially ending up with twice the amount of drinks needed?

We're expecting about 120 and I just have no clue on earth how much drinks are going to cost, and we can't find consistent estimates online.

lyndausvi

It's always liquor hour in my social circle  


1 - no it's not a good idea not to have a bartender when serving liquor

2 - try  http://www.realsimple.com/holidays-entertaining/entertaining/party-food-beverage-calculator-00000000008198/

cupcake_rampage

Thank you very much!  That was a more thorough calculator than the ones I was trying to use.  I'm not sure if it's in our budget to get a bartender, but since we'll most likely be hiring a few people to do clean-up anyway, I'll definitely think about it.

I'll know more about how affordable that is once I actually get the other major expenses nailed down. 

squirrly

Yeah, a bartender is the way to go for liquor.  What you could do, though, is pre-mix some basics - margaritas, cosmos, etc., and have lovely drink dispensers (think old-fashioned lemonade dispensers) for self service.  That's about the only thing I can think of for liquor without a bartender.

Although an early wedding will tend to go through less alcohol than 8 - midnight, I think you'll be suprised.  People equate weddings with partying, and many will come prepared to do just that.  If you have a pretty low-key group, maybe not, but our group would party at 8 am at a wedding. 

Also - keep this in mind for being sure they can get access to safe transportation at the end.  Cards with a cab company's number are totally sufficient - stuff some in each of your groomsmen's pockets, your dad, etc., and put some on the bar. 

cupcake_rampage

I would be surprised if there was much alcohol drinking in our group.  We're barely inviting anyone our own age, and our personal friends happen not to be partiers, same with most of the people in our own family that I am aware of.

Amusingly enough, the people most likely to drink and get silly are my mom's colleagues (elementary school teachers), and they are absolutely responsible, always, no question about it.  They always have DDs when they go out in the afternoons, so no worries about that.

I really like the idea of premixed drinks, actually, too.  Sounds like it would be an attractive and classy way to have it displayed, too.

lyndausvi

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_reception-ideas_drinks-much?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:5Discussion:cb2a45e3-d6bf-4b84-b6a9-fd656199f1ddPost:a0d41e34-cd4f-4ac8-b3c9-7547e88dc251">Re: Drinks: How Much?</a>:
[QUOTE]I would be surprised if there was much alcohol drinking in our group.  We're barely inviting anyone our own age, and our personal friends happen not to be partiers, same with most of the people in our own family that I am aware of.<strong> Amusingly enough, the people most likely to drink and get silly are my mom's colleagues (elementary school teachers), and they are absolutely responsible, always, no question about it</strong>.  They always have DDs when they go out in the afternoons, so no worries about that. I really like the idea of premixed drinks, actually, too.  Sounds like it would be an attractive and classy way to have it displayed, too.
Posted by cupcake_rampage[/QUOTE]

I was 39 when I got married last year.  The average age of my guests was 50?   Everyone was a drinker and the dance floor was packed.   I do not equate age with who drinks.  My grandma drank until the day she died at age 86.  My 60 and 70 year aunts are the first on the dance floor (after a cocktail of course).

I do admit I come from a weird family.

Amberblk23

I am glad you asked this question, I've been trying to figure it out for my wedding as well! Thanks

jenn.daniel

As a non/veryveryvery light drinker, I like it when I have more than just the choice of a few sodas.  I like it when there's a punch so I get something I don't normally have.  If you do pre-mixed drinks, as a guest I would appreciate it if you had extra of the mixers around to dilute the vodka in cranberry juice with more juice.