Wedding Alcohol

trawas01

We're able to bring in our own alcohol for our wedding  We're only doing beer & wine. Sam Adam's Octoberfest, Coors or Miller Light and then a red and white wine.

There are fun online calculators that "estimate" how much alcohol you'll need. For about 100 guests over 5 hours I'm being told 72 bottles of wine and 350 bottles of beer. This actually puts me on the high side of about 1.5 drinks per person per hour but I'd rather have more then not enough.

I'm not sure how to split it up though.
Would you go right down the middle?
175 bottles light beer, 175 octoberfest
36 bottles red, 36 white

Thoughts? Suggestions? Experience?

minionlover

I would probably do more light beer than the Octoberfest.  I think more people drink the light beer.  As for the wine, I72 bottles seems like alot.  Can you return what you don't use? 

LDubHawksFan

I agree, more people will probably drink light beer.  Maybe 200-225 of the light?

ktelizabeth86

We have only bought our wine so far. For a guest list of 165 people (we're already down to 151) we got 3 cases of white wine (36 - 1L bottles) and 3 cases of red wine (36 - .75L bottles). This is what our caterer and the liquor store suggested. We can return any unopened bottles.

We are still working on sig drink and beer.

RockyNFrankie

I would base it on what everyone drinks. For example, the biggest drinkers in my party would want bud light (yuck!) but I would get the most of that knowing that it would be a big seller. For wine I would go more white then red just because I know more people who drink white wine then red and the people who do drink white wine drink more wine then those who drink red. Also, if you cant return the extras I would make sure you have a plan for the extras. If you only drink white wine make sure any extras you have would be something youd use or you know someone who would use it.

CarolineandDean

We are doing something very similar!   We're having Octoberfest, Miller Light, and Yuengling.  We'll have mostly Octoberfest and Miller Light (about 96 of each), and then about 72 bottles of Yuengling. 

Well have about 75 bottles of wine divided between Merlot, Cab Sav, Pinot Grigio, and Riesling.

We'll also have a signature cocktail (Spiked Apple Cider) for those who just want something different.  We'll probably only have about 75 servings of it.

BTW, this is for approximately 140 guests.

ivedonethisb4

Well were only going to have one bottle of wine for our first toast. Other than that Fi wants a keg. Recently at his cousins wedding they had 2 and only one was really drank. Barely any was gone out of the 2nd. Based on that..we're doing one and if we run out we run out. Were also making hunch punch but I'm not sure how much of that we'll be making. One recipe fills a 5 gal cooler..and we're having the beer. So we'll figure it out but prob 2 batches of it at most. I don't want people falling down....and it'll sneak up on you!

tamrahelmer

I think the drink calculators seem to always be off. We are not doing alcohol, but I have still figured in at least one drink per person per hour of the reception.

It's definitely better to have too much than too little though! Make sure you can return it if unused or that you guys will use it up quickly enough at other events.

bkhokie27

Also take into consideration the ages of your guests.  Younger guests (in their 20s/30s) are more likely to be beer drinkers.  Older guests, wine drinkers.  Trust me, we ran out of beer in the middle of my 1st wedding's reception (it was a bring your own alcohol venue) and my dad had to make a beer run to the grocery store!