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May 2012 Weddings

alcohol.. how to figure it out

So what I wanted to do was so simple... Serve beer and wine, soda, and iced tea for the evening. Then a champagne toast during toasting.

Our wedding is about 100 people, 20 nondrinking kids under 21 mostly around age 4, about 15 nondrinkers, and 65 light to moderate drinkers. 

 Our reception includes a cocktail hour with beer/wine, iced tea, and a juice drink. 
Now I find out I have to pre-buy wine in bottles and guests serve themselves after the initial pour or we do a bar option where they pay per glass which is a higher cost

Edited for grammer/spelling

Re: alcohol.. how to figure it out

  • edited May 2012
    Dang knot didn't let me finish and phone is not letting me edit... 

     So right now soda is $2... I think that's tacky for my mom's crowd and would like to cover the cost of soda. 

    Right now if I get bottles of wine I'm concerned 22 bottles of wine will be open on the tables and people will go to the bar to get more after dinner and some tables won't drink more than a glass from the bottles. This is not a big drinking crowd and many are over 60 and the crowd our age mostly have little kids 

    Would you be okay pouring your own wine? Do you think people will just pick up open bottles off of other tables?
  • We are doing open bottles of wine on each table as well. I think people will be fine pouring it themselves. I hope that people will pick up the open bottles from other tables, I know there will be some tables than drink more than other tables.

    We went to FI's christmas party for work a few years ago and they had open bottles on the table and people had no problem pouring it themselves and taking from other tables.
    Unplanned BFP#1 12/15/09 7wks m/c 12/24/09 Anniversary image
  • There's a calculator online! I think i just googled it. I had the same delimma and it told me a good baseline of what to provide. I'd also ask your caterer...they do this all the time and probably have a good idea.
    imageAnniversary
  • I would ask your caterer too. Even though I wasn't going through them to get the alcohol; they gave me a spreadsheet of what type of liquor/beer/wine to get and the quantities.. It helped a lot. 
  • The general rule of thumb is 8 bottles of wine per 20 people, so you'd need approximately 26 bottles for the night (for 65 people).  I think putting them on the tables is just fine.  We went to a wedding last summer that did just that and it worked out, and we're thinking of doing that as well.  Just make sure to put a cork screw on each table. :)  Once the wine is gone, it's gone...and I think that's fine considering most people only drink wine with dinner anyway and will likely switch to something else later on in the evening.
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