Wedding Cakes & Food Forum

Help me with my alcohol PLEASE!

Dreading this part! Ok, so my venue is bring your own booze and then a bartender will serve it for you. I need some suggestions on what to make available. I am not wanting to do any hard liquor, so it will most certainly be a hosted, partial bar. Our guest list is at 100 people.

The venue is providing all non-alcoholic drinks, so we are covered there.

So here is my thoughts, we do not have the budget to have a ton of alcohol choices, so we were thinking about doing a couple of beer options and then having prosecco to mix with  orange juice and cranberry juice. It is an afternoon wedding (cocktail hour starts at noon), so I am really on the fence about having wine. Not many of our guests are wine drinkers, but I don't want to not have the option if people really want it.

We are having ham and turkey as our main dishes, so I am not sure if we would even need a red wine if we decide to go that route.

So I guess my questions are:

1.) Do I need wine? (If so how much?)

2.) What type of beers would you think I should use in October?

3.) How much alcohol should we plan on getting for 100 people (I would estimate about 85 are of drinking age)?

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Re: Help me with my alcohol PLEASE!

  • I personally would offer wine.  You don't need a lot of choices.  You could do the Prosecco and then a white (either a reisling or pino grigio) and then a red (not a red drinker myself).  Just because you aren't serving something that goes with red doesn't mean that people won't drink it.  I drink the wine I like not what goes with the food being served.

    Beers.  You could use a local beer.  Also you could go with the seasonal Sam Adams and then something light and typical like Miller or Michelob.

    As for how much, you could always ask the venue what they recommend.  But since it is an afternoon wedding you probably wouldn't need as much as if your wedding were at night.

  • I'm going to second having the wine. I do not drink beer, so I'd be a bit bummed. I'd live, but wine and beer covers almost everyone. One white and one red is fine if you're not sure people will drink alot. Check with where ever you buy from, you might be able to return unopened bottles. 

    I second doing a riesling or pinot grigo for your white option. Because I'm selfish and I hate Chardonnay. You could also get a white or red blend. 
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  • The prosecco sounds delicious! My crowd are big wine drinkers (more so than beer I think) so I would provide wine. But I guess it's more about knowing your own crowd. Since it's an early wedding, maybe estimate two drinks per person?


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  • ElcaBElcaB member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    Please have wine. I'd offer one red and one white. 

    For beer, serve one light-bodied beer like Bud Light & offer an Octoberfest. 

    Do a Google search for alcohol calculators for crowds. Use it as a guide and adjust accordingly. 
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  • Also, you could likely rent a keg. Check with local liquor store or BevMo!
  • What about keeping it local? Infinite Monkey Theorem for wine & Breckenridge or Great Divide beer... 
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  • If you're unsure how much people will drink, I wouldn't recommend a keg. You can keep unopened bottles of beer for months but leftovers in a tapped keg will be wasted if you can't finish them in a day or two. That's sad.

    I could drink wine any time of day, and you can often return unopened bottles (or save them indefinitely). Riesling (sweet) and unoaked chardonnay (dry) are crowd-pleasers. I'd stick with lighter reds for afternoon... garnacha is delicious and I found a great one at my wine store for $7 (Garnacha de Fuego)! Merlot is the top red wine in the world, production-wise.


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