Snarky Brides

OMG the GREAT DRINK DEBATE!

I have to admit I am kinda loving the advice on this board more so than any of the other ones...As we're steamrolling through the planning, our topic of discussion last night was the almighty BEVERAGES!  Ohhhh I know this is a hot debate everywhere.  We spent a lot of time last night looking up different sites for "How Many Beverages for 100 people."  Everything states something different!  This is our plan...critique away, tweak, give opinions, give it to me from a been there done that stand point....We have 100 people.  4/5Pm ceremony time, 1 hour cocktail hour immediately following on the same grounds (with appetizers), and then the reception immediately after the cocktail hour (still on the same grounds).  We will have a bar stocked with two bar tenders.  I don't want the bar tenders doing regular beverages as I feel this could hold up the line.  So we're thinking self serve soda (can) (regular, diet, clear), water (bottled), ice tea (2 gallon dispenser), lemonade (2 gallon dispenser.  The bar will distribute beer (tap) (1 regular, 1 lite), sangria, red wine, white wine, mixed drinks.  We will also be having a separate coffee station.  

These are the quantities we are looking at:
SELF SERVE BEVERAGES
150 cans regular soda
50 cans diet soda
50 cans clear soda
150 bottles water
4 gallons Ice Tea 
4 gallons Lemonade

BAR BEVERAGES
1 keg regular beer
1 keg lite beer
2 bottles Vodka
2 bottles Rum
2 bottles Gin
2 bottles Bourbon
5 Bottles White Wine
5 Bottles Red Wine
2 gallons Sangria
5 2l Coke
2 2l Diet
2 2l Clear Soda
2 cartons OJ
2 cartons Cranberry
2 Cartons Pineapple
1 gallon Maraschino Cherries
Lemons
Limes


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Re: OMG the GREAT DRINK DEBATE!

  • I have no comment on your quantities, because I have no idea haha. But does the place you are purchasing your beer/wine/alcohol from have a delivery service? Ours does and if we run out they will deliver more to the venue if we need it. That way if you do start to get low you're okay.
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  • Actually a good friend of ours that owns a local bar that we frequent is providing the alcohol for us.  I mean we still have to pay for it.  lol But were able to get it at his rates.  He is also "renting" out some of his bartenders to us as well.  If we need more it won't be that much of an issue.  But that's the last thing I feel like worrying about.  The charts for beverages were alllllll over the place.  :/
  • I'm not an expert on this by any means and i don't know your crowd, but at every conference, etc. I have gone to with self-serve pop available at breaks, the diet pop is the first to disappear, even if it is there in equal amounts of it and other beverages, so I would consider increasing the amount of diet, especially if the bartenders will be using separate stock for mixed drinks, where even diet drinkers are inclined to get non-diet mixers.
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  • So I should increase the diet on both the self serve and bar?
  • doeydodoeydo member
    Seventh Anniversary 5000 Comments 500 Love Its 5 Answers
    I am sorry, but I think your amounts of bottles are a little light for 100 people.  For example, I would be drinking a rum and pineapple all night.  Also, a lot of people drink wine.
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  • How long is your reception? I think you need to at least double, well everything.
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    Anniversary
  • Bottles for liquor or bottles for wine?  Our guest list is compromised of immediate family and close friends.  People we hang out with on a regular basis.  We don't have wine drinkers.  Even a lot of the females we are inviting are strictly beer drinkers.  How many bottles would you suggest?
  • Can you talk to a local store and see about returning unopened bottles? Also, Trader Joes has a fabulous selection of cheaper wines. Though I think two buck chuck red is disgusting.
  •  If I have left over I'll probably just give it to my MIL. Unfortunately due to my new found wonderful allergy (side-eye) I can not drink beer or wine!  Boooooooooo!  But I'll probably go with the Barefoot brand.  I also meant the larger bottles.  Not the tiny tiny bottles.  :)
  • Actually a good friend of ours that owns a local bar that we frequent is providing the alcohol for us.  I mean we still have to pay for it.  lol But were able to get it at his rates.  He is also "renting" out some of his bartenders to us as well.  If we need more it won't be that much of an issue.  But that's the last thing I feel like worrying about.  The charts for beverages were alllllll over the place.  :/
    This is really cool! I wish I was friends with the owners of a bar!
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  • LOL Yes!  He will be a guest at our wedding.  He's working out a package deal for us, but we're trying to come up with figures.  
  • Double to triple the amount of water! When drinking for an extended period (such as through a cocktail hour and reception) I like to alternate between alcohol and water- to make sure I don't overdo it or wake up with a hangover.
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    image
  • Actually a good friend of ours that owns a local bar that we frequent is providing the alcohol for us.  I mean we still have to pay for it.  lol But were able to get it at his rates.  He is also "renting" out some of his bartenders to us as well.  If we need more it won't be that much of an issue.  But that's the last thing I feel like worrying about.  The charts for beverages were alllllll over the place.  :/
    Have you asked him how much he recommends?  He should have ordering the right amount of alcohol down to a science . 
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  • I have no idea, but I'm wondering what clear soda is.  Is that carbonated water?
  • edited June 2014
    Clear soda = Sprite.

    I would have 3 waters per person. Then figure 1 drink per hour per person. Determine what percentage you think will drink what, and figure it out from there. 50% beer, 30% liquor, 20% wine?

    Personally I'd nix the sangria. The more options you have, the more you'll need to overbuy to account for such a wide range of potentials. And it can't be returned or saved like an unopened bottle. If anyone really wants sangria the bartenders could mix just a glass with wine, rum, etc.

    ETA and I'd add the soda options on top of liquor options, not count them as one of your drinks per hour. It's easy to overbuy cans of pop that last for so long. You can't run out of wine and offer a root beer instead, KWIM? And add more diet. Equal to regular.

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  • So I should increase the diet on both the self serve and bar?
    I think having less diet mixers at the bar is ok.  I drink diet pop, but 95% of the time, if I get a mixed drink I order it with regular.
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  • csuavecsuave member
    500 Comments Third Anniversary 100 Love Its Name Dropper

    Are you planning on having ginger ale?  That might be something to add.

  • Also i've seen quite a few charts on Pinterest related to this subject. I'm not sure how accurate those are, but might be something to look at :)
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  • I think you need to figure out how many drinks something will be. For instance, a quart is 32ounces; is a carton of OJ 2 quarts, or 64 ounces? If each drink containing OJ has 6 ounces of OJ in it, then you only have 10 drinks per carton, or 20 drinks total. 

    You have 100 people drinking for, what, 5 hours at least? If you estimate 1 drink per hour per person, that's 500 drinks to be consumed during the party. You're estimating only 20 drinks to have OJ in them? 

    Essentially, that's estimating that 4 people will drink OJ drinks all night (4 people x 1 drink per hour x 5 hours = 20 drinks). What if more than 4 people want to be drinking screwdrivers all night?

    For the wine, assuming 5 glasses per bottle, that's only 25 glasses of white and 25 glasses of red--that's only 5 people drinking white all night and 5 people drinking red all night. 


    Personally, I would much prefer a drastically smaller selection, but to not run out during the event. No one wants to switch unexpectedly. 
  • I found this website last night. I love how I can adjust the percentage of drinkers based on our family and friends. We barely have any wine drinkers so we were able to up the percentage of beer. http://www.bevmo.com/Misc/PartyPlanner.aspx#beverages 
  • SwazzleSwazzle member
    10000 Comments Seventh Anniversary 500 Love Its First Answer
    edited June 2014
    There were 100 adults over the age of 21 that drink alcohol at my wedding. Here is the amounts we had and we ran out of vodka and Yuengling at the very end of the night. 

    ETA: We got married at a winery so there was basically endless bottles of wine which are not included below.

    11

    Ketel One Vodka

    3

    Bombay Sapphire Gin

    2

    Bacardi Silver Rum

    2

    Cruzan Spiced Rum

    2

    Makers Mark Bourbon

    1

    Jamesons Whisky

    2

    Sauza Gira Gold Tequila

    2

    Chambord (signature drinks)

    1

    Tribuno Sweet Vermouth

    1

    Tribuno Dry Vermouth

    1

    Stirrings Lime Juice

    1

    Stirrings Grenadine

    1

    Stirrings Bitters

    1

    Stirrings Simple Syrup

    1

    Stirrings Dirty Olive Juice

    4

    cs Yuengling

    2

    cs Heineken

    4

    cs Bud Lite



  • What size bottles of alcohol did you use.
  • I really think you're not going to be able to get a precise number down and you're just playing a guessing game. I mean there's no way to know if 25 people each want one screwdriver of if 10 people only want to drink screwdrivers all night. And 1/3 of those drink 2 drinks an hour and 2/3 drinks one drink an hour. Unfortunately I'm not willing to buy enough orange juice, cranberry juice, pineapple juice and three-four different kinds of sodas for each person to drink 1.5 hours in each flavor.
  • onlyjamielynnonlyjamielynn member
    100 Comments 25 Love Its Name Dropper
    edited June 2014
    @Swazzle‌ I'm confused I did the Bevmo thing that was posted on here for my time frame and 100 guests with more focus on alcoholic beverages and beer it said 8 1.75l bottles of liquor. You have listed 24 bottles? And stating you ran out of vodka????
  • @Swazzle‌ I'm confused I did the Bevmo thing that was posted on here for my time frame and 100 guests with more focus on alcoholic beverages and beer it said 8 1.75l bottles of liquor. You have listed 24 bottles? And stating you ran out of vodka????

    Yep. I used a distributor and went with how much of everything he said we'd need (and actually added a few more bottles of vodka and rum to that because I figured it'd be better to have too much than not enough). And then we ran out of vodka anyway.



  • Hmmm...so I looked over our list. Some people have told me to take this into consideration some people have said it doesn't matter. Out of our 100 person guest list about half would be coming from out of the area. When I say that I'm saying about a 1 1/2-2 hour drive one way. I know for a fact that these people will not be staying the night in the area. And about half of those people aren't drinkers anyway. I know this because they are family and I attend functions (showers, weddings, parties) with them on a regular basis. I want to have enough but when I told FI about your quantities and running out of the vodka he said he thinks that is extremely high for our guest list. When I did Bevmo it said 8 bottles total for alcohol with a 100 person/4 hour reception/10% wine, 45% beer, 45% alcohol ratio...
  • Hold on, 8 bottles of liquor total for 100 people?????????????? That can't be right.

    --

    I'm the fuck
    out.

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  • 8 bottle of liquor, 215 12 oz beers and 14 bottles of wine is what it said. I'm going to do it again and see if there was a mistake.
  • Ok here is what it said...
  • onlyjamielynnonlyjamielynn member
    100 Comments 25 Love Its Name Dropper
    edited June 2014
    @beethery‌ this one was similar
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