How much do I need?!
How much do I need?
We're catering our own wedding and we'll soon be placing an order for our wine/beer, how much do you think we would need for 40 people, the reception starts at 3pm. There will be plenty of non-alcoholic drinks and water for anyone who does not wish to drink, and plenty of ice to keep it cool.
Additional Details2 weeks ago
Everyone attending is staying over, NO ONE IS DRIVING ANYWHERE....no one will have their cars with them. Everyone has hotel accomodation or staying with family who live locally.
2 weeks ago
And no...we are not selling it, it's wedding...we are providing food and drink FREE for our guests, not trying to make a profit lol...
Answers:
2 weeks ago
Everyone attending is staying over, NO ONE IS DRIVING ANYWHERE....no one will have their cars with them. Everyone has hotel accomodation or staying with family who live locally.
2 weeks ago
And no...we are not selling it, it's wedding...we are providing food and drink FREE for our guests, not trying to make a profit lol...
Plan on everybody having at least one or two drinks. Then figure in those who will enjoy probobly three or four and of course, the people who will totally take over the Open Bar and drink six or more.
You know your guests. It depends on age, drinking habbits, etc. I would say to probobly plan on serving approx. 200 drinks or so for 40 guests. That would give an average of five drinks a person, which seems somewhat accurate.
Figure at least 3-5 drinks per person. If it is a short wedding-3 if it is long-5
I'd say 15 bottles and 3 crates of 24 cans (72 cans). Tell the guests to bring something too. That will keep the booze flowing nicely.
Average 3 beers per person and one bottle of wine for every three people.
Whatever you decide upon you might consider having alternative ground transportation available for those who do drink the alcohol you serve.
I would go with 40 cases of beer, 3 cases of LT size vodka and two 1.75 Lt of all other liquors, And don't forget the Champagne for the toast 40 ppl 1 glass each about two cases to play it safe, Good Luck.
It is always polite to make sure that everyone has at least one drink on arrival, bear in mind that even if you have people that don't drink the ones that do will normally have more than one drink on arrival.
During dinner you would normally make sure that each person has two glasses for the meal, one to start off the starter and then during the main course another is then served.
Then you have speeches so a glass is needed for that as well, normally sparkling wine, or if you are splashing out Champagne, normally 3/4 of a glass depending on the length of the speeches..
The above should help you get the order nearly spot on..!!! once you have done the order we normally advice to add at least an extra 5% on top so that it covers if there is anyone that goes overboard as there is nothing more embarressing than refusing one of the party top up's lol..
I work in the Hotel industry and this is what we would advice I hope this helps..!!!! and good luck on the day x
Depends what people like and how much they like a drink lol.
If you are planning on selling the alcohol make sure you have proper license for it! You will need a TEN's. and a personal license holder.
Problem with weddings is you either do massive bar sales or poor bar sales.... no in between really!
Talk to your local brewery / off trade.... about sale or return... what you dont use then you can send back and get refund!
As much as possible. lol People usually enjoy a wedding. Turn it into a mini bar. Seriously as much as you can afford. Remember any left over can still be used. Pity I am too far away. Sounds tempting. Good luck on your wedding. ha ha
Buy your drinks on a 'sale or return' basis and you will not run out. Caterers allow 8 glasses to a bottle of vino. Your booze supplier will be pleased to advise and may supply free glasses.
Once you calculate what you need, double it. Then double that again. The first doubling is because sober people have no idea of the needs of people who are drinking. I have seen too many wedding celebrations peter out just when the fun was starting because the booze ran out. The second doubling comes because of theft. At my sister's wedding we realized that fully half the booze had been stolen by the catering staff. The best way to avoid theft is to ask to count the bottles at the end of the celebration.
Irish eyes: "1 bottle of wine for every three people!?" I can drink half a bottle on my own and at a celebration? Whoooooa.
Think about if you have beer or wine drinker or spirits. Order more of the one which caters for most people's taste. 3 - 4 beers for each person and I'd say 1 bottle between 2 people.
Unless of course it isn't THAT kind of wedding.......ha, ha,
Ha ha ha 3 beers per person? I would say 1 beer, or quarter of bottle of wine per person per half hour. That means you won't run out. You'll need champagne for the toasts, and most people will drink wine during the meal. Maybe you should consider alcopops as well? More is better than less, you don't want to piss everyone off by running out of alcohol. If you get beer don't just get lager. Get bitter, cider and Guiness because not everyone drinks lager.
Find one of your larger local liquor stores. They will have a chart of how much of which wines, liquors, and brews are recommended. They will generally have sales on stuff at larger stores, and might even offer case discounts or a wedding discount.
Wines - you can get the box wines for the more popular flavors like white zin, chard, and cab sav. Then get 1.5Lt bottles of better wines like merlot and such.
Spirits - You will want to get Lt bottles of most things, but 1.75 Lt of vodka
beers - a few cases of whatever local favorites, a few cases of lite, a few cases of regular, a few of specialty
Get ready for sticker shock though. It won't be cheap.
Best of luck to you.
Plan at least 5 drinks per person for wine. For our wedding, we actually bought bottled wine for the meal and then had the same wines from bag-in-box for the evening party! I think there is a wine shop online which supplies both. You should check them up as it considerably reduced our bill. It is called either provenance wines or provenance chateaux wines. As for beer, we also used premium beers in casks which i think was from a company either called cellar secrets or cellar direct! It was fun, and by the evening, no one cared anymore that it wasn't in bottles! Excellent stuff and we had less to clear the next day! Happy wedding and happy party!