Yesterday I got great news. My cousin texted me and said that she is ready for happily ever after with a handsome young man from Portugal. I can’t explain how excited I am!
She asked me to help her get some ideas for her wedding and the first question was how much alcohol she needs to buy for her party. Good question! Nobody wants a dry wedding! My cousin is doing it all DIY style and needs some assistance. So I decided to write a detailed description on how to buy alcohol for the wedding.
Clearly, every party is different and only you know your crowd. However, there are some basic rules about liquor.
1. There are three types of a wedding bar:
a) Beer & Wine,
b) Full Bar,
c) Modified Full Bar.
If you are planning to have a Full Bar, I highly recommend to hire a professional licenced caterer and a bartender. Otherwise, you are risking to waste a lot of money. Beer & Wine Bar and Modified Bar are much easier options to set up yourself.
Let’s start from defining servings sizes:
Another important thing is to know the basic ratio for your type of bar:
Now, let’s do some basic math:
Let’s say you are planning a 4-hour reception with 100 guests. Your guests are not big drinkers and a normal ratio is considered to be 1 serving per hour. This is how you buy alcohol for your party:
Since now we have the amount of servings needed, we can calculate how many bottles you actually need:
That simple! Now you probably think that your guests will drink more than 1 drink an hour but don’t underestimate this conservative ratio because on every uncle who pounds hard liquor non-stop you might have an aunt who does not drink at all!
And last but not least, do not forget about Mixers, Ice and Garnishes. Plan on a 1/2 lemon and 1/2 lime and two each of olives and cherries. This means that if you have 100 guests, you’ll need at least 50 lemons and 50 limes plus 200 each of olives and cherries Plan on one and a half pounds of ice per person. This will provide enough ice for drinks as well as any ice baths for wine or beer.
Happy Planning!