Bottoms up!

If you are fortunate enough to have fallen in love with a wedding venue that allows you to bring your own alcohol in for the wedding you might be wondering – how do I decide how much alcohol to purchase?

Follow the Formula

Here is the formula I use when estimating how much alcohol to purchase to build a modified full bar for your wedding:

• 1 drink per person, per hour
• Industry standard percentages are: 50% drink wine, 20% drink beer & 30% drink a mixed cocktail

Therefore, if you are anticipating 120 guests at your wedding and the bar is open for 5 hours the formula would look like this:

• 1 drink per person (120) x per hour (5) = 600 servings

600 servings equates approximately to:

• 75 bottles of wine (red/white/bubbles) (4 glasses of wine per bottle = 300 glasses/servings)
• 120 bottles of beer (1 serving per bottle = 120 servings)
• 4-5 (1.75 liter/handle) bottles of liquor (40 drinks per bottle (estimating 1.5 ounce of liquor per drink) = 200 servings)

What Should I Purchase?

Now that you have an estimate of how much alcohol to purchase, how do you decide what to offer at your bar? 

My two cents is always remember you do not have to supply a full bar with every type of liquor, beer and wine – like your favorite restaurant. Your wedding should be a sampling of your favorites! 

Here are a few quick tips regarding what specifically to buy:

Your Basic Booze

I recommend offering at least 3 liquors. Whiskey, gin, and vodka are the most popular and work well with many popular mixed cocktail drinks.

Upgraded Booze

If you’re going to splurge and offer more liquor choices than just 3, rum and tequila are the next two favorites. 

We plan a lot of weddings in Arizona and tequila is almost always a MUST at all our bars for our famous prickly pear margaritas. 

My take away is, think through your wedding and decide what signature cocktails or favorite drinks your wedding guests usually drink. Be sure to cater to these preferences. This is always a nice way to personalize your wedding and show your friends and family how well you know (and love) them (and their favorite cocktails).

Mixers

Mixers are key. Juice (usually orange or cranberry), soda (at least a cola), tonic water, and club soda are the basic must haves. Feel free to add your favorite ginger beer, sodas or other juices to customize your bar and compliment any signature cocktails you may be offering.

Garnishes

Lemons, limes and maraschino cherries are the basic staples. However, it might be fun to dream a little outside the box in this category. Upgrading your garnishes to fancy Luxardo cherries for your old fashioneds or maybe a dried/dehydrated blood orange slice, might be all you need to take your bar (and its cocktail offerings) to the next level.

Beer

It’s nice to select at least two types of beer (one dark or strong, one light) to provide your guests options. However, if your guests are beer drinkers, offering 4 four varietals might be the better way to go. If you fall into this category I recommend:

• 1 Domestic (Bud Light, Coors Light, Miller Light, Michelob Ultra, etc.)
• 1 Import (Corona, Heineken, Stella Atois, etc.) 
• 1 IPA (Your favorite here)
• 1 Microbrew/Local (It is sometimes fun to choose a favorite beer from a local brewery. Maybe choose a beer varietal that is different from the 3 offered above.)

Wine

You’ll need at least one red wine and one white, but you don’t need more than one varietal (or blend) of each, unless you want to have them. If you’re just offering two varieties, and are not sure what to choose, Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio are usually really safe choices.

Bubbles (Optional)

Cava from Spain, Prosecco from Italy, and sparkling wine from other non-Champagne regions are delicious, and they are almost always a better deal than true French Champagne. 

If you’re going to serve bubbles as a toasting-only option, you want to plan for about 4–5 ounces per person, per toast (6 toast pours per bottle). 

Keep in mind, you don’t have to do a bubbly toast, if you don’t want to. People can “cheers” with anything.

Final Thoughts About Estimating Your Quantities

Of course, understand, this is just the estimate I use. You know your guests best. If they are not heavy drinkers you might want to dial back these estimates a little bit (and vice versa – ha!).

Pro Tip: If possible, purchase your alcohol from a place that will allow you to return unopened liquor/beer/wine. It is always hard to estimate what your wedding guests will consume. It might be nice to be able to get a little money back after the wedding if you happened to have overestimated your guests drinking ability. 🙂 

Cheers to a great wedding!

Casey

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Casey Green Weddings, LLC | 2501 S Village Drive, Cottonwood, AZ 86326