Getting ready to purchase the alcohol for our wedding reception and not quite sure how to determine what to get. We need champagne, red and white wine bottles of wine, and beer. The reception runs from about 7-11pm and its a plated dinner. We are estimating about 100 people for the reception.

Any ideas?

4/5/2006 12:37:33 PM

One ABC Store should do it....

4/5/2006 12:43:09 PM

6 kegs and 10 giant buckets of pj.

4/5/2006 12:46:12 PM

we had a plated dinner for same amount of time, 140 ppl and bought 6 cases of red, 10 cases of white and 2 three litre and 1 nine litre of champagne and all that was left was half a case of red and a case of white. We had bottled beer (provided by the club) and no liquor. I would say that the crowd was moderate to heavy drinkers. Hope that helps.

[Edited on April 5, 2006 at 12:50 PM. Reason : s]

4/5/2006 12:49:37 PM

In my limited entertaining experience, I would estimate half of the guests will drink wine, maybe less. I always estimate 3 glasses per person. Buy more white wine than red and estimate 4 glasses to a bottle. (maybe 60-70% white to red).

For beer, getting a keg might be easier. You could get a cheap table to hide the keg and buy the pourers on ebay to seem "fancy" and pay a college kid to pour. It depends on what the reception site will allow.

are you serving champagne the whole evening or a toast?

4/5/2006 12:57:33 PM

Depends on how hot or ugly the bridesmaids are.

4/5/2006 1:00:49 PM

Aren't your caterers taking care of this? Reason why I'm asking is because most caterers usually have good contacts with wine and beer merchants, such that if you have any excess booze remaining at the end of the night (especially wine), their merchants will take it back and you won't get charged for it. Plus based on what you are serving as dinner, the caterers will be better able to guide you as to how much wine/champagne/beer to get.

4/5/2006 1:01:33 PM

Our caterer is Catering Works. They are going to serve the alcohol for us but we want to get specific things (favorite wines and beers) so we are handling the purchase of it. We were going to get kegs from Southend (Ironman Wheat and something dark) but all the extra glasses and dealing with keg storage just seemed like more trouble than it was worth. The wine and champagne we will be getting from Carloina Wine Co. and it will be our everyday red and white choices so the extras will be going home with us. Oh and the champagne is just for toasting.

We had tossed around some numbers just guessing and figured:
1 case of champagne (probably a prosecco), plus 1 special for us.
4 cases of wine (2.5 cases being white, 1.5 red)
About 120-150 bottles of beer... maybe less though because leftover beer sucks.

4/5/2006 1:40:31 PM

at least a pint of JD

oh, you mean for the guests? i dunno

4/5/2006 1:42:45 PM

well you get 4 glasses out of most wine bottles (I don't drink wine though so this might vary more than I'm aware)

I'd assume there are also 4 servings in a bottle of champeign(once again scale result by my error rate)

there are 120 16oz(pint) servings of beer in 1 keg (1/2barrel the big one for around here)

figure half the people there won't be drinking. 1/4 will have 2 glasses(25x2) 1/4 will get wasted(25x8)

250beverages total to be devided between the beer and the wine + 25 bottles of champagne (4x25 = 100 for a 1x 100 person toast).

this is rough and scales by how well your know what the people your inviting are going to be drinking... but thats basically how to figure out the math for a large event

4/5/2006 5:56:34 PM

i wouldnt be serving be in pint glasses at a wedding.. make sure to stick with bottles preferably imports

4/5/2006 6:26:15 PM

I used to work for catering works at wedding receptions and they do a good job. I am sure if you asked them suggestions for how much you should by they would have a good idea. Im sure they have enough instances were people supply their own alcohol were they have it down to a science for people who need suggestions.

4/5/2006 7:59:12 PM

my reception is gonna be reminiscent of the wife beateres, 40s, and boxed wine party

4/5/2006 8:06:23 PM

Shiiiiiiii

I'd save that money for myself...you better be getting some amazing gifts.
it's good we don't drink so no alcohol for my wedding anyway

4/5/2006 8:08:07 PM

BYOB

4/5/2006 8:11:09 PM

Quote :

"Shiiiiiiii I'd save that money for myself...you better be getting some amazing gifts. it's good we don't drink so no alcohol for my wedding anyway"

I would too.. except once you hand over the ring with the rock you hand over your testicles. My role in wedding planning is handing over the credit card... oh and tasting the cake. Well, I know the mvast majority of gifts won't cover the cost per person for the reception. Luckily we are only talking 100 people (most I know have around 300).

Weddings are just fucking expensive these days. Read recently the average wedding is now about $29,000. We come in a little under that, but it still sickens me. Its nearly what I paid for my Tahoe. Of course you only do this once... hopfeully... so why not do it the way she wants. Besides, in 5 years when she finishes her pathology residency and PhD she'll be the one making bank so I figure I better stay on her good side.

Quote :

"I used to work for catering works at wedding receptions and they do a good job. I am sure if you asked them suggestions for how much you should by they would have a good idea. Im sure they have enough instances were people supply their own alcohol were they have it down to a science for people who need suggestions."

Yeah, the last two weddings we went to were Catering Works and we loved the food and professionalism. I never thought to ask them but it makes sense. Will do.

[Edited on April 6, 2006 at 12:18 AM. Reason : .]

4/6/2006 12:15:26 AM

Congratulations, btw.

4/6/2006 12:19:17 AM

Thanks.

4/6/2006 12:27:27 AM

At my best friends wedding we had all the groomsman go around filling everyones wine glass before the food and then again for the toast. This way noone was TOO drunk before the dancing began. We took the remaining wine and put it on the drink table and sure enough there wasn't any left (we bought 20 bottles of wine for 74 people).

4/6/2006 12:40:52 AM

wheres the wedding at, i wanna pull a wedding crasher

4/6/2006 8:40:40 AM

We probably had about 120-150 guests at our wedding and we had 2 kegs. One cheap beer like Nattie Light (because I have rednecks in the family who won't drink the "shi shi froo froo" beer as they call it) and one more expensive beer...we had Yuengling. The Yuengling ended up being tapped out and I think that we had like .25 of the Nattie Light left. I don't know how much wine we had because my mom handled that, but I do know that she bought those big bottles at Costco and I think that each bottle gives you around 6-8 glasses worth.

If you can't tell, our wedding was pretty laid back and was actually more like a party than a wedding reception.

[Edited on April 6, 2006 at 10:09 AM. Reason : more info.]

4/6/2006 10:06:46 AM

cash bar?

4/6/2006 10:14:16 AM

29K for a wedding? It really depends on what you want, but damn that's a down payment on a house.

We're going for the much more laid back routine for the reception - pig picking, beers, champaign toast, and kickball if I get my way.

4/6/2006 11:11:03 AM

Quote :

"Depends on how hot or ugly the bridesmaids are."

i laughed

4/6/2006 12:08:57 PM

^ haha me too

[Edited on April 6, 2006 at 10:59 PM. Reason : .]

4/6/2006 10:59:28 PM

Quote :

"How much alcohol for a wedding reception"

All of it.

4/6/2006 11:04:18 PM

Check out an ettiquete page, theknot.com probably has something on it.

4/6/2006 11:17:24 PM

Quote :

"pig picking, beers, champaign toast, and kickball if I get my way."

that sounds like a fun reception . . . just not what most people want for a wedding. how you gonna play kickball in a tux or a wedding gown?

4/7/2006 1:56:40 PM

30 large bottles of Diesel should do the trick.

4/7/2006 2:06:18 PM