Liquor Estimates for Wedding Reception

[Jack Ryan]

Wedding reception of about 80 people (at her parents house), was wondering what people's opinions on alcohol estimates.

I did some research online/talked to caterer/talked to liquor stores so I have some estimates of my own, but I have felt them all to be "under" what I would expect. I know you obviously don't know the crowd, but I would just say they are about what "average" is, so I am looking for some numbers others have used in estimating alcohol they needed for a wedding reception/party.

Drink Options

-Red Wine
-White Wine
-Blush Wine
-Champagne
-Vodka Gimlet (requested by priest!)
-Rum and Coke
-Margarita
-Beer

Thanks

 

[Jack Ryan]

i'll try once more before I leave work, then I wont bother you...

Terrible Terry Tate (TTT)

 

[Kaiser__Sose]

i would say an average of 2 or 3 drinks per person

 

[Anubis]

so your providing all the booze yourself?
akk

anyway at my sisters wedding 80-100 people, the bill was over 3000$ for booze alone, and teh bar was open for 1/2 the time

 

[Lola]

are you buying your own liquor or is the hall providing it?

 

[Lola]

Originally posted by: Anubis
so your providing all the booze yourself?
akk

anyway at my sisters wedding 80-100 people, the bill was over 3000$ for booze alone, and teh bar was open for 1/2 the time

thats why i sometimes think its better to have an open bar package price for everyone. most halls to have that option.

 

[preslove]

Originally posted by: KMDupont64
Wedding reception of about 80 people, was wondering what people's opinions on alcohol estimates.

I did some research online/talked to caterer/talked to liquor stores so I have some estimates of my own, but I have felt them all to be "under" what I would expect. I know you obviously don't know the crowd, but I would just say they are about what "average" is, so I am looking for some numbers others have used in estimating alcohol they needed for a wedding reception/party.

Drink Options

-Red Wine
-White Wine
-Blush Wine
-Champagne
-Vodka Gimlet (requested by priest!)
-Rum and Coke
-Margarita
-Beer

Thanks

Dude, your priest is a drunk!

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: Lola

Originally posted by: Anubis
so your providing all the booze yourself?
akk

anyway at my sisters wedding 80-100 people, the bill was over 3000$ for booze alone, and teh bar was open for 1/2 the time

thats why i sometimes think its better to have an open bar package price for everyone. most halls to have that option.

they tried they wouldent do it for the whole time only half, or the open the whole time price was saomething astronmicaly expensive

 

[Lola]

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: Lola

Originally posted by: Anubis
so your providing all the booze yourself?
akk

anyway at my sisters wedding 80-100 people, the bill was over 3000$ for booze alone, and teh bar was open for 1/2 the time

thats why i sometimes think its better to have an open bar package price for everyone. most halls to have that option.

they tried they wouldent do it for the whole time only half, or the open the whole time price was saomething astronmicaly expensive

:Q yeesh..thats crazy!!! 3k for that short of a time!!

 

[RaiseUp]

Having an open bar isn't that expensive.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: Lola

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: Lola

Originally posted by: Anubis
so your providing all the booze yourself?
akk

anyway at my sisters wedding 80-100 people, the bill was over 3000$ for booze alone, and teh bar was open for 1/2 the time

thats why i sometimes think its better to have an open bar package price for everyone. most halls to have that option.

they tried they wouldent do it for the whole time only half, or the open the whole time price was saomething astronmicaly expensive

:Q yeesh..thats crazy!!! 3k for that short of a time!!

yra an hour and a half - 2 hours

BUT my sister was 23 when she got married, right out of college, most of teh people there were friend from college, hell i was only 19 and i had about 10 drinks, many people had many more

that is why

 

[vi edit]

Really depends on a lot of things...top shelf liquors? Top shelf wines? Wholesale prices? Bar Prices?

A 1 liter bottle is about 20 one shot drinks, half that many for a tall/stiff. You can pick up house rum, vodka, and other boozes for about $8 a bottle. Top shelf for about double that.

Wine is about 4-5 glasses a bottle and house white zin or reds will run about $5 a bottle at wholesale prices, $12 for more premium calls.

But that's assuming you pay "at cost" for it and not some jacked up bar price like many reception halls will charge you.

A half barrel of beer will run you about $50 + deposit depending on brand. A half barrel would more than cover that party I would think. That's just shy of 340 six ounce glasses

 

[Lola]

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: Lola

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: Lola

Originally posted by: Anubis
so your providing all the booze yourself?
akk

anyway at my sisters wedding 80-100 people, the bill was over 3000$ for booze alone, and teh bar was open for 1/2 the time

thats why i sometimes think its better to have an open bar package price for everyone. most halls to have that option.

they tried they wouldent do it for the whole time only half, or the open the whole time price was saomething astronmicaly expensive

:Q yeesh..thats crazy!!! 3k for that short of a time!!

yra an hour and a half - 2 hours

BUT my sister was 23 when she got married, right out of college, most of teh people there were friend from college, hell i was only 19 and i had about 10 drinks, many people had many more

that is why

i can understand thats why it was so high. that is one of the main things i looked at for booking our reception. the price was all inclusive with a 5.5 hr open bar...standard liquor, but still, its alchohol

 

[TwinkleToes77]

We had 3-4 hours open bar for 100 people.. $800cdn
edit: the bar was closed during dinner.. only wine was served during the meal.. and then it was reopened.


PS.. you might want to consider making your own wine too if you can.. thats what we did.. and it saved a lot.. all we had to do was pay a corking fee per bottle of wine serve and ofcourse had to get our own liqour license for the event. It's fairly inexpensive to do.

 

[DrPizza]

The cost will depend a lot on where the reception is. Some places will allow you to provide your own alcohol - other places will be charging you by the drink - so, if your party drank a keg of beer, rather than the cost of the keg, they're going to charge you the regular price per glass and charge you for the number of glasses of beer served. At my reception, rather than an open bar, we provided soda, beer, wine, and champagne for the toast. There was a bar there (we had to pay by the drink) but it was a cash bar for anything other than what we provided. AFAIK, no one was bothered by that (and I've been to several weddings where they did the same thing), plus, it tends to limit the level of intoxication for some of the attendees. At the time, it would take a lot of effort by most of my friends to get drunk on beer alone. I think Kaiser-Sose's estimate above of 2-3 drinks per person is quite low.

Ironically, some of my friends and I wanted to do a round of shots. At the cash bar in the great hall we were in (Castle restaurant), their selection was somewhat limited. So, later I wandered out to the main bar in the restaurant for a shot of (I've forgotten what it is, I do remember it was 100 proof). Someone at the bar said "Hey! That's the groom!" and the patrons at the bar proceeded to buy me 8 or 9 more shots. I was halfway hammered by the time the rest of the wedding party found me again

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

I just made 14 cases of homebrew for a friends wedding, which came to about $212.50, or about 15$ case.

 

[Jack Ryan]

Sorry for the confusion, the reception will be at her parents house, so we will be buying the liquor and having someone serve it. So, since the bar never really closes, and we have to make sure there is enough...

 

[Haps]

I had 300 people at my wedding. It was open bar from 5:30pm till 1am. Liquor costs were about $700Can for the standard Rum, Vodka, Gin, Whiskey and some bottles of liquers(Frangelico, Amaretto, Baileys etc and brandy). Beer was 22 cases* I think. At the time a case of beer was $30Can.

We also had lots of home made wine. 20-30gallons I think. I don't reallyr emember about the wine because I don't drink it. But it was homemade so production cost was probably $500 or so.

Treat your wine seperatley from your open bar and thewn average 4 drinks per person. And then of course overbuy because you can either take it back or it gets used. But if you do the homemade(or cheaper) wine at the table keep it flowing. People will tend to drink that because it's there. If they run out the table they will be heading to the bar that costs you more.

*Upon cleanup I had over 2 cases of full bottles. These were full bottles that people opened and set down somewhere and forgot about etc. Lot of waste.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I know this sounds crazy, but try to find a liquor store or beverage supply store that will let you return unused bottles for a refund. Be sure to get it in writing.... Then you can hold a decent stock in case you invite too many alcoholics.

 

[flyers1]

My wife and I had about 110 people at our wedding and we spent about $800 for liquor for an all night open bar. I bought everything at a liquor store and provided it to the reception hall who provided the bar staff. The best part was that I kept all the extras after the wedding

I'd say it really depends on the crowd too. We had a mixed age so you'd have a few people sipping wine while a bunch of our friends were flat out drunk by the end of the night.