You Need This Wedding Alcohol Calculator to Stock Your Reception Bar

Once your wedding ceremony wraps, you're going to want to raise a glass with your guests. But first, you should determine the right amount of booze to buy. Enter: this wedding alcohol calculator. Figuring out how many drinks you'll be serving and calculating how much alcohol to buy for a wedding bar menu is an important part of planning, and this handy drink calculator will make that step easy breezy.

There are a lot of variables to consider when it comes to figuring out how many drinks per person at a wedding, like whether your bar is open or cash and the type of alcohol you're buying. This alcohol calculator for a wedding can be downloaded for free (don't forget to save it to Your Favorites on your The Knot account by clicking the heart in the left column beside the spreadsheet), and you can even customize it to suit your nuptials or use it for prewedding events as a drink calculator for a party. Once you nail your numbers, book a pro bartender and other wedding pros on The Knot Vendor Marketplace to career out the serving side of things.

In this article: Wedding Alcohol Calculator | Wedding Drink Calculator Spreadsheet | How Much Alcohol to Buy for Your Wedding, Based on Guest Count | What to Consider for Your Wedding Alcohol List | How to Customize Your Wedding Alcohol List | FAQ

Wedding Alcohol Calculator

Let's start with the math, shall we? Joshua Mentrup from Barspirit Premier Bartenders & Event Staff in Los Angeles advises: "Assume each guest will consume one drink per hour or about five drinks throughout the evening. Some guests will drink less, of course, but others may be a little thirstier. Generally, people tend to consume more earlier in the event but slow down later on, so the drinks per guest per hour are higher for an event under three hours." Use this rule of thumb when estimating alcohol for a wedding.

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To figure out how much alcohol to buy for a wedding, use the below expert-backed questions to nail a rough number before you get into the weeds with the wedding liquor calculator and beer and wine calculator below:

• What's your guest count?
• How many hours will your reception last?
• Are your guests light, average or heavy drinkers?
• Will you have a champagne toast?
• How many signature cocktails would you like to offer?
• What type of alcohol? Note: These days, the recommended mix is 50% liquor, 25% beer and 25% wine. Typically it's a 50/50 split of red and white wine.

Now, here's the fun part: enter your answers into this handy wedding beverage calculator tool to generate an alcohol shopping list for your wedding. Simply input your answers to the questions above to get your recommended shopping list. Your alcohol drink calculator results will display the exact number of bottles of champagne, wine, spirits and mixers. Plus, it gives helpful context to how many servings you're getting. How many glasses of champagne are in a bottle? Our beverage calculator for a wedding will tell you six and make the math easier, so you can focus on things like the wedding alcohol cost and wedding drink station ideas.

Wedding Drink Calculator Spreadsheet

Prefer a customizable digital version of a drink calculator for a wedding? See a downloadable wedding booze calculator below. You can choose to copy the Google Sheets or download in Excel format. BTW, The Knot also has a general wedding planning spreadsheet to help you with everything else. Click the button below to see our master spreadsheet, then head to tab nine labeled "Wedding Drink Calculator" to see the wedding alcohol calculator spreadsheet.

How Much Alcohol to Buy for Your Wedding, Based on Guest Count

We crunched the numbers for a typical wedding to come up with how much alcohol to buy for a wedding guest count of 50, 100, 150 and 200 with a ratio of 50% liquor, 25% beer and 25% wine. The average wedding size falls between 100 and 150, so you can definitely use these figures as a means of how to estimate alcohol amounts for a wedding. We based all of these calculations using the scenario of a wedding reception that's five hours that includes a champagne toast with guests that are average drinkers. Here are the results:

How Much Alcohol for 50 Guests

In total, for a guest list of 50 people, you'll need to supply around 200 drinks in total (not including champagne), according to the beverage calculator. How many bottles of wine for 50 guests? Overall, you'll need about 10 bottles of wine to cover 50 people.

• How much champagne for 50 guests: 8 bottles (750 ml each)
• How much wine for 50 guests: 5 bottles of red wine, 4 bottles of white wine, 1 bottle of specialty wine (rosé, orange, etc.) (750 ml each)
• How much liquor for 50 guests: 5 bottles (1 liter each)
• How much beer for 50 guests: 50 cans or bottles

How Much Alcohol for 100 Guests

If you're wondering how much alcohol to buy for a wedding of 100 people, check out the numbers below. The ratios remain the same in terms of how much beer, wine and liquor to buy for a wedding, but remember, you can tweak the results of this alcohol calculator for your wedding to suit the tastes of your guests overall.

• How much champagne for 100 guests: 17 bottles (750 ml each)
• How much wine for 100 guests: 10 bottles of red wine, 8 bottles of white wine, 2 bottles of specialty wine (rosé, orange, etc.) (750 ml each)
• How much liquor for 100 guests: 11 bottles (1 liter each)
• How much beer for 100 guests: 100 cans or bottles

How Much Alcohol for 150 Guests

So you're looking for some basic open-bar wedding beverage quantities for 150 guests. Look no further than below! Also, a friendly reminder to not forget mixers and sodas (you'll get counts for those bundled into The Knot alcohol calculator as well).

• How much champagne for 150 guests: 25 bottles (750 ml each)
• How much wine for 150 guests: 15 bottles of red wine, 12 bottles of white wine, 3 bottles of specialty wine (rosé, orange, etc.) (750 ml each)
• How much liquor for 150 guests: 16 bottles (1 liter each)
• How much beer for 150 guests: 150 cans or bottles

How Much Alcohol for 200 Guests

Estimating alcohol for a party or a wedding is hard, let alone for a gathering of 200 people. Let the figures below from our wedding reception alcohol calculator guide you in your shopping. (By the way, you might want to think of this as your Costco wedding alcohol calculator, since you'll definitely be buying in bulk.)

• How much champagne for 200 guests: 33 bottles (750 ml each)
• How much wine for 200 guests: 20 bottles of red wine, 16 bottles of white wine, 4 bottles of specialty wine (rosé, orange, etc.) (750 ml each)
• How much liquor for 200 guests: 21 bottles (1 liter each)
• How much beer for 150 guests: 200 cans or bottles

What to Consider for Your Wedding Alcohol List

Once you've calculated how many wedding drinks you'll be serving using the above alcohol serving estimator, it's time to think through each type of drink option to further refine your shopping list. Learn some considerations below:

Signature Cocktails

Serving signature cocktails can help to personalize your wedding (and keep your shopping list tailored and wedding open bar costs down if you only focus on one set of ingredients). "I recommend couples offer two to three craft cocktails—definitely no more than five. Offering too many can make it overly complicated for guests to order, which can slow down the bar service. If you do offer five signature cocktail ideas, you'll want to include a popular classic like an Old Fashioned, as well as a mocktail to make deciding from the menu easier," says Mentrup.

Liquor Choices

Don't offer too much variety when it comes to spirits. "Vodka and bourbon, along with tequila, gin or rum, are adequate offerings. Otherwise, it's likely that you'll need to buy more alcohol than you'll actually use and be left with several half-empty bottles. To satisfy the majority of guests, choose good quality mid-priced brands over bottom-shelf or top-shelf spirits," Mentrup explains. And if you are serving hard liquor at your wedding, limiting the selection will help ensure guests won't overindulge.

Wine Varietals

When choosing types of wine, work with your caterer and bartender to select wines that go well with the food menu, as well as varietals to serve at the bar. "If you'd like to add rosé and sparkling wine to your bar service, you can substitute these for some of the white wine bottles as they have a similar flavor profile," suggests Mentrup.

If you plan to put a bottle of white and red wine at each table versus having a waiter pour wine for each guest, you will need to buy more bottles of red and white wine. Keep in mind: You may have unfinished bottles if you decide to go this route.

Champagne Toast

You can buy enough champagne to serve one glass to each guest, but this doesn't have to be the case. Mentrup notes, "Guests often prefer to stick with their drink of choice for the toast. You can end up with a lot of unfinished glasses of champagne if you pass one out to everyone."

If you're up on wedding cocktail trends considering a champagne tower, you'll need to buy some extra bottles. Mentrup warns that it can be costly and time-consuming to set up for 100+ guests. "While it can be done, it's best saved for a micro wedding or a 30-glass tower for a photo opportunity. You also don't want to risk a guest helping themselves to a glass and inadvertently toppling over the whole tower."

Mocktails

"Over the past year, mocktails have become very popular," remarks Mentrup. "Some couples simply include a Shirley Temple for the kids, but recently more couples are offering one or two mocktail recipes using new non-alcoholic spirits on the market—you can therefore substitute some liquor for non-alcohol gin and tequila." As far as types of wedding bars go, a dedicated mocktail station will be super unique.

How to Customize Your Wedding Alcohol List

Yes, our alcohol-for-wedding calculator offers a great baseline, but you should totally feel empowered to customize your booze and bev selection. Mentrup recommends that you consider these key factors to further customize your wedding bar:

Time of Day, Season and Climate

If you're hosting a brunch or lunch wedding, you can scale back the total served drinks by 15%. If you're planning a wedding in the summer or a warmer climate? You'll likely need more white wine, beer, refreshing cocktails and water than viscous reds.

Reception Itinerary

A tried-and-true reception lineup includes a cocktail hour featuring signature cocktails, a red and white wine selection with a meal, a champagne toast and a full or limited bar after dinner. If you're planning an after-party, you'll need to account for it in your event duration, too.

Guest Profile

Are your guests wine enthusiasts, beer drinkers or cocktail lovers? You can adjust the ratio of bottles of beer, wine and spirits to better suit your crowd. Furthermore, if you, your families and most of your guests don't drink alcohol, skip it. Serve mocktails, sparkling water and soda instead. If you want something festive for toasting, go for sparkling cider.

Wedding Style

The style of your wedding will play an important role in the bar menu as well. For example, a casual backyard BBQ wedding will lend itself more to refreshing beverages and beer. On the other hand, an elegant cocktail reception might feature more spirit-forward options with thought-out garnishes and glassware. Also, an open bar will be a must at a more formal affair. Guests can order any drink at the bar, and you'll have to pick up the tab when the party's done. Know anyone who tends to imbibe too much? Tell the bartender in advance. Though, do note: No matter how casual your wedding is, don't have a cash bar without a great reason (there really isn't one). Trust us on this one—it's not a good cost-cutting solution and is way too controversial.

Venue Type

Talk to your venue coordinator to get their advice for your wedding bar. They might have house specialties, especially if it's a winery, brewery or restaurant. If your venue allows you to bring your own alcohol for your wedding, check to see if your venue charges a corkage fee, so you can incorporate that cost into your total alcohol budget.

Personalized Moments

Don't forget to include any cultural traditions or creative wedding ideas in your plans for cocktail hour ideas and beyond. For example, you could set up a whisky tasting, tequila shots, kegs of local craft beer or mini-bottles of champagne. Also, don't be afraid to have a limited bar if that's what speaks to you. You offer a curated selection of drinks—beer, wine, signature cocktails and basic mixed drinks, for example. You can also set specific consumption times for certain drinks, such as the cocktail hour, meal, toasts and after-dinner drinks.

Frequently Asked Questions About Estimating Alcohol for a Wedding

Once you've generated your shopping list using our wedding alcohol calculator and adjusted it to your needs with our tips, you should tailor the list to include signature cocktail ingredients, a mix of beer (e.g. a lager and pilsner) and add any specialty spirits you're planning to serve. For your quick reference, here are the drink quantities per unit and bottles per case:

How Many Drinks Are in a Bottle Based on Alcohol Type

If you're figuring out how much liquor to buy for a wedding, you'll need to know how many drinks you have in a bottle. Consider this handy guide your pocket cocktail calculator and wedding wine calculator to determine how many tipples you can craft per bottle.

• 750 ml bottle of champagne = 6 drinks (about 4 oz each)
• 750 ml bottle of wine = 5 drinks (5 oz each)
• 750 ml bottle of liquor = 14 drinks (1.75 oz each)
• 1L bottle of liquor = 19 drinks (1.75 oz each)

How Many Bottles Are in a Case of Wine and Beer?

Need a beer and wine calculator for your wedding? We've got you. Check out the number of bottles and cans you're getting by the case below.

• A case of wine contains 12 bottles.
• A case of beer contains 24 bottles or cans.
• A case of liquor typically contains 12 bottles; some will contain six.

How Many Beers Are in a Keg?

If you're having a big wedding, you might be looking into cost-savings kegs vs. individual beers. How many kegs do you need for 100 guests? Use the formula below. P.S. If you're going the keg route for your reception, make sure you have a plan of action for getting it all to the wedding as well (it could end up being a heavy haul).

• Beer keg (5 gallons) = 53 glasses (12 oz each)

Additional reporting by Cathryn Haight.