Wedding alcohol calculator
How many bottles to carry in — not a table frozen at 100 guests and five hours. Set the headcount, the length of the reception and your beer, wine and spirits split; the shopping list and the bar cost follow.
How this crowd drinks
A normal evening reception.
Drinks to cover
480
80 drinking guests × 6.0
Estimated bar
$1,176
at the prices you enter below
A guest
$12
across all 100, drinking or not
The split
Split adds up.
| Buy | Drinks | Unit price | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 192 bottles or cans — Beer & cider ≈ 8 cases of 24 | 192 | $269 | |
| 22 750 ml bottles — White & sparkling wine 5 glasses a bottle | 106 | $264 | |
| 18 750 ml bottles — Red wine 5 glasses a bottle | 86 | $216 | |
| 6 750 ml bottles — Spirits 16 measures a bottle | 96 | $156 | |
| 12 litres — Mixers & soft drinks plus soft drinks for the non-drinkers | — | $30 | |
| 14 750 ml bottles — Champagne for the toast 6 toast pours a bottle | 80 | $196 | |
| 15 bags of 10 lb — Ice 1.5 lb a guest — double it outdoors in summer | — | $45 | |
| Total plus 600 glasses — guests set one down and take a fresh one | 480 | $1,176 |
Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere.
A purchasing estimate, not a serving rate. The figures cover what to carry in for the whole reception; they say nothing about how fast
anyone should drink. Ask the venue what it allows before you buy — many require their own
bar, and where they do not, a licensed, insured bartender is often still a condition of the
contract or of local law. Nobody under the legal drinking age is counted in the share above.
The same bar at other headcounts
Your settings — 5 hours, 80% drinking, 40/40/20 — applied to the guest counts people ask about. Change anything above and this moves with it.
| Guests | Drinks | Beer | Wine | Spirits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 240 | 96 bottles | 20 bottles | 3 bottles |
| 75 | 360 | 144 bottles | 29 bottles | 5 bottles |
| 100 | 480 | 192 bottles | 39 bottles | 6 bottles |
| 125 | 600 | 240 bottles | 48 bottles | 8 bottles |
| 150 | 720 | 288 bottles | 58 bottles | 9 bottles |
| 200 | 960 | 384 bottles | 77 bottles | 12 bottles |
Put $1,176 into the wedding budget
The bar sits inside the one line that grows with every guest you add.
Frequently asked
- How much alcohol do I need for a wedding of 100 guests?
- At the usual planning rate — two drinks in the first hour, one an hour after — a five-hour reception for 100 guests with 80 of them drinking works out at roughly 480 drinks. Split 40/40/20 between beer, wine and spirits that is about 190 bottles of beer, 40 bottles of wine and 6 bottles of spirits, plus mixers and ice. Change the hours, the split or the share who drink above and every line recalculates.
- How many bottles of wine per guest?
- A 750 ml bottle pours five 5 oz glasses, so the question is really how many glasses each guest will have. Over a five-hour reception a wine drinker averages five or six — about one bottle a head among the people actually drinking wine, not among all your guests. That difference is why this calculator asks what share of the room drinks before it asks anything else.
- How much champagne do I need for a toast?
- A toast pour is smaller than a glass of wine, about four ounces, so a 750 ml bottle covers six people rather than five. For 100 guests with 80 drinking, that is around 14 bottles. Turn the toast off above if you are pouring whatever guests already have in their hands.
- What is a good beer, wine and spirits split?
- A 40/40/20 split between beer, wine and spirits suits most receptions, but the split is a fact about your guest list rather than a rule. A summer afternoon skews to beer and white wine; a winter evening with a signature cocktail skews to spirits. Set spirits to zero for a beer-and-wine bar and the mixers line disappears with it.
- How much does the bar cost for a wedding?
- Enter what you actually pay per bottle and the table adds it up — the unit prices above are placeholders, not quotes, and they vary by more between two shops than between two states. The total lands inside the venue, catering and drinks line of the budget calculator, which is the line that scales with every guest you add.
- Can I buy the alcohol myself?
- Sometimes. Many venues require you to use their bar, and where they do not, a licensed and insured bartender is often still a condition of the contract or of local law — and some places require a permit to serve at a private event. Ask the venue before you buy anything: this calculator tells you how much to carry in, not whether you are allowed to.
- Should I buy extra?
- Buy to the number and ask the shop about returns rather than padding the order. Most retailers take back unopened cases, which makes an over-order free and an under-order expensive — so the useful buffer is a return policy, not a bigger pile.