A wedding without drinks is unthinkable.  But how are you going to make sure there’s sufficient choice, and quantity for everyone?  Running dry would be a nightmare - but you don’t want to land yourself a financial hangover either!   Here are some tips to help you make sure all your guests have a great time whilst also keeping costs under control.

Whose round is it?

Guests would be very upset if you asked them to pay for all their drinks – it’s unheard of!  However, with the celebration lasting for many hours it’s not unreasonable to consider limiting the quantities you provide for free.  Basically, you have three options:

1. Open Bar

All the drinks are free from start to finish, including the meal and the evening party.  This does at least keep things simple because there’s no money changing hands and you won’t have to worry about getting the appropriate drinks licence.  However, you’ll need deep pockets!

2. Cash Bar

The normal expectation is that you’ll provide the drinks when people arrive at the reception, wine with the meal and champagne for toasts.  However, it is quite acceptable to ask guests to buy any additional drinks from the bar.  Some guests may feel you are being a bit mean, but most will understand that weddings are expensive and you have to draw a line somewhere.  Not only is this going to make budgeting more controllable and keep your costs down but there’s an added benefit.  If people are having to pay for their additional drinks they are less likely to overindulge and misbehave!  If you opt for a cash bar be sure guests in advance. 

3. Limited Bar

With this route you pay for all the drinks but restrict the choices.  For instance, you provide champagne for the toasts, beer and wine throughout and a signature cocktail or two.  Another variation on this is to have a fully stocked bar with a pre-paid tab provided by the bride and groom (or generous parents).   Once guests have consumed drinks up to that limit guests are asked to pay – it’s a kind of “happy hour” approach.  

Don’t get caught out by corkage

If you book a wedding venue or hire a caterer the normal arrangement is for them to supply all the drinks.  Usually, however, there is another option where you purchase the drinks from another supplier and ask the venue or caterer to serve them.  On the face of it this is a great way to save money – but there’s a twist you must be aware of.  The venue or catering company will charge what’s known as “corkage”.  This is a service charge for opening and serving any bottles of wine, sparkling wine, champagne and even spirits that you purchase but ask them to serve.  This varies from company to company but the average is usually somewhere between £12 and £15 a bottle….but it could be a lot more!   Find out what their corkage fee is and then do the math – you may well decide that sourcing your own drinks is not worth the effort.

Quantities – how to do the calculation

If you are paying for some or all of the drinks then it’s essential you accurately assess how much you are going to need.  For starters, how many people do you have on your guest list?  Next, make a guesstimate of how many are heavy drinkers, how many are light drinkers and how many are teetotal.  

You then need to know how many glasses you get from different bottles and kegs:

1 bottle of 75cl wine              = 6 x 125ml glasses or 3 x 250ml

1 bottle of champagne           = 6 x flute glasses

50 litre keg                             = 84 pints

Quarter barrel keg                  = 49 pints

1 litre bottle of spirit               = 40 x 25ml measures

1 litre Pimms                           = 20 x 50ml measures (mix with 100ml lemonade)

2 litre lemonade                      = 20 x 100ml measures (ideal for Pimms)

When making your final calculations it probably helps to divide the day up into sections.  

Reception

If we assume this will last for an hour and a half that probably means three drinks per guest.  Get your calculator out and use the table above! 

Meal

You are going to need Champagne or Prosecco for the toasts and work on getting 6 flutes from a bottle.  With wine you probably need equal quantities of red and white.  Assume you’ll get 6 small glasses from a bottle and that the average guest will drink half a bottle.  1 bottle of water will serve about 3 guests.  

Evening bar

Guests will be drinking for about 4 hours, but not constantly - some will be dancing, eating or leaving early with kids or elderly relatives).  Roughly calculate the numbers who will be consuming beer, wine or spirits and assume an average of 6-8 drinks per guests.  

Here’s an example covering 100 guests at a wedding plan where only beer and wine is served – you can expect these quantities to be consumed:

50 x 6 glasses of wine                           =          50 bottles (mix of red/white/rose)

25 x 6 bottles of lager/beer/cider           =          150 bottles of beer

25 x 6 pints of lager/beer/cider               =          50 litre keg plus a quarter barrel keg 

What if you provide other drinks as well?   A full bar selection will probably require these quantities for 100 guests.

Vodka                        6 litres

Gin                             5 litres

Whiskey                     2 litres

Scotch                        2 litres

Real ale                      50 litre keg (84 pints)

Lager                         150 bottles

Cola                           10 x 2 litre bottles

Diet-cola                    10 x 2 litre bottles

Lemonade                  10 x 2 litre bottles

Tonic                           1 case

Apple/Orange Juice    15 cartons of each

Ready to order now?

Hopefully this post will help you get a better idea of how you are going to approach the drinks side of your celebration.  However, this is a big subject, too big to cover comprehensively in a single article.  You will almost certainly have questions that are not covered here – no problem, just give us a call.  The team at Clevedon Hall have organised and hosted enough weddings to have most of the answers!