How much alcohol you need for a wedding, bottle by bottle

Most of the work is counting, and most of the counting is already in your guest list. You need four numbers: how many guests drink, how long the bar is open, what you will pour, and how many drinks a bottle holds.

Step 1: Count the guests who drink

Start from the guests who said yes, not the guests invited. Take out:

• Guests under 21. In the US, they are not served.
• Guests who do not drink. You know most of them. A guess is fine.

The worked example in this guide has 120 guests who said yes. Twelve are under 21 and about eight do not drink, which leaves 100 drinkers. Everyone still needs water and soft drinks, so the 120 matters for those, just not for the alcohol.

Step 2: Count the hours the bar is open

From the start of the cocktail hour to last call. A ceremony at 5 pm with a cocktail hour from 5:30 and a bar closing at 10:30 is five hours. Our wedding day timeline helps you fix those times if you have not yet.

Step 3: Multiply by the pace

A planning pace from Caterboss, an Irish catering supplier, is two drinks per guest in the first hour, then one each hour after. Guests arrive thirsty from the ceremony, then slow down once dinner and dancing start.

For five hours: 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 6 drinks per drinker.

For 100 drinkers: 100 × 6 = 600 drinks.

Then add 10 percent for spills, a heavier-drinking crowd and guests who arrive with a plus-one you had not counted: 660 drinks.

Adjust the pace for your crowd before you multiply, not after. A daytime reception, an older crowd or a dry family side all mean fewer. A late-night party with a lot of friends from college means more. Drink calculators online give different answers, mostly because they assume different crowds, which is why this guide shows its working: you can change one number and see what moves.

Step 4: Decide what you will pour

The split below is an example, not a rule. Use your own: the two of you know whether your friends drink beer or wine.

A full bar, with the example split of 50 percent wine, 30 percent beer and 20 percent spirits:

• Wine: 660 × 0.5 = 330 drinks
• Beer: 660 × 0.3 = 198 drinks
• Spirits: 660 × 0.2 = 132 drinks

Beer and wine only, with 60 percent wine and 40 percent beer:

• Wine: 660 × 0.6 = 396 drinks
• Beer: 660 × 0.4 = 264 drinks

Step 5: Turn drinks into bottles

The US standard drink, from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, is 5 ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer or 1.5 ounces of spirits. A 750 ml bottle holds 25.4 ounces. So:

Spirits are rounded down from 16.9 to 16 pours a bottle, because no bartender pours exactly.

Now divide, and round up to whole cases:

Full bar:

Beer and wine only:

Rounding up to whole cases is the buffer on top of the buffer. That is deliberate: running out at 9 pm costs more than a few spare bottles. Before you buy, ask whether the shop takes back unopened bottles. Rules differ by state, and some shops do.

The toast is extra

If you toast with sparkling wine, it is on top of the 660. At a 3-ounce toast pour, a bottle fills 8 glasses. For 100 drinkers, 100 ÷ 8 = 12.5, so 13 bottles. Or skip it and let guests raise whatever is in their glass.

Buy it yourselves, or take the venue's bar?

Zola's Wedding Cost Index puts bar service at an average of $5,542, with most between $4,400 and $6,600. For 120 guests, the average is about $46 a guest.

Buying the alcohol yourselves is often cheaper per bottle. It only saves money when the whole cost is lower, so compare like with like:

• First, ask whether the venue allows outside alcohol. Some do not, and then the question is settled.
• Ask how the venue's package is charged: per guest over 21, per drink, or per hour. A per-guest package costs the same whether your friends drink a lot or a little.
• For buying your own, add everything the package included: licensed bartenders, glasses, ice, mixers, soft drinks, any corkage or service fee per bottle, and the liability insurance some venues ask for.

The rule: if your own total, with every line above, is lower than the package, buy it yourselves. If the two are close, take the package: someone else counts, chills, serves and clears, on a day you have enough to do.

Drinks are one of the costs that grow with every guest. If the number is more than you planned, our guide to planning a wedding on a budget shows how much a per-guest saving is worth against a fixed one, and the 100 person wedding cost guide puts the bar in context with the rest of the budget.

Free toolWedding budget breakdownKeep what you have already booked fixed, and see what is left for everything else.Split my budget

Who does what

The drinks list is a good job for one of you to own from start to finish. The other already holds the number it starts from: the replies on the guest list. Agree the pace and the split together, once, and then let one of you do the ordering.

Keeping it in the budget

In Yes, I Do, drinks sit in the Food and drinks line of your budget, which starts at about a quarter of the total. Add the bar as an expense with its own amount and payments, or photograph the quote and the amounts and due dates are filled in. Your partner sees the same numbers on their phone, and the guest list beside it keeps the count of who said yes current.

Questions

Sources

• National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism: what is a standard drink?, for 5 ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer and 1.5 ounces of spirits.
• Caterboss: how much to cater per person, for two drinks per guest in the first hour, one each hour after at a wedding, and the 10 percent buffer, read October 2026.
• Zola: average cost of a wedding, for the bar service average of $5,542 and its range, from the Zola Wedding Cost Index, read October 2026.