Wedding Wednesday – Booze

For whatever reason, it seems that alcohol and celebrations go hand-in-hand. I'd say my family is a food family first and foremost, but drinks are never far from reach.

That being said, I myself am not much of a drinker. Don't get me wrong, I love a good beer. Or two. But that's usually about it. A glass of wine with dinner? You bet! But we're talking maybe twice a month. I'm a super lightweight, and I don't really enjoy being drunk. I also really hate the way I feel the day after.

So I'm starting to worry that I won't be the best judge of how much we're going to spend on alcohol for our wedding. A friend of mine was at a wedding where the bartender approached the father of the bride in the middle of the reception to warn him that the tab had already reached $10,000. (AHHH!!!) Maybe some people have the budget for that, but I would die. I'm hoping spend less than that on our entire wedding!

One (awesome) thing about our venue is that they do not have a liquor license. This does not mean that we cannot serve alcohol, it means that we cannot sell alcohol. So right off the bat, a cash bar is out of the question. Totally ok with that. The awesome part is that we are able to bring in our own alcohol. We do not have to go through a caterer, and we do not have to hire bartenders. Some people may prefer to pay for those sort of services, but I'd rather stuff my pockets full of cash. However, that makes a good estimate even more pertinent.

Here is what we're thinking for selection:

• 2 kinds of keg beer - Bud Light (or something of the sort) and good beer (Hopefully something locally brewed from Lucky Bucket or Upstream.)
• wine - nothing fancy, possibly purchased by the case from Trader Joe's; I'm thinking 1 or 2 reds, and 2 whites (Chardonnay and Reisling)
• Champagne - I really want a Champagne toast! Again, nothing fancy, just a glass of something bubbly. I'm always sad when there isn't a Champagne toast at a wedding. I just think it's so fun and festive! However, the logistics of getting enough bottles opened and poured in time for a toast perplex me...
• signature cocktails - This seems to be a popular idea lately, and I, for one, love it! Kate & I would each choose a cocktail to be served, and we could have them pre-mixed in large dispensers. That way everything is easy to serve. I have no idea what we'll pick, but we'll try to have a different base alcohol in each - so if I choose a rum drink, Kate might choose a tequilla drink (Ha!! If you know Kate at all, you know that she would never in a million years choose a tequilla drink.)

And that's pretty much it! Right now, I don't think we will have a bar fully stocked with liquor. For one, it would be kind of expensive and I don't want to be stuck with lots of leftovers. But also, we don't plan on hiring bartenders, but rather asking friends of friends or friends of siblings to serve for us. I would like it to be simple for them - no mixing drinks. (And to be honest, I really don't want people doing shots/buying shots for Katie...save that for the bachelorette party(ies) (another post).)

Of course, we will also have a variety of non-alcoholic beverages:

• soda - 2 liters
• water/iced tea - pitchers or large dispensers
• coffee/hot tea - with dessert...maybe, maybe not.
• punch/fruity lemonade - something fun
• sparkling cider - for the toast!

So, how much of everything do we need? Luckily, there are lots of resources online. Here are some of the estimates I've gotten:

Real Simple Wedding Wine & Liquor Calculator

For 100 guests at an evening wedding, they recommend 200 bottles of beer, 30 bottles of Champagne, 36 bottles of red wine, and 36 bottles of white wine.

evite Drink Calculator

For 100 average drinkers at a 5 hour party, they recommend 300 bottles of beer and 60 bottles of wine.

Perfect Party Planning Drink Calculator

For 100 average drinkers at a 5 hour party, they also recommend 300 bottles of beer and 60 bottles of wine (if I don't include soft drinks in the estimate.)

That's the Spirit Party Calculator

This calculator lets you place a % next to beer drinkers vs wine drinkers vs spirit drinkers. You can enter prices as well, so it spits out an estimated cost. For 50 beer drinkers and 50 wine drinkers at a 5 hour party, they recommend 14 cases of beer (=336 bottles) and 65 bottles of wine. For 75 beer drinkers and 25 wine drinkers, they recommend 21 cases of beer (=504 bottles) and 33 bottles of wine.

I'm glad to see that 4 different resources produced similar results! I used 100 guests and 5 hours as a proxy, so we may need to adjust them a bit. Also, we plan on using kegs, so we'd convert the beer estimates as such: 1 keg = 165 12oz servings.

Some quick estimates assure me that we should be nowhere near a $10,000 bar bill...phew!