How much wine when catering?

[ClareC]

Hello,

Has anyone got any top tips on knowing how much alcohol to allow per person when catering?

We are getting married in the summer and intend to buy the wine / beer / soft drinks - the reception will be from around 3 until late.... As late as people want to stay really.

I don't know where to start and wondered if anyone had any experience they could share?

Thanks

Clare

[Convex]

It's normally half a bottle per person x

[mrs f]

Yep we did 1/2 bottle per person & had wine left over, it might not seem a lot but the heavy drinkers will be balanced out by non drinkers etc

[ClareC]

That's a lot less than I was anticipating....

[Pickle]

We had 1 bottle of wine and half a bottle of champagne per person budgeted (loosely) at our wedding and went through a lot more! That's what happens when your guests are a mixture of Kiwis and Scots!

[Mrs TP]

Work through your list of people and guestimate. Is usually half bottle of wine per person but perhaps on the .conservative side these days for a good knees up

[Serena2012]

As a rule of thumb, I've heard that 1 drink per hour per person can be quite a good guesstimate....Other factors to think about is that people tend to drink more if it's hot and white wine tends to be more popular in Summer... But ultimately, as Pickle says, it really depends on your guestlist.... I suspect we would have been well over a half bottle per person quota before the evening party had started, but then again - that was quite predictable! You should definitely consider buying wine on a sale or return basis if you're not sure - unless I'm mistaken, lots of supermarkets including Sainsburys and Tesco now offer this service.

[shaunag]

Also if wine is left on the tables or poured makes a difference-when poured people are more restrained, when on tables they get through it faster. We had fancy waiters at ours, but ended up asking them to leave the bottles on the tables do people could help themselves. We had a lot of family (ie not all my mates could come), so didn't get through the half bottle wine/ half bottle prosecco per person-reckon we would have if wine had been on tables to start and more of my mates had been there (we had it in Scotland so no afters).

[LalKJ]

Our wedding was on the hottest day of the year, so the amounts may be a bit skewed, and we left our bottles on the tables, including the champagne after the toasts, but we got through 3 bottles per person (1 bottle of champagne pp and then 2 bottles of wine). I think we had a ratio of 60:40 red to white wine. We got it from Majestic - they delivered to the venue, and we got it on sale or return. We based these numbers on a friends wedding - although, theirs was a new years party wedding, so again perhaps amounts skewed. Although it was the same group of depressed lawyers at both our weddings, so perhaps they just needed the excess booze. I guess it also depends on when your wedding kicks off and whether you have separate evening guests. Our reception started about 3pm and went on until 12:30 with the same guests all the way through, so I think people got a thirst on early in the day and kept going!

[LalKJ]

Sorry, just to add to the above, it was pre pretty much any of our friends having kids which also had a bearing - I don't think now any of us could manage that amount. Good luck on the big day.

[ClareC]

Thank you, that's all really helpful.

All the website advice seemed really low quantity's, it's helpful to know from real experience! I have a high quantity of depressed lawyers too ;)

Looks like 3 bottles per person should be a good guide - the post church drinks reception is from 3 and the evening has no specific end time, although the band stop playing at 1230.

Did you all provide beer too? I was intending lager and ale but haven't looked into that yet!

[LalKJ]

Ours was in a marquee, so we had to provide all our drinks. In addition to the wine and champagne, once the food was all done we put out other drinks; I think we had about 300 bottles of lager, about 30 alcopop bottles and about 50 cans of soft drinks - everything went. We just got this from Tescos the day before. We also had two casks of ale, our wedding was in the country, so we got these from the local brewery - but only about half of one went. Just remembered, we also had quite a lot of sparkling fizzy, flavoured elderflower i think, for those wanting a fizzy, but not champagne. Finally, after spending all that money on booze, we only provided tap water and not bottled water. This was fine for all and we made sure our caterers constantly topped up jugs on the tables, I thinkitng saved us about ?500 by doing tap water!

[The Nappy Lady]

It may help to think about the schedule of your day & split it out:

E.G post ceremony drinks reception 1.5 hours allow 2 glasses per person & say you have 100 guests divide by 6 (6 glasses per bottle) then times by 2 & that's how many bottles needed. But then add soft drinks as not all will be drinking alcohol.

Allow same amount again in red & white for wedding breakfast.

Then evening reception - wine, beer, soft drinks - get a good mix but you may find many guests will have slowed down by that point.

Really vital to have loads of water available throughout of course as its a long old day.