Despite the large number of wedding agencies, many future newlyweds or their parents prefer to plan a celebration on their own. After all, no one knows the guests better than friends and relatives. In order not to spend too much money, but at the same time not to get into an awkward situation, it is worth considering useful tips on calculating the amount of alcohol and soft drinks at a wedding.
General tips
The main rule when planning a celebration - alcoholic and other drinks must be in abundance until the end of the event.
There are two main approaches to planning the amount of booze. If you thoroughly know the preferences of each of your guests, then on each table it is the drinks that the people sitting behind him will drink. And if not very well-known people are present at your celebration, then the starting set of bottles on each table should be absolutely the same.
Intermediate options with rare exceptions are not welcome, because each of the guests should be equally expensive for you. Situations when guests will see elite drinks missing from them on the next table are unacceptable - there should be no division of guests into categories.
The main allowable exception to this rule is a table for young people and their parents, at which the level of drinks may be slightly higher than that of all others. Although it is generally undesirable.
Do not forget that the below calculation of alcohol for the wedding is purely indicative, so you should always take into account the characteristics of your guests and take a bottle or two of each of the drinks in reserve.
How to start an assessment
The first thing you need to count the total number of guests at your wedding. After that you can divide them into three categories:
- those who usually drink a lot;
- those who drink moderately;
- those who do not drink at all.
If you are not aware of the preferences of any guest, by default it can be attributed to moderate drinkers. And it is also worthwhile to estimate in advance the number of men and women, as they usually prefer different drinks. Finally, it is worth considering the expected age of the guests.
It is easiest to estimate the number of drinks by dividing them into several groups:
- strong alcohol;
- wine and wine drinks;
- beer;
- soft drinks without alcohol.
Consider the basic algorithms for estimating the required number of bottles for each of these categories. These patterns apply only to weddings celebrated at moderate temperatures. If your celebration happens in the hot summer, then you can take 2 times less strong alcohol, and about 3 times more beer and wine. And vice versa, if it happens in winter, it is better to increase the number of strong drinks by 2–3 times and completely abandon beer.
Strong Spirits
The following types of alcohol are commonly categorized as strong:
- vodka;
- brandy or brandy;
- rum;
- gin;
- whiskey;
- other beverages with a strength of 30 degrees.
Usually these drinks are drunk by men, so it’s more convenient to do the calculation on male guests.
By default, the expected amount of strong alcohol drunk by moderately drinking guests is about 300 grams per person. For heavy drinkers, this figure tends to 0.5 liters.
Thus, if about 30 men are present at your celebration, then you will need from 9 liters of strong drinks, which means 18 bottles of 0.5 liters each or 13 bottles of 0.7 liters each.
If at your banquet you expect 20 medium-drinking guests and 10 heavy drinkers, then you will need 11 liters of strong alcohol - these are 22 half-liter bottles or 16 containers of 0.7 liters each.
Taking into account Russian traditions, the most common proportion between types of strong alcohol is 60% vodka and 40% cognac, whiskey, rum and so on.
If older people are mainly present at your banquet, the amount of vodka can be increased to 70%. If, on the contrary, a large number of young people are expected, it is best to reduce the amount of vodka to 35% and at the same time take 30% whiskey and 35% brandy.
Wine and champagne
Women usually prefer to use this category of drinks, so it is reasonable to exclude men from this part of the assessment and estimate the number of bottles based on the number of women. Here, the calculation is much simpler than in the case of strong alcohol - for each guest it is worth taking 1 bottle of 0.7 liters of wine. It should be borne in mind that red wines are usually more popular than whites, so for every 6 bottles of red you should take 4 bottles of white.
If you want martini or other vermouth to be present at your celebration instead of wine, then the basic proportions for it are the same as for ordinary wine.
As to the category of the drink, the preference should be given equally to semi-dry and semi-sweet wines. Dessert wines are good for snacks, so it is unlikely to be popular at the banquet. Dry wine is a product for individual connoisseurs, so you should not put it on each table. However, a few bottles of this drink in reserve should still be purchased in case there is a guest at the table drinking only such wine.
Champagne is considered a separate category of wine drinks at weddings. The first toasts are usually spoken to him, so each guest should be able to get a glass and at least take a sip from it. So, for each guest of the wedding, regardless of his age, sex and alcohol preferences, should fall on 250 ml of champagne. So if your wedding is expected only 50 people, then you will need 13 liters of this drink, that is, 19 bottles with a capacity of 0.7 liters.
Banquet beer
Nowadays there are not uncommon cases when a person basically does not consume any alcohol, except beer.
And if earlier beer at a wedding banquet was considered a sign of bad taste, now the presence of a frothy drink, if not on the tables, then at least in the menu, is rather welcome. This is especially true for weddings that are played on hot summer days.
Each guest who is sure to drink beer should get at least 2 liters of this drink. And in the summer it is best to take 2-3 liters of beer for each guest of your holiday. It goes without saying that craft beer from private breweries or elite brands like Guiness and Hoegaarden will be preferable. The ratio of light and dark beers should be about 70 and 30%, respectively.
Learn more about how to calculate the amount of alcoholic beverages for a wedding, you will learn from the video below.
Soft drinks
The minimum amount of available soft drinks without alcohol is 1.5 liters per person. In the hot summer you can safely multiply this figure by 2.
In this case, about 1 l of this figure should be mineral water. It is best to take about 70% of non-carbonated mineral water and 30% of carbonated.
It is undesirable to serve it in large containers - it is better to have each guest have a glass bottle of up to 0.5 l on hand.
In addition, about 0.5 liters of juice or fruit drink should be stocked for each guest. Mostly at weddings, orange and apple juices are used in equal shares. You can also recommend grape juice.
Drinks for the walk and registry office
Making calculations for the entire ceremony, and not just for a banquet, do not forget to take into account the drinks necessary for the registration of the marriage and the subsequent walk.
The official part is enough to take the champagne at the rate of 1 glass for each person who will be present at it.
If you plan to invite 10 guests to the registry office, then you will need 2.5 liters or 4 bottles of sparkling wine, respectively.
You can take 2 times less bottles of champagne for a walk than there will be participants. So, if 10 people participate in it, then it’s worth taking 5 bottles with you. Just do not forget to take and soft drinks at the rate of 300 g per person. It is most convenient and practical to take along 1 bottle of 0.33 liters for each of the walk participants.
