Wedding 101- Stocking your own bar
I know that today is Thursday...not Wednesday...but I just had a friend call who is tying the knot next week and asked me to help her "stock the bar". I know Wednesdays are normally the day for Wedding 101, but since I'm not feeling well and I already wrote a novel email... I'm literally going to copy and paste my advice. Next week I will hopefully be back on the band wagon with tons of amazing things to share with all of you!
Advice when it comes to "Your Bar"....The 3 main things:
1- How important is the bar to you?
2- How much have you budgeted to spend?
3-Take a look at your group... drinkers vs. non-drinkers
Once you have figured this out you can use the answers to these questions to build your bar accordingly!
Stocking Your Own Bar
The following is based off my friend/brides scenario-
187 guests- Offering beer, wine, & liquor drink (served with multiple mixers throughout the night)
I recommend always getting more...you would hate to run out of something and this stuff never goes bad so your always stocked up for future gatherings!
Getting the most accurate calculations: 30%
30% of her guest count of 187 is about 60 people... 60 is going to be my number.
This percentage and number also works well because I am are dividing the group/guests evenly amongst the 3 types of drinks being offered. This will give you higher numbers so you can round down a bit if you know you have a large group on non-drinkers... this isn't the case with this wedding ; )
Thoughts: Even if guys and girls start with liquor, majority of guys switch to beer and ladies will stay with liquor or do wine entirely. Really the majority of mixing is going to be from liquor to beer, not from liquor to wine. Those that will drink wine will normally drink it throughout the night and not switch. (and I hope they don't for the sake of their head ache in the am)
Beer- Guys can drop 6 beers easy within a 4 hour event
If you have 60 guys that drink 5 beers, that is 300 bottles right there which is 12.5 cases (24 bottles per case)
I would get at least 12 cases of beer
Wine- Basing this off of our group of friends... we can go through a bottle on our own (that's about 4 glasses)... we'll round down a bit because not everyone is us!
3 glasses x 60ppl= 180 glasses or 36-40 regular bottles or 18- 20 double bottles
Case of wine usually holds 6 double bottles or 12 regular bottles, and I figure about 8 glasses per double bottle, 4-5 per regular bottle
I would do a significant amount more of white since it's an outdoor event and still relatively hot out... at least 36 bottles of wine or 18 double bottles in total at a minimum
Vodka-There's about 40 drinks in a half gallon of vodka, and about 3/4 a can of soda water as a mixer. When you go to the liquor store and get a "case" that is usually (6) half gallons.
4 cocktails x 60ppl= 240 drinks/shots or 6 half gallons.
I would round this up since it is the only liquor you are offering. If this was intended to be a Signature Cocktail you could round down and add elsewhere, but because you are offering a variety of mixers, this will be something people will have all night.
Personally I would get 9 half gallons (1 1/2 cases) so you don't run out.
That being said....
Keep in mind that they (your caterer) stock up enough on mixers. Like I said, 3/4 of a can of soda per drink x 240 drinks... if you round down to a half a can per drink 120 cans of soda or 10 packs of soda. MAKE SURE THERE IS ENOUGH MIXERS... you could have all the vodka in the world but if you run out of mixers no ones drinking the vodka (at least I would hope not)
Again, this breakdown pertains to this particular person... it will vary based on what you choose to do so feel free to post any questions or your own scenarios and I am happy to talk through the logic!
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