Purchasing Alcohol

Rule of thumb is 2 drinks in the first hour and 1 each hour after that, per guest. Obviously it will vary depending on your crowd and how much they like to drink! As for what liquors to buy... you'll want a mix but think about what people tend to drink more of (brown vs clear)...

Some calculators you can take out the wine.. which is what I did.. since none of my guests drink wine. (Yes I asked all 30 of my 21 and over guests.) If you know you have a few wine drinkers tha. Add some in for them.

http://www.evite.com/pages/party/drink-calculator

I think it would be a know your crowd thing based on how many bottles of each to buy. I would come up with a list of the alcohols you and your crowd regularly drink and find a drink calculator for # of drinks PP to account for. I would also ask the bartender if you are able, for suggestions with let's say one of each of the major types of spirits - vodka, whisky/scotch/bourbon/cognac, tequila, gin (if applicable), and rum, for how many bottles of each they would go through for a party that size. If you know they all prefer brown liquors then purchase more heavily on that side rather than clear liquors and vice versa.

The nice thing is that some places you buy bottles of alcohol from as long as it isn't opened you may be able to return it. I believe Costco allows you to do this as does Binny's. If you can return bottles then shoot a little higher than what you calculate just to be sure you have enough to properly host.

If you have very few wine/beer drinkers try to calculate how many you would have and estimate they will have at least one to two drinks per hour of the reception - also a know your crowd thing. We know that our guests are more heavy drinkers during special occasions and would adjust to that. Remember that there are approximately 4 servings of wine in a standard size bottle, and I've been known to drink 2+ bottles of wine to myself at a wedding.

Are you also going to be providing mixers or does your venue provide those?

A lot of people do 2 drinks for cocktail hour and 1 drink per hour thereafter as a standard. But I know my crowd.....I'm having an open bar and the caterer is providing all the alcohol so I can safety say my guests will be at 2 drinks per hour

ETA: at least 2 drinks per hour haha

Hello! Did you ask your bartender for a shopping list? I know our vendor offered a list that would accommodate our 75 people wedding reception. We budgeted about 800 for alcohol for 75 people and I think we over estimated. My suggestion is to go with what you know your guests like, if they like liquor spend more on liquor, but still include some wine and champagne (toasts). I would definitely just reach out to the bartender, because they would probably know best in this situation. run your concerns y them and go from there. BTW might want to change your avatar picture from the ring to something else, you will get passed up in forums if you don't change the picture. Best of luck!! :-)