Estimating how much everyone will drink?

We were doing these very sums last night whilst sat in a beer garden!

We've over budgeted but have come up with the following figures:

• 1 bottle of wine per person for the meal
• 1 bottle of wine per person for after the meal
• 5 pints of bitter or lager per person
• 3 spirits per person as a welcome drink (we're serving G&T's)
• 3 glasses of champagne per person for welcome drink
• 1 glass of champagne per person for the toast
• Additional spirits for the evening.

Of course each person won't drink that much but we'd be horrified if we were to run out. It's not like running out of cash behimd a normal bar, when you're providing the booze, once it's gone, it's gone!

You might find that places will take back any unopened drinks too.

Thanks, although that seems like a lot of wine!

Any idea how many glasses of champers/cava we will get out of a bottle?

Any ideas of soft drinks anyone?

Our venue estimates 5 glasses from a bottle of champagne if that helps!

You can normally get 6 glasses out of a bottle without it looking too mean but f you turn them into bucks fizz then it will go even further. Some of the larger wine retailers will accept unopened bottles back after an event. And also check out wine merchants as they can source brilliant lesser known wine at great prices. Personally i think if it isnt there then people wont miss it. What i mean is if you choose not to have any spirits then people wont relaly miss not having one however if you get some and run out then people have to change whatthey are drinking. Why not ask a couple of your friends what they woudl prefer to drink as this will tengiveyou an idea of what to include.

CB... thats 20 glasses of something per person.... wow!! thinking you will have a load left over.

going to invite Hitchers over for an after party ;o)

We're bound to have plenty left over but because there's no scope to get more on the day (the venue will be totally dry) we'd rather have too much. We might not have to buy anymore spirits in 2011 and the excess wine will keep us going for a while!

I anticipate a typical guest of ours will have 3 welcome drinks, 3 glasses of wine with dinner, 1 glass of bubbles for the toast and then at least a couple more drinks in the evening.

No idea in terms of how much people will drink soft drink wise. Thankfully our venue is sorting this!

Thats a good friend to have about! I would maybe think about going to makro for the coke etc. If you know someone who has a card for there! You should be able to get all the wee bottles there.

Can I come to your wedding???????

I was thinking about this during my class just now. One of the other reasons we'll have so much is in case people to decided to drink what they don't normally drink.

For example, if everyone suddenly decides to only drink wine in the evening we want to make sure we have enough.

I agree with cricket bride, when you are shipping the drinks in it is best to have more... At least alcohol doesnt tend to go off... and think of the bottle of wines you will have to take as thank yous when you go to friends houses for dinner! Or if its near Christmas you can make it extra boozy

?

Lol - You have never met my friends!!!!!!!!!

Depends on the social crowd I think, a lot of H2Bs friends can put away a lot of booze (and still seem relatively normal!!!) over the course of a night.

Only you know your family/friends and how much they will drink in the evening but I would say minimum 1-2 reception drinks, 1/2 bottle during the meal, 1 glass for toasting and then drinks for the rest of the night. Better to have too much than too little and as the others have said you could get some on sale or return.

As for soft drinks, if you are having spirits then the minimum would be lemondade, coke, orange juice and tonic water... others maybe cranberry juice, lime cordial, pineapple juice....

We massively overcatered. We had 34 for lunch and another 30 in the evening.

11 boxes of beer & Cider (various brands)

30 bottles of wine (red/wine/rose)

12 bottles of cava

Liter bottles of every spirit we could think of

10 bottles of coke

6 bottle of lemonade

lots and lots of orange and apple juice

We had so much left over we sent some back to Majestic - if you can get your wine and cava from them they supply it on sale or return.

Hope that helps