Welcome / Table / Toast Drinks - How Much To Allow Per Guest?

Our package had one reception drink each (pimms or bucks fizz), half a bottle of wine per person for dinner (about 2 glasses), 1 glass of toasting bubbles (smaller glasses, probably about 5-6 glasses per bottle?)

This was plenty (although the bar was also open and I have no idea if anyone bought extra!)

The standard drinks package offered at our venue was one glass of something after the ceremony, two glasses with the meal and a glass of sparkling for toasts.

At £16.95 per head we decided on a non alcoholic package instead providing shloer for toasting, a fruit punch for welcome drink and jugs of juice and iced water on the tables, with the bar being open if guests wanted alcohol instead. Most of our guests are not drinkers so rather than wasting nearly £1000 on overpriced alcohol, we are spending about £300 instead and using the money elsewhere where it will be appreciated.

I know that our situation is not common though so others can probably help more - but as to the question of how many each guest 'should' have I don't know if there is a right figure as guests should be grateful for even one glass of free drinks rather than complaining about it.

Don't forget to offer non alcoholic alternatives for children, those driving and those (like me) who for whatever reason just don't do alcohol.

Our package is similar to others:

- one drinks reception drink (sparkling wine)

- half bottle per person of wine on tables (red and white)

- one drink to toast (sparkling wine)

We have also decide to lay on an extra reception drink per person (sparkling wine again) as we have a longer drinks reception and I would rather people be able to have two glasses of bubbly if they want to. We are also putting a tab behind the bar for those who are not drinking alcohol. We have 3 pregnant people and 3 people who don't drink for other reasons. We will therefore tell these guests about the tab for when they get their soft drinks from the bar. If we spot anyone else who is not drinking at all during the day we will let them know too. We will put a limit on the tab and keep an eye on it during the day, making sure the venue know its only for guests who specifically are having soft drinks and tell them to put it on the tab.

We have 50 guests if that makes a difference at all.

One useful tip is, if possible, to ask the venue to go round serving the drinks rather than leaving the bottles on the tables, as you can often find that you end up with 20 half used bottles dotted around which, of course, will not keep. At least if you have leftover unopened bottles you can give them to people as gifts or save them for yourselves later in the year.

Thanks Ladies & AJ.

P.S Very good idea AJ having a meeting with my caterer Monday week and think she will be more than happy to serve the wine for us :-)

Mrs P2B - you get 6 glasses to each bottle of fizz. Most places allow for half a bottle of wine per person for the meal - that's a large glass and a half by what passes for a standard pub measure nowadays.

We found that in the hour and a half people had between arriving at our reception and sitting down to dinner many people had 3 or 4 drinks. We'd massively over-catered but it was interesting to see how much booze went at which stage of the day. Having canapes served was a good idea!