Wedding Alcohol Calculator

How much beer, wine, and liquor to buy for your reception — with the champagne toast counted, and nothing left to guesswork.

How much alcohol for a wedding?

Caterers plan around a simple rule: each drinking guest has about two drinks in the first hour and one drink for every hour after that. A five-hour reception with 100 drinking guests is roughly 600 drinks — far more than most couples expect, which is why running out is the classic wedding-bar mistake.

How that total splits depends on your bar. With a full bar, weddings typically pour about 50% wine, 30% beer, and 20% spirits. A beer-and-wine bar shifts to about 60% wine and 40% beer. Your crowd matters too — a daytime brunch reception drinks lighter than an evening party crowd, so the calculator lets you adjust for both.

What this calculator assumes

Standard pour sizes: a 750 ml wine bottle serves 5 glasses, a 750 ml spirits bottle makes about 16 mixed drinks, and a champagne bottle fills 6 toast flutes. Every quantity is rounded up to the next whole bottle, so the result is a shopping list, not a bare minimum — most couples add about 10% extra of whatever their crowd favors.

Only count adult guests, and if you are hosting a dry hour before the bar opens or closing the bar during dinner, subtract that time from the reception length. Buying from a store that accepts returns on unopened bottles makes over-buying essentially free.