Beyond Evermore
The Wedding Alcohol & Bar Calculator
Stop guessing at the liquor store. Enter your headcount and reception length below and get an instant shopping list — wine, liquor, beer, champagne, water, soda, mixers and ice, down to the bottle, the case and the bag.
The Wedding Bar & Alcohol Estimator
Stop guessing at the liquor store. Enter your headcount, reception length and how many guests don't drink alcohol.
Heavy Drinkers increases total volume by 30% using the standard spirit ratio.
A one-time pour, calculated separately from the hourly bar above.
Guests who will not drink alcohol. Alcohol shrinks with this number and soda grows. Water and ice are sized for everyone.
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How It Works
How the wedding alcohol calculator works
Most bar guides stop at "plan on one drink per guest per hour." That rule is a decent start, but it ignores that people drink more in the first hour, that some guests don't drink at all, and that a bar with liquor needs mixers and ice. This calculator uses a slightly more careful version, and every number is below so you can check the math or adjust it for your own crowd.
The drink count
First it works out how many of your guests will be drinking alcohol: your guest count minus the percentage you mark as non-drinkers. Each drinker is budgeted two drinks in the first hour (people tend to drink more at the start of the night) and one drink for every hour after that. So a four-hour reception is 2 + 3 = 5 drinks per drinker, and a five-hour reception is 6.
If you choose "Heavy Drinkers," the total goes up by 30%. That is a good setting for an open bar, a late night, a crowd that loves to party, or a venue where guests are staying on site.
How drinks turn into bottles
The total is split by drinking style. Standard Mix assumes 50% wine, 20% liquor and 30% beer. Beer & Wine Only assumes 60% wine and 40% beer. Each share is then converted using standard pour sizes:
- Wine: 5 glasses per 750 ml bottle
- Liquor: 16 drinks per 750 ml bottle (about a 1.5 oz pour)
- Beer: 24 cans per case
- Champagne toast: one pour per guest, 6 pours per bottle, counted separately from the bar
Everything is rounded up to a whole bottle or case, because you can't buy 6.25 bottles.
Water, soda, mixers and ice
Water is one bottle per guest, 24 to a case, for everyone. Non-drinking guests get soda or another non-alcoholic drink on the same pattern as drinkers: two in the first hour, then one an hour. Mixers are sized from your liquor total at 4 oz per cocktail plus a 10% buffer, in 2-liter bottles. Ice is 1.5 lb per guest in 10 lb bags, the high end of the usual 1 to 1.5 lb range, since ice is the thing you least want to run out of.
A worked example
Say you have 100 guests, a five-hour reception, and 20% of guests don't drink alcohol.
That's 80 drinkers. Each gets 2 drinks in hour one and 4 more over the next four hours, so 80 × 6 = 480 drinks. With the standard mix, that's 240 wine pours (48 bottles), 96 liquor drinks (6 bottles) and 144 beers (6 cases). The 20 non-drinkers need 120 soft drinks, which is 5 cases. Add 5 cases of water, 7 bottles of mixers and 15 bags of ice, plus 17 bottles of champagne if you're doing a toast.
How much alcohol do I need for 100 wedding guests?
With no non-drinkers on the Standard Mix, 100 guests need about 500 drinks for a four-hour reception: roughly 50 bottles of wine, 7 bottles of liquor and 7 cases of beer. At five hours that rises to about 600 drinks: 60 bottles of wine, 8 bottles of liquor and 8 cases of beer. For a beer and wine bar over four hours, plan on 60 bottles of wine and 9 cases of beer. Use the calculator above to fit your own headcount.
Wedding bar questions
How many drinks per person should I plan for at a wedding?
A common planning rule is two drinks per drinker in the first hour and one per hour after that. For a four-hour reception that's five drinks per drinker. Raise it by about 30% if your guests drink more than average, and lower the headcount by the share of guests who don't drink alcohol.
How many bottles of wine do I need for 100 guests?
Under the Standard Mix, about 50 bottles for four hours and 60 for five. If you're serving only beer and wine, wine's share rises to 60%, so a four-hour reception needs about 60 bottles. A 750 ml bottle pours about five glasses.
How much champagne do I need for a wedding toast?
Plan one pour per guest and about six pours per 750 ml bottle. For 100 guests that's 17 bottles. The toast is a one-time pour, so it is counted separately from the hourly bar rather than added to it.
How do non-drinkers change the numbers?
Every non-drinking guest removes their share of alcohol from the total and adds soda or other non-alcoholic drinks instead. With 20% non-drinkers at a 100-guest, five-hour wedding, the total drops from 600 drinks to 480, and you add about 5 cases of soda. Water and ice are still sized for all guests.
How much ice do I need for a wedding bar?
This calculator uses 1.5 lb of ice per guest, which is 15 ten-pound bags for 100 guests. That is sized for drinks. If you're also chilling beer and wine in tubs, or it's a hot summer day, buy more.
Should I round up or buy exactly what the calculator says?
The calculator already rounds each item up to a whole bottle or case. If your venue or store accepts returns of unopened bottles, it's worth buying a little extra of wine and beer, since running out mid-reception is a worse problem than leftovers. Check the return policy before you buy.
Does the calculator work for an open bar versus a limited bar?
Yes. Use "Heavy Drinkers" for an open bar or a late-night party. Use "Beer & Wine Only" if you're skipping liquor. If you're serving only a signature cocktail or two, the Standard Mix still gives a sensible total, but you'll want to shift the liquor and mixer quantities toward your chosen drinks.
These numbers are planning estimates based on common rules of thumb, not a guarantee. Your guest mix, venue rules, serving staff and the time of year all change how much people drink, so treat the result as a starting point and confirm quantities with your caterer or venue.
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