Alcohol Question

All depends what you plan on serving. Beer, wine, liquor? How much of each variety? Will they serve it or do you need to hire your own bartender. Glassware?

For my FSILs wedding in January, she had one half keg and 20ish bottles of wine. 150 guests. The reception started at 5pm and they ran out of beer at 11pm. But they also had a venue that required their bartender for alcohol.

My cousin had a baby shower for 200 plus guest and she spent about 1,500. So you should be spending about $200-$500. Unless your guest are heavy drinkers?

If you look online, at Total Wine or ABC liquor, they typically have an alcohol calculator that can give you an idea.

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I'll have to look that up, thank you!

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Thank you Courtney!! Following this, because I wanted to know this for my wedding as well!!

I had a modified open bar (3 cocktails, 3 shots, 3 wines, 2 beers) for a five hour reception and I had bought for 80 guests if that's helpful.

Not sure if you live somewhere where you can return beer! If so, I’m so jealous as this is not a PA law. If you don’t live somewhere that you can return beer I would recommend purchasing some beer w/ a 9% abv or more - as they can sit for a long period of time (over 10 years per dogfish head).

View Quoted Comment Hmm - what shots? Depending on that answer - can we please be friends! Lol! Honestly, my fav shots are buttery nipple (you don’t hate ur self the next morning) & a car bomb w/o the Jameson - still tasty, but doesn’t put you on ur butt, plus you know how much you are chugging.

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I got married in PA but bought my alcohol in Delaware specifically for this reason

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The tequila shot was lemon, sprite, and tequila. The whiskey shot was pressed ginger juice and whiskey. The rum shot was rum, lime, sugar and a little bit of seltzer (like a teeny caipirinha).

The bartenders decided this the day of and ran it by us because it was something they thought would be fun. I was honestly over the moon but it was totally unplanned for. They used what we brought and what the catering company brought

View Quoted Comment Hmm Total Wine & More?

We're providing our own drinks for our wedding, 60 guests. We're only doing beer, wine, champagne, sodas, and waters. Spending about $400 total.

View Quoted Comment Yup I hit up the location in Claymont DE.

I love Total Wine because they took returns and it’s totally worth it!

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I'm getting married in Pennsylvania but people keep telling us that Delaware has much cheaper prices. We live in NEPA so it would take us about 4 hours to drive to Delaware if we decided to get our alcohol there. Do you think it was worth it? Did you save a lot in comparison?

View Quoted Comment Yes!! I drove 2 hours to grab it. I made a day of it and grabbed my wedding bands (we bought from Helzberg and saved about $200 by avoiding taxes) too.

Its mostly helpful in that that you can return unused alcohol. We over-bought ($1100 originally and did about $500 in returns). They return to your original payment too it’s not store credit. I also liked that on top of case discounts (yes they stack their discounts!) they also had discounts for their exclusive wineries and breweries (which were so good!). We probably saved around $250 on alcohol with all of the discounts!

I’m not sure what colorado’s laws on unused alcohol returns are, but my extended family and my FH’s family are all pretty heavy drinkers so I’m not thinking there’ll be a whole lot left over, and if there is it won’t be around long enough to worry about returning it xD that sucks that you have to drive all the way to Delaware though. That’s why a lot of those laws don’t work. You can just go to to the next state over. (I’m looking at you, fireworks laws)