Buying your own Alcohol

I'm sure there's a million different way to calculate this, but I think a common rule of thumb would be: plan for each guest to have 2 drinks at cocktail hour, and one drink per hour of the reception!

So, # guests x [2 cocktail hour drinks + (1 reception drink x __ hours of reception)]

Our venue did not allow us to purchase our own alcohol, but my BIL was able to for his wedding - my in laws purchased alcohol from Sam's Club/Costco or any other "bulk" store that usually has better pricing. Double check their return policy...ex: it can be returned as long as the bottle is unopened. They went for about 50% white, 40% red, and 10% pinks/rose for wine and a variety of big name beer. Don't forget to pick out a bottle or two of champagne for the two of you

In New Hampshire, couples typically pay for their own alcohol (unless using an all inclusive venue) and you can return unopened bottles of liquor to the liquor store. We're using a bartending service, which will supply us with a bartender, insurance, cups, napkins, and garnishes, and we are responsible for purchasing mixers and alcohol. Our bartending service is advising us on how much to order based on our drink list and guests.

Katie is 100% correct. You don't want to run out of alcohol though so go for more rather than less.

Hey! We actually just did this. I'm not sure where you're located but I'm in TX and we went to Total Wine. We did a consultation first they recommended what we needed in total and gave us this guide on how to calculate:

Wine:

Guest X Drinks Per Guest X0.6/5 = # of 750 ML bottles needed

Beer:

Guest X Drinks per Guest X 0.4 = 12 oz Servings needed

We purchased our alcohol and wine about 1 month before and we are going to be purchasing the beer a week before (Only because we are purchasing aluminum bottles instead of kegs)

We're doing this for our venue (in Texas). I've found Total Wine to be the most cost efficient. Costco is also a pretty solid option. We have a ton of heavy drinkers coming to our wedding so we're buying well over the average amount.

We are buying our own alcohol and hired our own bartender. We are both teachers and he happens to also be teacher but bartends at hour favorite happy hour bar on the side. We just met up with him one day after work and discussed what we wanted and he told us what to buy and how much of it to buy. We bought some on black friday because a local store had some great liquor deals but the rest we will try to buy from a total wine store.

Not for our wedding, but we did this for our rehearsal dinner. We picked a light beer (coors lite), a dark beer (blue moon), a sweet white wine (Pinot Grigio), a dry white wine (Sauvignon blanc), and a red wine (Cabernet). And champagne of course. We got it from a liquor store near our rehearsal dinner venue. Ordered it a few weeks in advance and they delivered.