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VIP October 2021

How accurate was your alcohol calculator

Monica, on March 3, 2020 at 8:34 PM Posted in Wedding Reception 1 23

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Time to buy alcohol soon. I held a stock the bar raffle for the reception at my bridal shower. People who wanted to participate in the raffle (the prizes were really nice) brought a bottle of Sangria and almost everyone brought wine. I received a total of 22 bottles of wine and 2 4L jugs.

It was a huge help but now I need to buy what im missing. Im wondering how accurate was your calculations when using alcohol calculators. What types of drinks did you have leftover?
Im expecting 200ppl 6hr reception We are serving Sangria, Pinot Grigio, beer, 2 flavors of margaritas, sodas and during dinner we are having mexican Agua fresca drinks (Horchata and Jamaica).
The alcohol calculator says 50 bottles of red wine30 bottles of white wine25 bottles of liquor 225 Cans of sodas
Im planning to buy 2 kegs of beer. Mostly the men are the beer drinkers. And for margaritas I have enough alcohol for 5 or 6 batches of margaritas (I read that 1 batch is good for 50ppl)
Im wondering if I can get away with adjusting the numbers so I buy a little less wine because of the margaritas and a little less soda because of the agua fresca drinks.

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23 Comments

Latest activity by Molly, on March 6, 2020 at 3:37 PM

Master November 2020
Kristen · on March 3, 2020 at 9:04 PM
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Eh if you run out of alcohol then people can finally leave and go home;p.
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Master October 2020
Margaret · on March 3, 2020 at 9:11 PM
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I think it depends on your guests; are they drinkers? The average person will sip a drink 20 minutes. So figure for 5 hours people will drink and spend the last hour sobering up. So are you thinking an average of 5-6 drinks per guest?

Your calculator could be close in count, but people tend to drink more and more quickly when they know it’s free.
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VIP October 2021
Monica · on March 3, 2020 at 9:34 PM
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That is exactly right lol.
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VIP October 2021
Monica · on March 3, 2020 at 9:36 PM
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Drinks per person gets confusing to me because theres so many combinations of drinks they can have
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Master October 2020
Margaret · on March 3, 2020 at 9:39 PM
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LOL, less options make it easier to compute.
I plan events for my work all the time, but I know my audience and know who drinks what and how much. So I jut gave you the average of most of my colleagues (well 1/4 of them) LOL

Open bars bring out the alcoholics too. Keep that in mind.
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VIP October 2021
Monica · on March 3, 2020 at 9:41 PM
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According to the calculator I calculated 1000 servings of drinks between 50bottles of red, 30 of white, 6 batches of margaritas, 220 sodas.
So if each person was to have one of each, 200ppl could have 5drinks for the night.
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VIP October 2021
Monica · on March 3, 2020 at 9:43 PM
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Also including 2 kegs^
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Master October 2020
Margaret · on March 3, 2020 at 9:43 PM
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I was pretty spot on then. LOL

I should do this for a living. Lol
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VIP October 2021
Monica · on March 3, 2020 at 10:18 PM
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Lol. But i feel its not that simple. I know forsure ppl drink beer and im honestly not sure about the rest lol except ppl will drink agua frescas if they have the option. And the portion of FHs family that im close to will drink sangria and might with margaritas. So after writing that out loud i think im going to decrease white wine & decrease sodas by a little
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Savvy June 2020
Nicole · on March 3, 2020 at 10:42 PM
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What calculator are you using?
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VIP October 2021
Monica · on March 3, 2020 at 11:00 PM
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Https://bigredliquors.com/drink-calculator/
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VIP October 2021
Monica · on March 3, 2020 at 11:03 PM
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Which one did you use. I Have found that most calculators include mostly alcohol and not all of them also include soft drinks
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Master October 2020
Margaret · on March 4, 2020 at 5:06 AM
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See, you’ve got this. I’d focus on the items you know for sure will get consumed.
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VIP October 2021
Monica · on March 4, 2020 at 10:40 AM
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Lol yes and if alcohol runs out then it runs out lol.
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Savvy June 2020
Nicole · on March 4, 2020 at 5:24 PM
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I’m using that one as well. I did find it to be a little too general. Our guest span from light to heavy drinkers. I would specify the number of guest of guests in each drinking category. Guess it’s time to create an excel spreadsheet to fit my needs.
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Super February 2020
Kaysey · on March 5, 2020 at 10:12 AM
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Honestly, the best way to do it is to look at your guests. My husband and I knew our crowd and knew when a full open bar is offered they would go for the liquor instead of beer and wine. I'd say look at your crowd and see what they mostly drink. Also look and see who you would consider heavy drinks, average drinkers and light drinkers. If you have more heavy drinkers, then you know to buy more. If you have a crowd of average drinkers, you know you don't need to buy that much.

As far as sodas and other mixers for the bar, I'd do look into Sam's Club or Costco. We got a ton on 35 packs of soda (coke, sprite and diet coke), for around $9 a piece.

I also 100% recommend going through Total Wine for your beer, wine and liquor if you have one near you! After your wedding they allow you to return any unopened and un-chilled bottles. My husband and I got around $250 back from everything we returned (my husband wanted to make sure our bar was stocked and we didn't have a chance of running out of anything, lol).
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VIP October 2021
Monica · on March 5, 2020 at 10:28 AM
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Thanks for the recommendation! The closest Total wine is about 30 min away from me but maybe its worth the trip. The only thing about knowing the crowd is that its mostly FHs family and I don’t exactly know everyone very well, only a small portion that Im in contact with the rest I barely see (unless we are at a funeral) or know. The one thing I know is forsure people (the men) will drink beer. And im assuming most but not all will drink margaritas because who says no to a margarita lol.

How will Total wine know if the bottle thats being returned had been chilled or not?
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Super February 2020
Kaysey · on March 5, 2020 at 10:43 AM
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I think it would be worth the drive for you. Especially knowing that you can return what you don't use without any issue. And I'm not sure how they know, lol. I don't know that much about alcohol but I tried returning 19 bottles of wine (a combination of red and white) in addition to the liquor that went back and they told me one of the bottles had been chilled; they pulled each out to check it before they would refund it - which I totally understand. I'm not sure if it still felt cold to them or not, but they said one of the bottles had been chilled and could not be returned. I texted my bartender while I was there and she did tell me that one of bottles of white wine that she did not open was being chilled in ice before the reception was over. When our family helped pack up the bar, they must have just put it back in the white wine box. It ended up working out b/c my grandma loved the white wine so we just gave the bottle to her, haha.
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VIP October 2021
Monica · on March 5, 2020 at 11:20 AM
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Lol thats crazy. We have a big walk in fridge that we are planning to chill the wine bottles overnight. I guess I should leave a handful of some outside the fridge just in case.
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VIP September 2020
Molly · on March 6, 2020 at 2:56 PM
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I'm not sure what state you're in, but if you are in CA you cant return wine to total wine. Just a heads up!
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