Providing own alcohol for wedding... help!

You might want to get more wine, especially for dinner because I think people tend to drink wine with their meals. We're getting 6 cases of wine for 75ish guests, but we're only doing beer and wine.

Http://www.realsimple.com/weddings/wedding-wine-liquor-calculator-00000000008314/

My sister used this calculator, pretty much doubled everything, and they STILL ran out of some things. Only you know your guests--are they heavy drinkers? Are they more likely to drink beer or wine?

Think about what your crowd likes. I know if that were my group of friends the vodka and whiskey would be gone immediately and the rum would sit untouched.

4 bottles of vodka will get you no where. I would think about adding an more bottles of whiskey.

I used the Real Simple one, with some additions/subtractions based on things I thought more people would drink/things I thought no one would really drink. Most of what we got is based on the Real Simple estimate for 100. I generally know what people drink/how much, but, I realize people will over-drink when there's free booze flowing and most of them don't just stick to either beer OR wine OR mixed drinks.

I also don't have any issue with over-buying, for cost purposes (and also because we'll drink it all at some point), however, we have to transport all this like an hour and a half away, and, I guess I'm worried about fitting it all in on the way there and then getting it back.

You will want more wine if anything - but that depends on your meal. I too have this dilemma because we have to supply all our own alcohol. I am thinking a keg of hard cider, a keg of other "normal beer" like Coors light, and grocery wine. I will have to get with my FFIL to see if he thinks people will want hard liquor or mixed drinks because I do not drink and I am clueless.

Sorry, just to clarify, the vodka and rum are all liter bottles, not 750 ml. And with the exception of one bridesmaid and a few guests, I don't really know anyone else who I think is a whiskey drinker.

We have about 100 guests and we are supplying our own as well.

Champagne toast

2 cases of red wine/2 cases of white wine/half case of white zin (total wine ppl told us about 5 glasses per bottle)

48 miller lite/36 Budweiser/48 corona lite/12 Guinness/12 Sam Adams/12 IPA (we might get more beer-not sure if this is enough)

3 whiskey / 3 tequila / 4 vodka / gin / 4 rum all liter bottles (maybe more of this too)

Total Wine told us two drinks per person for the first hour and one drink for every hour after that. I'd rather have more than not enough. Total wine will let you return unopened bottles as long as they haven't been chilled and the wrapper is in tact.

That doesn't sound like a lot...but you know your guests. I used a spreadsheet to calculate my estimate (per drink cost from venue). Venue coordinator said 4 per person for everyone is about average ( non drinkers and drinkers). I have 3 couples coming that could drink 3 cases of beer themselves....

I jave the same problem and lots of heavy drinkers. If fugure if we run out we run out. There will be two kegs ans we are getting an extra 10-15 cases of nicer craft beer for our kelp yourself cocktail hour.

I think wine and beer will be your big sellers, so maybe add more of those?

For 150 people we have:

Champange (not doing a toast) 15

Unflavored vodka- 5

White rum- 2

Spiced rum- 5

Tequila-3

Triple sec-2

Whiskey-3

White wine-2

1 each of coconut rum, whipped vodka, and jager. 3 bottles of skinny girl white wine (for me!)

Rose-10

Red-18

Then a keg of miller, a keg of lager, a margarita machine for cocktail hour, a canoe full of craft beer (cocktail hour) and a wine bar( cocktail hour) our cocktail hour will be help yourself and placed on picnic tables. we are have a 21+wedding

Bawlmore, hon! (I'm in Baltimore, too.)

I would bump up the wine a bit. Is this a day or an evening wedding? Maybe you could find a vendor who lets you return unopened wine for a refund. I'd also check the forecast - in warmer weather, people drink white, in cooler weather they prefer to have red.

Also, one thing that drink calculators don't take into account is that people at weddings are super ditzy - they set down their drinks, forgot where they put them, and go back to the bar for a new drink. So you need to bump things up about 10-20% to account for that.

We are also supplying our own alcohol... we will have on each table that seats 11:

2 bottles of vodka

1 bottle of cognac

2 bottles of white wine (red wine is free with the venue)

1 bottle of whiskey

2 bottles of champagne

We might add tequila to some tables where we know people want it.

For open bar cocktail hour we will have all that plus more variety of flavors (mixes are provided by the venue)

I thought this site was very helpful

http://weddingtips101.wordpress.com/2013/04/13/planning-food-drinks/

If you're providing your own drinks, I would suggest not putting them out on tables like Renata has planned. It's worth it to get a licensed bartender to serve the drinks.

One, liability reasons - they can cut people off as necessary, otherwise you can be held legally responsible if someone drinks and drives and causes an accident. Two, I've seen way too many horror stories on here of guests helping themselves to unattended leftover bottles at the end of the evening and taking them home, while the bride had planned on returning those bottles for a refund.

We have not gotten that far yet (as far as what we are purchasing) but our venue gave us a list that I compared with my uncle (he is president of a hall and is in charge of ordering alcohol for weddings) and he said it sounds about spot on. It is a suggested purchase guide and it is as follows based on 125-150 guests:

Beer-- 15 to 18 cases (1/2 keg equals 7 cases of beer)

Chardonnay-- 4 cases

Cabernet-- 2 cases

White Zinfandel-- 2 cases

Vodka-- 3-4 bottles +

Gin-- 2 bottles

Whiskey-- 2-4 bottles

Rum-- 3 bottles

Peach Schnapps-- 1 bottle

Champagne-- Plan 6 servings per bottle for a champagne toast

1 to 2 drinks per hour per guest..minimum!

Thanks for all the advice, everyone! We will not be putting alcohol on tables (prohibited by our venue) and there will be a licensed bartender serving it. They also prohibit shots and shooters. The venue won't release anything at the end of the night except to my parents.

The reception is next Friday night, and the weather looks like it won't be super nice... mid 50s/low 60s and possible rain. It's 5 hours long. A lot of our family members don't drink heavily (our friends will more than make up for that) and the venue is between 30 minutes and 2 hours from where the majority of people live and about 1/4 of our guests will be driving home afterwards.

My dad is a wine distributor so while we won't be selling anything back, we will be getting it at cost and it won't go to waste.

We'll definitely be getting more wine and beer. Thanks for all the advice!

@Shannon, yay Baltimore!

Just have a plan in place in case things do run low - who will run out to get more? Where can they go? How will it get paid for?

Otherwise, with a bartender helping AND (presumably) covering your liability, you sound all set.