Stocking a full bar

We bought all of the alcohol for our wedding, and hired bartenders through our caterer. I actually preferred this because it gave us full control. We ended up doing vodka, bourbon, gin, rum, and a bottle of scotch (which wasn't opened, but I thought would be good just in case my grandfather wanted it), in addition to beer, wine, and champs. We did offer two signature cocktails ("hers" was vodka based, "his" was bourbon), but then people could order whatever else they wanted from the liquors I mentioned. We had a range of sodas, club soda, tonic, grapefruit juice, cranberry juice, lemons, and limes. That was what our "full" bar consisted of, and it seemed to be perfect for our guests! My best advice is to think about what your crowd likes, and buy accordingly

Yeah that is what I would love to do! More of a open bar but obviously not with every brand of liquor just you basic whisky, tequila, vodka etc. I just do not know where to begin as far as how much of everything to buy. How did you decide that Jamie?

This is an article I found when I was researching it, that I found pretty informative:

http://apracticalwedding.com/2014/06/how-to-buy-alcohol-for-your-wedding/

The following should work fine:

Beer - two types

White wine

Red wine

Vodka

Rum

Tequila

Gin

Scotch

Coke

Diet Coke

Cranberry Juice

Club Soda

Grenadine

Orange Juice

Tomato juice/Clamato

7-Up

Gingerale

Lemons

Limes

Cherries

I would suggest buying too much as opposed to not enough. You can always return the unopened stuff.

I guess I should add probably 100 of my guest will be drinkers.

Sara that article is awesome. Thank you!

Yes, I would overbuy because you can always return! When I was purchasing at the ABC store, the woman was the register was so nice and kept reminding me to keep my receipt because anything unopened can be returned. In terms of amounts, I used online calculators/articles (like what Sara sent), and the folks at Total Wine helped me determine quantities, too. We were buying for both the rehearsal dinner and the wedding, so it was even trickier in terms of quantities. We ended up going through all of the bourbon, but not til the very end of the night so it wasn't an issue. Everything else lasted through the evening, with lots of wine to spare

In terms of mixers, I would ask your caterer if they can provide to make it easier. Our caterer was able to pick up everything for us and just charge us cost, and he estimated the amounts. I gave a full list of what we wanted, though.

Jamie I am from NC so we have ABC stores also good to know we can return anything unopened I guess we can do the same as far as mixers go. I am thinking once I book my bartender we could talk and they could probably help me navigate it all also.

This is the math I did for my wedding:

Full wedding bar = 20% liquor, 15% beer, 65% wine based on average consumption (I found this on a website somewhere.)

Wine

· 1 bottle of wine = 5 servings

· 1 case = 12 bottles

Liquor

· 750ml bottle of liquor = 18 servings (1.5 oz servings)

Beer

· 1 bottle = 1 serving of beer

· 1 case = 12 bottles

Guests on average will consume one drink per hour (some more, some less)

5pm to 12am = 7 hours

120 guests x 7 hours = 840 servings

(840 x 0.65) = 546 servings of wine = 109-110 bottles (~9 cases)

(840 x 0.2) = 168 servings of liquor = ~ 9 bottles (750ml/26oz)

(840 x 0.15) = 126 servings of beer = 126 bottles (~11 cases)

Then I rounded up a little on everything. I bought 3 bottles vodka, 2 bottles of whiskey 2 bottles tequila, 2 bottles rum, 1 bottle gin and we ran completely out of liquor by the end of the night. The amount of beer we bought was just right and we had quite a bit of left over wine.

Our venue provided soft drinks, orange juice, cranberry juice, tomato juice, lemons, limes etc. So I didnt have to worry about that.

So you had a lot of wine left over? I dont think my guest will drink that much wine. They are more beer and liquor drinkers.

AG13 yes we had at least a case of wine left over. I think the reason they set the percentage so high is that a lot of people will drink wine with dinner at a formal event regardless of their overall preference and then they will switch out after dinner. Also consider whether you intend to leave bottles of wine on the tables to start out with. I would maybe go with 50% wine and 25% of each liquor and beer??

I also grabbed a bottle of sparkling grape juice because I had 3 pregnant women at the wedding.

Oh, that's a good note about the wine, Sarah! We put a bottle of white and of red on each table at the reception so people could serve themselves without needing to get up. They could still go to the bar, of course, but we're big wine drinkers so we were all about making it easier for everyone.

@AG13 Definitely buy based on what your friends/family like. If you have more beer drinkers than wine drinkers, then go for the larger quantities of beer. If you have a lot of vodka lovers, buy more vodka than gin, etc. We way overbought on the wine and champs, but we returned the white we didn't want (we're more into red) and kept the red and champs for ourselves and for future entertaining. Worked out great!