Can anyone help with alcohol/DIY bar

[littlemissM92]

Hi doing own bar at our wedding by that i mean we are buying all alcohol and having staff to work it but it will be much cheaper than if we used a brewery etc

I'm really struggling to know how much of everything to get ??

We are having
Red wine
White wine
Prosecco

2 or 3 lagers corona, Stella and bud probably

Spirits

Gin
Barcardi
Vodka
Whisky
Malibu

Ciders
Normal and fruit bummers
Koppaberg or old mount cider

Then jaeger and tequila

80 guests .. all can most Definitely drink to put it politely!

Any help with amounts would be great

[Etymology23]

I think I'd work out how smashed you want everyone to be? 10ml of pure alcohol is one unit - so 1 in a single g and t, 2ish in a beer (100ml @ 4% = 4ml, 568ml -> 23ml = 2.3 units) so then if you know your friends will drink 4 pints or 8 each you know you need at least 320 or 640 pints worth so say about 700 or 1500 ish units.

I'd then think about what you're happy to keep? Hate gin, keep the gin to a minimum? Feel like all your friends would love you to bring a bottle of prosecco when you go round theirs- then over estimate on that.

A bottle of wine is approx 10 units. 1L bottle of spirits at 40% is 40 units. If you're having bottled beer rather than a barrel then that won't keep at all. A 275ml bottle of corona is like half a pint.

So you want a glass of processo for everyone? 80 glasses. Assume 5 or 6 glasses in a bottle - so call it 5 and then you'll need 16 bottles of prosecco. Then will most people have wine with dinner, or will lots have beer/cider? How many glasses each? 2 or 3? And what are you having for dinner - salmon - more will drink white I suspect? Or beef and more will drink Red?

Then after dinner - are your friends beer drinkers or cocktail lovers?

Can you get a card to go to Costco or take a booze cruise to France to keep costs down?

[Etymology23]

A barrel won't keep at all - bottled will *

[LittleBirdBlues]

Not bacardi. Any other rum. Havana club maybe?

I can help with what brands to get but quantities are so dependent on your guests I couldn't possibly tell!

How long is the party?

[Oldieandgoldie]

Over-buy (more than you think you need!) on sale or return from local supermarket. Problem solved.

(You may need to 'hide' some in the other of a car.....)

[Oldieandgoldie]

Other?? Boot!

[littlemissM92]

Thanks so much that's very helpful! We are fine with brands we know what we getting in regards to that.. and we are buying from supermarket on sale or returns . Lots to think about x

[littlemissM92]

Wedding reception is 4 until 2! So quite a while don't want to run out of anything really

[littlemissM92]

X

[Catbot]

We did the same as you and went to Majestic. They were super-helpful in working out what we needed. We ended up with far too much (our fault) but we were able to take back what we didn't use, including beers.

I also made a few 'specials' - check out skittles vodkas/dishwasher vodkas. They are a lot of fun!

[littlemissM92]

Ha yes cat I have made toffee vodka in the dishwasher before thanks for the reminder will do that! X

[LadyPenelopeCantDance]

We drove to Calais to the wine places last year for our wedding wine and bubbles. If you spend a certain amount, they pay for your crossing too. It worked out significantly cheaper per bottle than what we could have bought at home and I was able to try it all before we bought it. Disclaimer that this is only a good idea if you live in the South!

I think you have over estimated the amount of choice to give too. Given it's a free bar, your guests shouldn't mind what is being served. I would limit to one kind of beer and cider personally.

[littlemissM92]

Thanks for your advise we won't be going to France the supermarket will be fine for us
It's not a free bar

[littlemissM92]

Was planning to just do lager hence why 2 or 3 options and no beer personally I think beer is crap unless pulled from a barrel and we won't have this facility so hoping people will be happy with just lager and other options.

What did you all have for reception drinks ? I was thinking 2 types of cocktail that we would make mohito / beach Bellini? I went to a wedding yest and it was either bottle of lager one choice or pimms which I suppose makes it easy ?

[Catbot]

We had prosecco and posh squash, like elderflower cordial and a few of the posh fizzy drinks too. Also beers. Lots of the chaps in our group do like the bottled ales, in fact they were more popular than the lager but you will know your own guests!

Very excited for you, I loved our wedding

[GinIsIn]

Hang on - it's not a free bar? So you will be buying booze from the supermarket and then charging for it?

That changes things slightly - before you consider how much to buy you need to consider how much you are charging - the calculations for a free vs paid bar are wildly different.

[GinIsIn]

Will you be providing the standard offering of welcome drink, table wine and toast, or are you charging for those too and they need to be figured into the calculation?

[LineysRun]

It's not a free bar

You've flummoxed me. Won't you need tills, price structures, licensing, all that palaver? How will you decide what to charge your guests, because that'll affect how much people choose to drink or not drink I'd have thought. Unless I've massively misunderstood in my insomniacal haze.

[DryHeave]

If you're planning on charging for it, you need to make sure your venue has the right licensing.

We did the bar ourselves at our wedding with bar staff, but due to the license it had to be a free bar (which was our plan anyway).

[BBQueen]

I would definitely swap one or two of the lagers for bottled/canned ale. An IPA is generally a crowd pleaser.

For 80 people (and judging by what my friends like to drink), I would go for the following...

40 prosecco
20 white
10 red

150 lager
150 ale
100 cider

5 gin
5 rum
4 whiskey
2 vodka
2 Malibu
2 Bacardi
5 each of jaegermeister/tequila if you think people will be doing shots

Mixers, probably 20 each of:

Tonic
Coke
Orange juice
Cranberry/other juices
Soda water
Lemonade

[lampert]

We had 100 guests, of whom about 80 were drinking.

We got through:
90 bottles of champagne (drinks reception and toasts)
3/4 bottle of wine per person

There was also £3k spent behind the bar (high ran out halfway through the night!) which went mostly on spirits but I don't have amounts unfortunately.

[Shadow666]

Youre charging your wedding guests for booze you bought for cheap at a supermarket! 😂

[LineysRun]

DryHeave, that's what I was thinking - it's all quite complicated when you sell on alcohol that you've bought yourself.

[MovingOnUpMovingOnOut]

Charging your own guests for drinks is very tacky unusual. It also makes it much more difficult to cater for - free or free/limited bar and people are happy to get what they are given. Paid bar and they expect a full bar with a full range.

Is any of the drink going to be provided for free? Toast, wine for the table etc?

[Rootvegetables]

We did this at our wedding but we hired a cocktail waiter and had cocktails too. We had way too much wine left over at the end but you can buy kegs of ale with about 20 pints in, that was really popular. I can't really see how you would charge for it though, it's quite a lot of extra work for the bar staff too. You might also need an extra person to collect and wash glasses. We had about 85 adults and 2 bar staff and an extra to get glasses etc and they were manic all night. Our bar and cocktails was one of my best things at the wedding!

[ShangriLaLaLa]

We had a free bar but were advised to keep the choices simple by the venue.

We opted for champagne, red wine, white wine, lager (one type), beer and softs.

We were advised against shorts, but there were a range of sherries and ports and also pimms for either before and after.

In my experience, people go to a wedding and don't necessarily expect a full bar. Everyone at ours had a lovely time and looking back, I think we got the options spot on.