How much booze do I buy?

[PaSucks]

Need to buy booze for a 150 person wedding reception. Already have two half kegs ordered. Doing specialty drinks, Rum and Coke and hard lemon aid, plus wine. assuming average consumption, (ie not too many heavy drinkers but I anticipate most people will at least have a few) how many bottles of rum, vodka, and wine do I need?

[guroo270]

You need a lot, but you need to find a place where you can return it. We used a winery and Argonaut Liquors in Denver for our wedding, and ended up taking tons of stuff back. You just don't know if every person is going to go for coors light or 471 small batch ipa or wine. Of course, you're being nice by providing all that, and not just beer and wine, or a pay for yourself kind of bar, so do whatever suits ya.

[TomCrac]

If you can find a place that has an easy return policy, come up with a per drink figure and then over buy.... Kind of a bummer when the party runs dry. Either that or know the hours and locations of nearby liquor stores, have them deliver or send the designated driver or cab it.

[Tippster]

4 handles of the booze each - you're not going to serve nearly that much (people don't drink that many specialty drinks, really), 8 cases of Red, 8 cases of White wine... adjust accordingly with what's for dinner/appetizers or if the crowd is more into drinking beer.. but that's not so important because...

Absolutely talk to the liquor store about returns. Explain to the manayer what you're buying for - every guy I know is cool with taking back unopened liquor and wine bottles as long as they weren't out in the sun and the labels are still in good shape. That means store the wine in their cases under the bar and only chill the white as needed.

[Alaskan Rover]

Tippster's got the answer.

It's always better to have too much and be able to return it, than to not have enougj and the stores no longer selling. Think of it as a good insurance policy.

Good idea about keeping the wine cased until you need it...that keeps the labels in good shape. Don't forget about the possibility of 'wine in a box', either...some of it is actually quite good. Keep the fancy bottles on hand for the high-brows.

As for beer, you might keep the microbrews cased up until neede for the same reason...for returning.

Kegs depends on the crowd...younger crowd, maybe a keg for every 50 people? Older crowd...you might very well get by with one full keg.

[stuckathuntermtn]

If your friends are anything like my friends, you will drink as much as you buy.
And congrats on getting married.

Sent from my cell phone. no, a cell phone.

[Cruiser]

Figure on an average of about 3 drinks per person. Some events run more like 4 drinks per person but those are fairly uncommon. Your keg will net you a little more than 200 drinks assuming some loss and an 8oz pour. Then you can plan on like 5ish (~5oz) glasses of wine per bottle. The liquor is more difficult since I don't know what ratio your recipe calls for but you can usually take the amount of liquor in ounces and multiply it by about 3 (to account for the mixer that you're adding) then divide the total by 5 (since you'll do like 5oz pours plus ice) to get an average number of drinks per bottle. You'll have to figure out whether you guests will favor wine, booze, or beer. Then you can just do you math. Easy as can be.

Find a place that will let you return unopened/undamaged product with no restocking fee if you return it early the next day. Offer to pay cash for an extra discount.

[AdironRider]

4 handles of the booze each - you're not going to serve nearly that much (people don't drink that many specialty drinks, really), 8 cases of Red, 8 cases of White wine... adjust accordingly with what's for dinner/appetizers or if the crowd is more into drinking beer.. but that's not so important because...

Absolutely talk to the liquor store about returns. Explain to the manayer what you're buying for - every guy I know is cool with taking back unopened liquor and wine bottles as long as they weren't out in the sun and the labels are still in good shape. That means store the wine in their cases under the bar and only chill the white as needed.

This. After just going through this myself for my own wedding last September, I think his numbers are spot on. Any decent liqour store will hook you up with all the booze you could want knowing that if the party rocks, you'll use it. I had no issues returning anything other than maybe 20 beers worth of IPA in a keg afterwards.

I personally dont have to many family members that drink hard alcohol so I didnt personally have it. Its the kinda thing where you either go all out with a bar, or you dont have it at all IMO. Everyone drinks a cocktail a different way. Its tough to have all that. Everyone likes one of the three staples, red white or beer. You know the invitees, I just told my buddies who I knew wanted the hard stuff that everything was all you can drink, but bring a flask or something and they were all totally cool with it. Otherwise you're going to have to front a shitton of cash to give a decent bar setup a go.

I got a 20% discount as well for volume.

[RShea]

Is the wedding in PA? If so then of course you will be dealing with the PA Liquor Store and a beer distributor. Some of the ideas suggested may not apply when dealing with the 2nd largest purchaser of alcohol in North America. (I've heard Ontario Canada province is at the top).

Local beer distributors can and do work with you for returns- keep the keg cold and a good distributor will allow you to return untapped kegs or will deliver another up to a certain hour.

[schuss]

I'd personally just do beer and wine, then maybe buy a bottle or two of certain things if you know certain people will want a G&T or similar. Funniest thing was my friend's wedding, where the father of the bride bought all the liquor. End of the night, he says "They aren't getting tons of free booze from me, everyone go grab something!" ended up with 2 12 packs and 4 bottles of champagne myself.

[iceman]

Ontario Canada providence

Is that in Rhode Manitoba Island?

[cramer]

I had my wedding catered by a bar/restaurant. So they just brought a couple kegs, did their standard house wine and i paid 250 i think for a bartender to pour booze all night. Beer and wine were free. I'm sure we went through a keg total, but probably half of each. I think i did bud light and widmer. I had 150 people. Everyone took shots all night while sipping the free shit. Id suggest hiring a local catering company that is a bar/restaurant or at least get a quote. Because they only charge you for whats used. if you go through someone else, they'll require you to by an amount of kegs and bottles of wine. the only thing we paid for was the champagne on a definitive amount of bottles. mainly because we had custom labels added. Going through a local place has flexibility as well. You can go prime rib or beef roast. Crab, lobster or shrimp, etc. 150 is a big as wedding for us normal folks. Paying to feed them fuckers is a small fortune. I wish i had rich as parents. I just went to a wedding a couple weeks ago. Full fucking bar all night long. Jager, kamakazie's, etc flowing all night long. They just threw up a prime rib and salad bar pretty much. Get your food, now go drink! It really depends on your crowd. if everyone pretty much drinks, make the menu simple and have that alcohol ready as soon as they leave the church. if its a bunch of people who arent partying, spend your money on the food and just get a couple kegs and the wine folks will bring enough.

lastly i will add, that receptions without hard liquor generally suck. And hire a DJ from one of the local radio stations. There is nothing better than hearing about your idiot friends getting all fucked up and doing stupid shit at your reception. Even better, seeing their wives and girlfriends throwing up outside all over the place. When you pull that off, you just threw the best wedding ever. Get a fucking video man. Those are the best. We watch ours every couple years and laugh our asses off. My friends are all terrible dancing drunken idiots. so are their parents. lol. Either way, congrats. But the reception needs to be epic. Everyone who went to my wedding was like "cramer, best fucking wedding ever". Its all about having a goodtime. so cater that goodtime to your crowd. whatever they enjoy and you enjoy, plan it around that.

[toast2266]

Need to buy booze for a 150 person wedding reception. Already have two half kegs ordered. Doing specialty drinks, Rum and Coke and hard lemon aid, plus wine. assuming average consumption, (ie not too many heavy drinkers but I anticipate most people will at least have a few) how many bottles of rum, vodka, and wine do I need?

When you say half kegs, do you mean 1/2 barrels, or 1/4 barrels (half of a normal keg)? Either way, that's not enough beer for 150 people.