How much alcohol do you actually need for your wedding?
Enter your guest count, how long the party runs, and what you're pouring. We'll turn it into an exact shopping list — beer, wine, spirits, and every signature-cocktail ingredient.
Your reception
Adjust anything below — the shopping list updates as you go.
From guest count to a bar order in a minute
No more guessing, no more panic runs to the store the morning of. Here's the flow.
Tell us about the party
Guest count, how long the bar is open, and how much your crowd tends to drink. That sets your total drink count.
Pick what you're pouring
Beer, wine, spirits, seltzer — and add any signature cocktails. We split the drinks and convert them into real bottles and cans.
Take the list to the store
Download your itemized shopping list with quantities, ice, mixers and garnishes. Buy returnable and you'll never over-spend.
How we calculate your wedding bar
These are the same rules of thumb caterers and bartenders use — no mystery, no upsell.
One drink per guest, per hour
The industry baseline. Guests average a bit more in the first hour and taper off — we bake that curve in and adjust for how spirited your crowd is.
A balanced default mix
Left on "even split," we pour roughly 40% beer, 40% wine and 20% spirits — then re-weight it if you choose a beer-and-wine or cocktail-forward bar.
Five glasses to a wine bottle
A 750 ml bottle pours about five glasses; a bottle of spirits makes ~16 cocktails at a standard 1.5 oz pour. We round every category up to whole bottles.
A sensible buffer
We nudge quantities up slightly so you don't run dry, and we suggest buying somewhere you can return what stays sealed. Better a little over than a dry bar at 10pm.
Bottle & serving conversions
| What you buy | How many servings |
|---|---|
| Case of beer | 24 bottles / cans = 24 drinks |
| Keg (half barrel) | ~165 12-oz pours ≈ 7 cases |
| 750 ml bottle of wine | ~5 glasses (5 oz each) |
| 750 ml bottle of Champagne | ~6 toast flutes |
| 750 ml bottle of spirits | ~16 cocktails (1.5 oz pour) |
| 1.75 L handle of spirits | ~39 cocktails |
Plan the bar once, get it right
Wedding alcohol questions, answered
How much alcohol do I need for 100 wedding guests?
For a typical 5-hour reception with an average crowd, plan on roughly 500 drinks for 100 guests. On an even beer/wine/spirits mix that's about 200 beers (9 cases), 40 bottles of wine and 6–7 bottles of spirits — plus a bottle of Champagne for every six guests if you're doing a toast. Enter your exact numbers above for a precise list.
How many drinks does one guest have?
The standard estimate is one drink per guest per hour, with people drinking a little more in the first hour and tapering after. So a 5-hour reception is about 5 drinks per guest for an average crowd — fewer for a light group, more if everyone's on the dance floor. The calculator lets you pick your crowd's pace.
How does the calculator handle signature cocktails?
Signature drinks come out of your spirits portion. Pick from preset recipes — margarita, espresso martini, Aperol spritz and more — and we use the real per-pour volumes to work out bottles of each spirit, liqueur and cordial, plus the mixers and garnishes. Serving your own creation? Choose "custom recipe", enter the portions for one standard pour, and we scale it to your cocktail count.
What's the ideal beer, wine and liquor ratio?
A safe default is 40% beer, 40% wine and 20% spirits, which is what "even split" uses. If your crowd skews casual, tilt toward beer and wine; if you're building a cocktail-forward bar, shift more of the total toward spirits. You can switch the mix above and watch the quantities change.
Should I buy extra, and where?
Yes — we add a small buffer, but running out is worse than a few leftover bottles. Buy from a store with a return policy on sealed bottles (many liquor stores offer this for events) so anything unopened goes back. Chill beer and white wine the day before.
How much ice and how many cups will I need?
Plan on about 1.5 lbs of ice per guest (more in summer or for a cocktail bar), and 2–3 cups or glasses per guest since people set them down and grab fresh ones. The calculator estimates both for your headcount, along with mixers and citrus garnishes.
Planning your day-of schedule too? Try our free wedding timeline generator to build a wedding day timeline you can text to your wedding party — find the right words with the free wedding vow generator, word the invitations with our wedding invitation wording generator, or point guests at your wedding website with the free wedding QR code generator. Not sure of your guest count yet? The free wedding RSVP deadline calculator dates every reply-by deadline and turns your invite list into the headcount this page needs. And if the question is what the bar should cost rather than what to buy, the free wedding budget calculator prices the bar in dollars alongside the other eleven categories — this page turns that budget into bottles.
Bar sorted. Now the
guest list runs itself.
Text My Wedding collects RSVPs, addresses and dinner picks by text — so your final headcount for that bar order is always dead accurate.