Wedding Alcohol Calculator: How Much to Buy

The good news about wedding planning is that many costs can be fixed for a wedding. But in order to get a better sense of your final total, you’ll need to put on your wedding planner hat and do a bit of extra work—including figuring out how to calculate alcohol needs for your wedding.

But don’t worry; we’ve got you covered! Read on for everything you need to know to calculate how much alcohol you’ll need for your wedding (including a wedding alcohol calculator to make things easy), as well as what to do with any leftovers.

Wedding alcohol calculator

The best way to figure out exactly how much alcohol you need for your wedding day is to use our wedding alcohol calculator. Start by entering the number of guests, then enter the number of hours drinks will be served. Next, decide if you will have a champagne toast. Finally, determine the ratio of alcohol types. Then, Zola will show you a chart with exactly what you need, including quantity and cost per alcohol type, as well as total price overall!

While this wedding alcohol calculator will give you a great starting point, the figures are based on average costs of:

• $50 per bottle of champagne
• $14 per bottle of wine
• $22 per 750/ml bottle of liquor
• $19 per case of beer

Depending on your overall wedding budget, you may also opt for more expensive or cheaper brands than above. So—you might want to copy-paste the table to a Google Sheet or Excel file and adjust the numbers to fit your crowd.

Other costs to consider

Don't forget the other costs involved that go along with serving alcohol at your wedding. Those include the cost of:

• Bartender
• Mixers
• Garnishes like lemon or lime
• Specialty or disposable glassware

Looking for a bartender, caterer or venue that provides bar services? Find your perfect match in our vendor marketplace.

Questions to help determine the amount of alcohol you need

When will alcohol be served?

Some couples greet their guests with a spritzer, schedule a cocktail hour, offer a toast, and then have an open bar. Others simply provide a toast (with a bottle of champagne) and a cash bar at their wedding reception. Knowing when alcohol service begins and ends can help you determine how much—and what kind—you’ll need to add to your shopping list.

How do your guests like their drinks?

Taking note of who will attend and what their preferences are is helpful. If your loved ones are non-drinkers or light drinkers, you can have a pared-down alcohol list (as well as plenty of non-alcoholic options). Maybe if you have wedding guests who love wine, you can offer sparkling wine or red wine at the wedding bar. However, if your crowd includes connoisseurs with expensive tastes or heavy drinkers, you may need to offer higher-quality drinks—and more of them.

How long is your reception?

A wedding with a cocktail hour and a three-hour long reception will need more alcohol than a simple two-hour-long dinner. Determining how long you will serve drinks is a significant factor in calculating how much you’ll require.

What time is your wedding?

Alcohol needs for a brunch wedding differ from those of an evening wedding, which could go late into the night. Mimosas and bloody marys are perfect, scalable drinks for a daytime event.

However, cocktails and higher-proof beverages are a better fit for a nighttime affair. Even the season can come into play. For example, folks may consume more decadent drinks in the winter and lighter ones in the summer heat.

Which type of bar are you having?

• Cash bar: Alcohol is served at a cash bar wedding. Guests are less likely to splurge and get multiple drinks if they’re footing the bill themselves.
• Open bar: An open bar wedding is the opposite of a dry wedding, and your guest list can access the full bar without cost. Your alcohol needs will be greatest with this type of bar service.
• Limited open bar: An open bar means the host is footing the bill. However, with a limited bar, the options are limited to beer and wine only.
• Dry wedding: Not everyone has alcohol at a wedding. With a dry wedding, your alcohol cost is nonexistent. However, you may want to splurge on a nice, specialty alcohol-free drink for your toast.

What types of alcohol will you serve?

Choosing the type of bar will also help predict your alcohol needs. The more variety you offer, the more bottles you’ll have to purchase. A wide selection could result in partially open bottles of vodka and that random smoked bourbon that wasn’t received well.

Limiting your choices can help you hone in on what is essential. If your hard liquor is combined with mixers for cocktails (like vodka and cranberry juice or rum and ginger ale), go for good drinks instead of splurging on the expensive stuff.

Check out our article on creating the ultimate wedding alcohol list to help you hone in on exactly what kind of alcohol you’ll serve.

How large are your glasses?

If you want to finagle a bit, go for smaller glasses. Doing so will lessen the number of times people head to the bar for drinks. Consequently, it will also cut down on drink waste.

How to calculate alcohol needs for your wedding

The quickest and easiest way to calculate how much alcohol you need for your wedding is to use our wedding alcohol calculator! The next best thing to do is talk to whoever is providing your bar service. Your caterer, venue, or bartender will be able to guide you along the way with what you need. Most bar services offer wedding alcohol packages to guide you.

However, there are a few simple calculations you can do on your own to determine the quantity.

1. Use a simple wedding alcohol calculator formula

The typical school of thought is to plan one drink per hour per guest. Say you want to calculate how much alcohol for a wedding of 150 for a two-hour reception. That would equal 300 drinks throughout your event. Of course, this number is just an average. You will have some guests who drink one and others who drink three.

2. Break your quantity down into types of alcohol

Knowing the types of beverages your guests prefer is truly helpful when determining quantity. For example, how many wine bottles, bottles of liquor, or cases of craft beer will you need for your guests? Will you need champagne for a toast?

For a full open bar, estimate the quantity to be 50 percent wine, 30 percent liquor, and 20 percent beer consumption. If you’re only serving beer and wine, it’s common to calculate the percentages to be 75 percent wine and 25 percent beer. When using an alcohol amount calculator, you’ll want to have estimates of each type of alcohol in mind first as well.

3. Know the servings per bottle and per case

Here are common measurements for what each bottle will approximately serve:

• Wine: Five servings per bottle and 12 bottles per case; also 60 servings per case
• Beer: One serving per bottle and 24 bottles per case; also 165 servings per keg
• Champagne toast: Eight servings per bottle
• Hard liquor: 18 mixed cocktails per 750 ml bottle

4. Consider the whole cocktail

A fully stocked bar will include a few types of hard liquor, but that’s not all. After determining how much liquor you need and which types, don’t forget to think about everything else that goes into a cocktail. Sour mix, juices, soda, and garnishes should also be factored in.

5. Finally, do the math

Let’s say your wedding has 150 guests. Calculations for determining how much alcohol is needed for a wedding with 150 guests are relatively simple. For 150 guests at a two-hour reception with a full open bar, you will need 300 servings of alcohol.

Here’s an example of how to break it down, no wedding alcohol calculator necessary!

• Wine: If fifty percent of the alcohol is wine, that equals 150 servings of wine. At 60 servings per case (make sure to confirm how many bottles of wine are in each case before you purchase!), that would be two-and a half cases of wine. Of course, there are several varieties of wine, such as red wine, white wine, and rosé. Therefore determine your needs based on preference and what foods you will serve.
• Hard liquor: If thirty percent of the alcohol is liquor, that equals 90 servings. At 18 servings per bottle (the standard size is 750ml), that is five bottles of liquor. How you break it down is up to you. Having one bottle of each of the five usual liquors (gin, vodka, whiskey, tequila, rum) may not be enough. Therefore, you may need to double up.
• Beer: If twenty percent of the booze is beer, that’s 60 servings. Since a case serves 24, you will need three cases and have some to spare. A keg may be a bit too much if your guest count is at 150.

If you overestimate with our wedding alcohol calculator, some liquor stores will let you return unopened bottles after your wedding day. Check with your local store to confirm. Also, check state laws to see if giving away extras to your guests to take home is legally allowed.

Wedding alcohol calculator FAQs

A keg serves how many?

If you buy a keg, you'll get 15.5 gallons, which is equivalent to 165 servings in 12oz cans. If you'll serve beer at your wedding, on keg serves guest list of 40 people with four cans of beer each, or a guest list of 80 people with two cans of beer each.

A fifth of alcohol is how many liters?

A fifth of alcohol is a bottle size for wine and liquor that used to be popular in the US. It’s one-fifth of a gallon or about 757 ml. Nowadays, most bottles are 750 ml, which is about a fifth. They call it a metric fifth because it’s based on the metric system.