Which drinks should you choose and in what quantities for planning your wedding?

Whether you’re organizing your wedding yourself or going through a caterer, the question of how many bottles of drinks you’ll need may arise. Indeed, working with a caterer doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t plan your own champagne or wine. For my own wedding, we negotiated a corkage fee with our caterer, since a member of my family supplied champagnes and wines. This negotiation will often allow you to have better champagne and wine at prices more or less comparable to what your caterer will charge you (corkage included—and not necessarily having a supplier in the family ;) ), but it will require some extra organization on your part. We go through the topic here. 

For the reception or the cocktail hour, which drinks should you choose and in what quantities?

What would a wedding be without bubbles ? The reception or cocktail hour generally lasts two to three hours. This is when the champagne comes out. Note: champagne isn’t a must—very good sparkling wine can do the trick. Having champagne rather than sparkling wine can be a matter of prestige, but be aware that a very good sparkling wine can absolutely pass for it and will help bring the bill down! As a rule of thumb, plan 1 bottle of champagne for 3 guests. It’s up to you to adjust (or not;) ) depending on your loved ones’ habits and how much you want to get the party going. Also know that this is generally when consumption is the highest of the day for the guests who stay all day. The later it gets, the less guests will drink, because they’ll be full and will also want to stay sober enough to get home.

Plan for red wine and white wine. Even if bubbles are still the stars of the reception, some will prefer to switch to wine. In that case, count one bottle of red for 4 guests (which corresponds to 2 glasses per bottle per person) and one bottle of white for 6 guests.

You can also plan a punch; in that case you should plan 1 liter of punch for 4 guests.

As for non-alcoholic drinks, be sure to plan for the children too, and enough water (1 liter per person) if the weather is expected to be hot. I’ve already been to a wedding where it was so hot that they ran out of water very quickly at the reception.

Which drinks and what quantities should you plan for our wedding meal ?

For the meal, people generally talk about wine and water. You’ll choose the wine based on the dishes. Don’t hesitate to ask for advice on food-and-wine pairing, by the way. Plan 2 glasses per course—knowing that a bottle of wine makes 8 glasses, that corresponds to 1 bottle of wine for 4 people per course. For dessert, plan a glass of bubbles or a glass of sweet white wine per guest.

Which drinks and what quantities for my wedding evening ?

This is an important decision to make. On the one hand you want a good atmosphere during the evening; on the other, you don’t want your loved ones to be too far gone, which would ruin the evening and put them at risk on the way home. The “soft” option would be to provide only wine and beer. A keg of beer, or even a special beer as a nice touch, would be a plus to spare you from managing empty bottles afterwards, but it will require a setup before the wedding and someone who knows how to pour from the tap (or the beer dispenser for our French friends). It will also be time to bring out the bubbles that were left over from the reception.

Don’t hesitate to plan more soft drinks, coffee, and perhaps tea as well.

If you want a more boozy evening, you can plan for spirits. Up to you. For my part, we opted for the wine/beer formula with a few bottles of spirits under the bar, for close and responsible friends who were the only ones in the know.

The secret to a successful wedding evening doesn’t necessarily lie in how much alcohol your guests drink, but above all in the quality of the music and the friendliness of your wedding ;).

Final tips

• Don’t hesitate to get advice from professionals on choice and quantity—it’s part of the service that comes with the sale.
• Above all, don’t hesitate to negotiate with your suppliers to take back unopened bottles. This will let you plan for more and avoid running out.
• If you’re handling your own drinks but have a catering service taking care of serving, plan to count the empties (delegate this task), just to make sure that bottles you haven’t consumed don’t disappear with the staff (you’d be surprised what can go missing during a wedding—we even had candlesticks swiped).
• Let the caterer know you’ll be vigilant, and also tell them the quantities planned for each phase.