How Much Drinks

Milly33

Hello, I know there was a mention of this before but I cannot seem to find the thread so maybe tis an old one.

Anywho, just thought it might be handy to hear "How Much Drink" was enough at a self catering wedding or warty as I like to call it.:)

For places that you would have to stock the bar yourself, or for home weddings.. How do you judge how much drink is enough!!

All suggestions welcome thanks

berrecka

How many people are you having? Is this additional to wine, bubbles or other cocktails? How long will people be buying booze? I'd say make sure you have kegs of lager and stout, bottles or a keg of cider (depending on time if year), bottles of white and red wine, spirits like vodka, gin, rum, whiskey, and mixers. Then maybe some shots like jager, sambucca and tequila

Milly33

We are planning to have mayb around 120.

I suppose it would be more for the wine, beer and bubbles. For the other drinks I was planning maybe on getting like
6 bottle of vodka
5 Bacardi
5 Gin
4 Jamesons maybe or 5

It is the wine and beer that has me stuck... How many kegs to get and how much wine...

Then just have tequila and some other nice shots homemade ones...

amdublin

Have you decided if you are doing a free bar or not Milly? And who is doing bar tender?

Sounds like a very messy night tbh...

Milly33

No we are going to do paid bar everything €3 so all the same price, and we are going to get two locals who do the bar all the time to take care of that side.. Not messy really, the only thing is planning how much we need..

amdublin

Sounds like you've got it all organised! Except for volumes.

I mean messy as in a lot of drink - at a cheap price. If it was my wedding I'd not be serving tequila and shots (at €3). Messy.

PhoenixParker

There are a few guides on US websites for calculating it up.
Basically estimate a number of drinks/hour/person and multiply it up.

This one is pretty typical:

http://www.bescatering.com/calculating-alcohol/

I'd probably round up a bit for an Irish crowd. Also the bar staff you're hiring may have a better feel for it.
When you're buying the drink try to get it on sale or return. That way you can bring back anything that's not opened.

6 bottles of vodka sounds a bit skimpy to me for 120 people.

Milly33

Uhh thanks Phoenix will try it out!! Great, see this is it I was saying six he was saying three so really were like how much..

I was quite surprised to see the local bar does supply and say that they will take back anything not used, but then underneath there is an extra 20% charged to do this, so really you aren't saving anything..

Do you mean messy as in a lot of drunk people amdublin? sorry still lost haha.. Well we don't want to put extra cost on people again tis great that they are making the effort to come to our day, so we feel that we do not want them to be worried about the cost of this and the cost of that...

Milly33

Oh man that is a lot of ratios and estimates in that site Phoenix my brian is boggled already

amdublin

Milly33 wrote: »

Do you mean messy as in a lot of drunk people amdublin? sorry still lost haha.. Well we don't want to put extra cost on people again tis great that they are making the effort to come to our day, so we feel that we do not want them to be worried about the cost of this and the cost of that...

Yes that is what I mean

I really like your thought process behind you doing it - just be careful! But if you have proper bar tenders you should be grand

Milly33

Ah sure I am with you now Ted haha sorry a bit slow on the uptake.. Yeah we were kinda worried about that too but I think whoever is going to take the piss will do it either way so they will be fine, and yep the two bar man should know what they are doing.. Planning on given lots of options too for non alco drinks or less alco drinks.. It is nice to take it easy on the booze and I think most don't because the options of coke or coffee but if we have like nice sparkling drinks and things it might go down well

Sleepy

Milly33 wrote: »

We are planning to have mayb around 120.

I suppose it would be more for the wine, beer and bubbles. For the other drinks I was planning maybe on getting like
6 bottle of vodka
5 Bacardi
5 Gin
4 Jamesons maybe or 5

It is the wine and beer that has me stuck... How many kegs to get and how much wine...

Then just have tequila and some other nice shots homemade ones...

Based on working behind a bar a couple of nights a month, I'd go with the following... Adjust depending on how late you plan to serve and what your family/friends drink, for about 8 hours I reckon you'd be fine with:

3/4 kegs of lager,
1/2 kegs of Guinness
3/4 crates of Bulmers Pint Bottles
6 litre bottles of vodka should be plenty
I'd be surprised if you got through a single bottle of Bacardi, almost everyone's moved onto Capt Morgan so maybe 1 Bacardi & 3/4 Morgans
5 large Gin (don't forget lemons and load of tonic, G&T is hugely popular at weddings)
2/3 large bottles Jameson
1 bottle of Brandy

Maybe reduce the lager by a keg if you wanted to get a few crates of other brand lager by the bottle (e.g. get Heineken kegs then cases of Coors Light & Budweiser in bottles)

For 120 people we got 80 bottles of wine and had plenty left over but we were just covering enough to get through the meal. Get more white than red as many women will stay on the white wine for the night whereas men tend to move away from wine onto pints (if they even have the wine at all).

If the crowd are mainly local and drink in the pub the barmen usually work at, ignore my advice completely and ask them to take care of it

Whatever way it pans out, you'll have leftovers but that's probably better than running out!

Milly33

Thanks Sleepy!! jes I didn't even think of Brandy and that's what my nan drinks whoops... Dito with the Gin & Tonic and ill get nice tonic too has to be schweppes tonic and nice lemon ohh I have a taste for it now..

Yeah I was a little shocked at the local place supply it to be honest, there seems to be chargers stuck on everywhere. We wouldn't be local but I would prefer to give it back to the locals but at his prices it would be a no.. There is a surcharge of 20% for stuff that you give back unopened was one, then there is a surcharge on kegs of €30 but you do get this back.. Lots of sneaky things even the standard bottles of beer is cheaper to buy over the Christmas than tis there..

Markcheese

We just did bottles of lager, red and white wine ... In vast quantities , a few people went and got their own shorts and stuff at a nearby off licence ... No drama there ...
If you want the name of the guy who supplied us in ( cork ) just pm me..... Unbelievably good deal..

jlm29

If you talk to a local off license, or a small supermarket, you should be able to get your alcohol on a sale or return basis anyhow. Better have too much than to run out in the middle of proceedings!

Sleepy

Any decenet off-license will give you sale or return. O' Briens will also give you loyalty points for the spend - kept me in beer and Mrs. Sleepy in gin for a few months after the wedding!

Like markcheese said though, I wouldn't feel under any pressure to get kegs in (they're quite an expensive way to buy beer). Crates of bottles (or cans of draught guinness for the real sticklers) would give you more flexibility on having a bit of a selection while also being cheaper.

One thing that might be worth investigating would be contacting some local brewery e.g. Galway Bay Brewery / Kinnegar etc. or the equivalent about buying a few kegs wholesale. The beer is generally better quality and, I'm told, cheaper to buy by the keg than the likes of Heineken/Bud etc. It would be a great talking point for the day for guests and major cool points for your groom if he and his mates are into craft beers

Milly33

Thank ye for all the replies these are great. We will have to sit down and go through the list then of whats what, and who will be drinking what..

We are hopefully going to have a bit of home brew there too so this may save us if we run out.

With the local the price list I got was from the local bar, who gets it from the local supplier so that's why I was surprised he seems quite pricey really and again there is an extra charge for everything even returns they offer that, but with 20% extra. So Im like right again another way to fleech..

O briens aren't in the good books at the moment but will keep them in mind, alright... Thanks again to all

PhoenixParker

Don't forget you can use one to negotiate with the other.
Your local place aren't going to want to lose the money from your wedding.
Find somewhere that'll do it without the 20% charge, then threaten to move.

Milly33

Get all like nasty with them god I hope his not an old man cus then im a sucker and ill just give him the money for nothing haha

MarieOC

I don't know if your close to Kells but we got our wine from a guy down there who has a DIY wine making place.

You go in make it, he stores it for you and then after 4-6 weeks you go back and bottle it. I was skeptical but it's really nice, he let us taste a good few types before deciding what one we wanted to make.

He lets you design your own labels too so you can personalise however you want.

Ours worked out at €4.50 a bottle.

Sleepy

Honestly, I'd be steering clear of the local bar for pricing. Vintners aren't known to be shy about charging high mark-ups.

If I was doing the bar for my own function I'd be haggling with an off-licence, getting a load of bottles / cans in and either asking guests to chuck in a euro per drink or just covering the cost myself and either doing self-service or hiring a couple of young lads for €50/60 to "tend" bar.

Milly33

I heard about the chap in Kells, was he wine nice then MarieOC? We were looking at it alright my mum passed the message on about him but then thought darn we kinda screwed if anything went wrong with the vino in the process. would we be just saver getting from a shop... Himself does the home brew beer so I suppose that is where we were coming from, 9 times out of 10 it is perfect but chancing it in mass volumes for the big day don't know we felt a bit dodgy about it

MarieOC

We've it beewing at the moment going back down to bottle and collect in a few weekends. We get to taste all the batches again before bottling. If something goes wrong he says he doesn't charge you, but it's never happened apparently.

The ones we tasted were all lovely, depending on which you choose they take 4-6 weeks to brew and then about the same again in the bottle to settle. They are good for 2 years then.

I'd say if you decide to go for it do it in good time n that way if anything does go wrong you've plenty of time to go back to plan b.