Wedding reception drinks

Ponster

The good news - I'm getting married !

The bad news- now we have to sot out the unromantic nitty gritty details.


The place we're using doesn't have a bar so we have to calculate not only how much wine to provide with the meal but also how much 'drink' to lay on for the 'afters', the rest of the evening.

Our guests are a mix of Irish and British with some Americans and a handful of French. Age range from 5 - 73 with the majority falling in the 25 - 40 range.

The reception, early September Paris region, will start with champange and nibbles late afternoon / early evening. There will be red and white wine with the meal (possibly 4 courses). Then it's the free for all, dancing /party bit which could go on to the wee small hours.

On average everyone get's 1/3 bottle of white and 1/2 bottle of red wine.

#1 What drinks (beer, cider, spirits, wine) would you expect to be on offer ?

#2 How much do you think you'd drink / we should calculate per person ?

Nuttzz

first off, Commiserations of course I mean Congratulations.

I'd say 2 lagers (bug & henieken), the black stuff, an ale (kilkeeny?), standard "house" red and white, vodka, a scotch & irish whiskey, gin, rum. Alcopops

depending on the kick off time and what if they are swappers i'd be looking at 10 drinks a head.

dont forget the soft drinks (coke, 7up, fanta) for the kiddies

Beruthiel

moved to Food/Drink
B

Merrion

Most big off-licenses will let you have wine on a sale-or-return deal whereby if it isn't opened they won't charge you for it. This works for this kind of shindig.

Ponster

Wine is provided by the place where we're having the thing. 12€ per person for a bottle per person + water & coffee or it's a 2.50€ charge PER PERSON if we bring our own.

With 120 guests and wine at about 5/6€ we may end up doing that.


The prob is really the drinks. It has to be a free bar and I have to make sure I have enough without buying too much. I'd love to try and hire kegs/taps as pallets of cans isn't my idea of a wedding

Nuttzz

www.brewcrew.ie is an Irish operation however they may have contacts over there, i'd give them a call. A keg is €230 FYI

Ponster

Nuttzz, that's a mighty fine site. I think I know others in Ireland that'll be glad of that link !

the_syco

Merrion wrote:

Most big off-licenses will let you have wine on a sale-or-return deal whereby if it isn't opened they won't charge you for it. This works for this kind of shindig.

***WARNING***
Some hotels have a "habit" of opening all the wine... I've known a few weddings to be fuxxored when the guests only drink 2 bottles, but the hotel opens up the other 20... :mad:

Search boards.ie for similair cases (no pun intended), to save yourself alot of stress.

Ponster

No prob there the_syco as it's a different system in France. You pay per person and then it doesn't matter how many bottles are opened or not.

I have known places to sell wine back to the guests that wasn't finished durning the meal !

MojoMaker

I catered a wedding in France 3 years ago. Approx 90 adult guests, mainly Irish/Brits with some French and some Americans, so I've a fair idea how it all works out. I bought way too much booze and had loads left over. If people are having fun they think lessabout drinking and once the meal is over and people are up dancing they tend to drink less. Almost nobody touched any of the spirits for example.

25 slabs of 1664 33's - think they were about €8 each. No other lager or beer of any kind. Everyone drinks Lager on holidays! We brought home (as in the apartment, not Ireland) about 10 slabs unopened and had about 2wks of parties afterwards. Basically the cocktail reception (included in the meal price - which was €52 btw, for 7 courses buffet style) got everyone twisted before dinner even started

2 x Whiskey 1L
5 x Vodka 1L
2 x Bacardi 1L
2 x Gin 1L

Spirits were about €10 each.

Wine with dinner: 30 Red, 20 White, 20 Rosé. Again, plenty left over for me to take home. Wine worked out about €6 a bottle and they did not charge corkage (weren't able to because the Chateau could not provide bar facilities of its own).

Total spend was about €700 at the time - all bought in the local Carrefour. Wine was excellent, local to the region where we held the wedding, Bandol near Marseille. It was an mixed indoor and outdoor wedding and the beer was served up in big "bins" for want of a better word, full of ice. You just rocked up, grabbed what you wanted, and the empty was in the adjoining container out of sight before you could say "christ this beer is cold and refreshing". I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about this method of serving at a wedding but it worked out a treat. Just in case you're wondering it was a definite D4 wedding and the older horsey set (who had to be invited) had no problem with iced beer being poured from cans outside on the terrace. Maybe it was the whole foreign country element but it just worked.

Biggest lesson: you will have stuff left over and it's no bad thing. Wine in particular makes a great gift in France and there'll surely be a couple of days after in which to enjoy any leftovers. Don't bother all that much with spirits, in warm weather your biggest draw will be ice cold G&T's but little or no demand for whiskey, rum, or Baileys.

People adapt to the circumstances they are presented with. You cannot cater to everyone's taste, all you can do is provide a cross section such as above. Remember at a free bar nobody gives a hoot and will compliment you all night and for the rest of the year simply because you laid on a free bar at all.

Victor

Of course, if it's in France, buy everything there for a relative fraction of the price, although getting Guinness on draught there may be an issue.

Try hooking up with an Irish bar.

Ponster

MojoMaker, I couldn't have hoped for a better reply !

Some people are telling me that I should have a 1000 500ml cans and others are saying not even half that. The whole thought of running out of drink is frightening but your comment of

Remember at a free bar nobody gives a hoot and will compliment you all night and for the rest of the year simply because you laid on a free bar at all.

is probably very true. At least It's how I'd feel if someone invited me to France for a wedding and I found out that it was an open bar
I had thought of kegs and stuff but it's much more expensive and harder to sort out for the day.


We'll be having a cocktail reception (champers/punch) and then on to the meal with about a bottle of wine per person. I really don't see people going crazy on 10 cans after that!

It was an mixed indoor and outdoor wedding and the beer was served up in big "bins" for want of a better word, full of ice. You just rocked up, grabbed what you wanted, and the empty was in the adjoining container out of sight before you could say "christ this beer is cold and refreshing". I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about this method of serving at a wedding but it worked out a treat. Just in case you're wondering it was a definite D4 wedding and the older horsey set (who had to be invited) had no problem with iced beer being poured from cans outside on the terrace. Maybe it was the whole foreign country element but it just worked.

This is the bit that worried me. The whole idea of serving cans at a wedding! But like you we're having an outdoor/indoor thingy and it should still be about 20°C at 9pm in early Sept so maybe people will accept the differences as being a 'foreign country element' Where did you get the 'bins' ?

Ponster

Victor wrote:

Of course, if it's in France, buy everything there for a relative fraction of the price, although getting Guinness on draught there may be an issue.

Try hooking up with an Irish bar.

Am doing so tonight. I'm hoping to get what I need in the supermarkets. Even the one beside me is damn cheap as compared to Ireland. But I was hoping that I could get some stuff from the bar at trade price and they'd buy back the left- overs

Victor

Actually, I suspect most, save the most hardcore Dubs would be perfectly happy with free Stella over must-pay-for Guinness.

I think the idea is that the tinny is poured into a glass - no tinnies in the wedding photos. :eek:

Ponster

OK.....1 week left until the wedding and this is how things are looking :

Wine ( about a bottle of wine per person, red and/or white) for the meal
Beer ( 15 kegs of Heineken)
Various ciders & spirits


If you haven't already seen the Heineken kegs then check them out on their site. €15 for 19-odd pints. Party-kegs as opposed to the pub ones.



http://www.heineken.com

Bateman

Wonderbar are another company that are currently advertising drinks catering facilties for events. But buying in the supermarket sounds the way forward, the savings sound fairly substantial.