Alcohol Costs for a wedding

[Bubble*Crazy]

To plan our budget, I was hoping some people can help me out with costs they spent for their weddings (or even engagement parties) on alcohol. Our 'small' wedding LOL has a list of around 120 guests (including several children, pregnant ladies, and non-drinkers) but I'm not sure how to calculate the approximate amount we need, as we are purchasing this ourselves before the day and wouldn't want to run out.

For those willing to share ....

How much did you spend on alcohol and how many guests did you have? (so I can try and work out and average ;)).

Did you have enough? Not enough?

Does anyone know of a decent 'calculator' for working out how much alcohol will be needed for a function on average? ie on average, how many drinks per person do you allow?

[Laksa]

we had about 75 adults at our wedding, we spent $1800 on alcohol and had WAY too much!

[mumma bear]

We had 80 people at the wedding and spent approx $2,000. Not sure on the exact figure as in laws paid.
We had 1 bottle of chamgeign per table for toasts and bottled red & white wine. Also beer and soft drink. Everyone had what they wanted and that covered us from 6pm to 12.30am.

If you are going to a venue i would suggest paying on consumption and not doing a beverage package. I used to work in a function facility and the facility always won when the people purchased a package. Although not if you have heavy drinkers.

[MrsDribbleDrawers]

We spent about $800 (after bulk order discount), 40 adults including known guzzlers, and hardly anyone drank, cause it was a Friday night!! That was for 2doz bottles white wine, 1 doz bottles red wine, 1 doz bottles champagne, ten cartons of light beer (mixed)... We had 1 doz white, 6 bottles champagne, 6 bottles red, and probably five cartons of beer left... which made for a cheap Christmas and New Years!! Not sure how to calculate how much you will need - we took into account ppl known to sit down with a carton if they weren't paying, and still had too much!!

[wantabub]

I run events here in melbourne and I cater for upwards of 50 men! You should average 8 drinks p.p for a 4 hours function from experience

If you want to calculate it with dividing it up by beer/wine/spirits, try dan murpheys website, which is http://www.danmurphys.com.au/

Edit to add! Look under event planner on that site! Also remember to shop around to get the best price from the liquor shops, steer away from buying at the shops attached to your supermarket, they are always more expensive! It is also cheaper to buy the spirits in the 700mL bottle rather then the cans! Another idea is also to mix the champagne with orange juice or pinapple juice it tastes really nice, and allows you to be able to buy a cheaper champagne, yet still taste exotic! For beer depending on what you drink, carlton always seems to be a great drink for the guys, you can pick up a slab for as low as $35.00 in bulk! For beer like corona you would be able to pick up fo $50 a slab! Shop around and you will save! I highly recommend dan murphy's if you have them over in WA!

Have a fun wedding!

[neostudded]

great tips wantabub! i wouldnt have though of that!!:D

[Mrs J]

we had beer, wine and soft drinks we had 130 ppl and we only spent $ 600 we had $ 1000 on it and got the rest back. we also didnt start the bar untll we arrived, were also served scooners of beer as middys ppl will drink faster and more. Good Luck

[Bellas_mummy]

We had 100 people and spent $300 on drinks, woops forgot a zero meant to be $3000. No wonder you thought it was so good bubble crazy :)

[Bubble*Crazy]

Thanks for all the replies, it's great to see the differences. Wish we could get a low alcohol bill like some of you ...


We had 100 people and spent $300 on drinks

Wow! Great going! There's no way we could do that with the guzzlers we have as family and friends LOL


we had beer, wine and soft drinks we had 130 ppl and we only spent $ 600 we had $ 1000 on it and got the rest back. we also didnt start the bar untll we arrived, were also served scooners of beer as middys ppl will drink faster and more. Good Luck

$600 is also great going!



If you want to calculate it with dividing it up by beer/wine/spirits, try dan murpheys website, which is http://www.danmurphys.com.au/

Thank you so much - just what I was looking for!



Also remember to shop around to get the best price from the liquor shops, steer away from buying at the shops attached to your supermarket, they are always more expensive! It is also cheaper to buy the spirits in the 700mL bottle rather then the cans! Another idea is also to mix the champagne with orange juice or pinapple juice it tastes really nice, and allows you to be able to buy a cheaper champagne, yet still taste exotic! For beer depending on what you drink, carlton always seems to be a great drink for the guys, you can pick up a slab for as low as $35.00 in bulk! For beer like corona you would be able to pick up fo $50 a slab! Shop around and you will save! I highly recommend dan murphy's if you have them over in WA!


We don't have a Dan Murphy's where we are, but we can get great rates from a local store (there normal rates are cheaper than everyone else as it is!) so that's not a problem.

Fantastic tips - thank you so much.

[trendy1]

Hi,

We got married in country WA (central wheatbelt area) just over 4 years ago and we had approx 120 guests - the large majority were big heavy drinkers (Bride and groom included) and we had beer, wine (red and white) and soft drinks and spirits for the bridal table and we spent $2400 on drinks and didn't have alot left over. The main advice we got was do not get kegs as so much gets wasted. We did up a list of what we wanted and faxed it to a few different places and our local pub was the cheapest by a fair bit in the end. Definantly shop around as it is amazing how much the price can vary.

Good luck with it all.

[*Chels*]

We had our alcohol in a package as part of the total cost which worked well.We had 40 guests and put down $500 bartab while we were having photos.They got thru $400 of that in about an hour and a half.My advice is DONT do spirits,people just get too messy I reckon.

[Kizmet]

we had 64 people at our wedding and put $1000 on the bar and only went about $20 over! we only had beer wine and soft drinks on the bar with access to spirits for the bridal party but then as the night went on the bridal party including myself started getting spirits for people :laughing:

[Hokey Pokey]

Ours was over 2grand!! DH family and their friends are big drinkers, so the inlaws offered to pay the bill!

[Ashleigh<3]

Ours was over 2grand!! DH family and their friends are big drinkers, so the inlaws offered to pay the bill!

I wish mine would!

80-100 guests. We're looking at 2k as well. lol

[Pinkbug]

I don't know if this could help but my bro when he got married he managed to get a brilliant deal (can't remember how much but..) with alcohol AND receptions.. maybe ur receptions could do the same?? negotiate with receptions and see what u can get??


Good luck!

[Bubble*Crazy]

Thanks for the responses - it's amazing how it can vary ... we would be heading towards the guzzlers end though :laughing: (no way could we get away with $300).

We're having it (hopefully) at our local community hall/centre, so we are having to arrange the food & drinks ourselves (cheaper too). We can buy the alcohol in bulk (cans & stubbies) and that will save in costs.

At this stage I'm thinking $1300-$1400 for the 120 people . The good thing is, we can then return any unused full cartons if need be for a refund :thumbsup:

[julz_06]

We had about !25 people and we had beer, wine and soft drinik and top shelf for the bridal party our bar costs were over $2000 and we already paid for wine in advance :lol: but they drank all that and then some needless to say our family and friends are big drinkers

[InSaneOne]

i have decided on a non-alcoholic wedding. a few in the family will only come if there is free alcohol so dh and i decided that if we don't need alcohol to have a good time then they can come and spend time with us not come to get drunk for free. we will have some wine for toasts but only a couple of bottles. it works out expensive enough to get softdrink for everyone. plus we will have quite a few kids around and i wouldn't put it past them to sneek some.:rolleyes: