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Wedding alcohol calculator

Work out the drinks for the cocktail hour, dinner and dancing, the champagne toast and your signature cocktails, then print the shopping list.

Step 1

Guests and timeline

How long each part of the day keeps the bar open.

About 85% at most weddings.

5 hours of bar service in all.

Step 2

The bar

What the bartenders pour, and how the drinks split.

Bar type

Beer, wine and liquor, with signature cocktails if you add them.

Adds up to 100%.

The other 50% is white.

Warm days need more ice.

Step 3

Champagne toast

Counted for every guest, apart from the dinner wine.

3 oz (90 ml) fills a flute for the toast.

Step 4

Signature cocktails

Up to two, batched from a real recipe so the bar pours them fast.

Type two letters of a cocktail, or pick a wedding favorite.

Wedding favorites

Free recipes from the library, ready to batch.

How the wedding bar is planned

Drinks by phase
Two drinks per drinking guest in the first hour of the bar, then one an hour. That is a planning rule, not a limit. The cocktail hour opens the bar, so it pours the most per hour.
Bar types
A full bar starts at 50% wine, 30% beer and 20% liquor, and beer and wine at 60% wine. On a full bar, the share you set of liquor drinks are signature cocktails; where they are the only liquor, all of them are.
Bottles and cases
Beer rounds up to cans and 24-can cases. Wine rounds up to 750 ml bottles of five 5 oz (150 ml) pours, liquor to bottles of sixteen 1.5 oz (45 ml) pours, split 30% vodka, 25% whiskey and 15% each rum, gin and tequila. A case holds 12 bottles.
Champagne toast
One pour for every guest, 3 oz (90 ml) unless you change it. A 750 ml bottle holds 25.4 oz, so it fills eight toasts.
Signature cocktails
The batch cocktail calculator scales the recipe to the servings, undiluted, to pour over ice. Spirits, liqueurs and wine round up to 750 ml bottles; juice, syrup and soda to a tenth of a liter. “Top up” ingredients go in by the glass.
Mixers, ice and water
Six ounces of mixer for every house liquor pour, 1.5 pounds of ice per guest (15% less on a cool day, 25% more on a warm one), a bottle of water per guest every two hours, and soft drinks for non-drinkers plus half a drink per guest.
Sources
The party drink and batch cocktail calculators’ tested formulas, the NIST US fluid ounce (29.5735 ml), and recipes from the Fix Me a Drink library.
Drink responsibly
Keep food, water and zero-proof drinks out all night, and plan rides home for every guest.

Plan the rest of the bar

Setting the timeline? Read how long cocktail hour lasts at a wedding. For a smaller party, the party drink calculator does the same sums without the phases.

Batch a drink with your own dilution and containers in the batch cocktail calculator, print drink tickets for a limited bar, and set the cocktails out with a signature drink sign.

Frequently asked questions

For a 5-hour full bar with 85% of guests drinking, plan about 7 cases of beer, 52 bottles of wine, 7 bottles of liquor and 12 bottles of sparkling wine for the toast.

It splits the drinks: about 50% wine, 20% liquor and 30% beer. The calculator starts a full bar there, and you can change the split for your crowd.

A 750 ml bottle pours 8 toasts of 3 oz. That is 3 bottles for 25 guests and 12 bottles for 100.

A 750 ml bottle pours five 5 oz glasses. With wine as half the drinks, 100 guests over 5 hours need about 52 bottles, split between red and white as you set.

Wedding cocktails to batch

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