Rock My Wedding
wedding day drinks - a guide to servings
22.11.2021

Wedding Day Drinks

Written by Lorna Shaw
Photography by Salsabil Morrison Photography

How much wine do I need to order?

The big question! Let’s break this down into a few basic rules which should make this easier and less stressful.

– One bottle of wine = 5 serves
– One case of wine = 12 bottles (so 60 serves per case)
– One 750ml bottle of spirits or liqueur = 30 standard shots (25ml each)
– One bottle of beer = 1 serve
– Allow 2 glasses of sparkling wine per guest for welcome drinks, 1 per guest for toasts.
– If serving only beer and wine, plan for 20% beer, 80% wine.
– For a full bar, allow 20% spirits, 15% beer, 65% wine.

A safe approach is to allow for 1 serve per guest per hour of the reception. Some guests will drink more, some will drink less but this should be more than enough. All wine should be ordered on ‘sale or return’ so that you can take back unopened cases to your wine merchant if you have any leftovers.

So for 100 guests for a ceremony at 3 pm and reception ending at midnight (7 hours of service of alcohol) allow 700 serves to be applied as:

– 140 beers (20%)
– 560 serves of wine (80%) which is 112 bottles so order 10 cases for 120 bottles to be safe.

The wine order should be split between sparkling, white and red according to the choices you have made for your menu.

A guide to wedding drink servings by Rock My Wedding

Written by

Lorna Shaw