Wedding & Event Alcohol, Beverage & Catering Ice Calculator

How Much Alcohol and Food to Order for Your Wedding

Running out of drinks at your own wedding is a special kind of horror — and overbuying by hundreds of dollars is the quieter tragedy. Caterers have converged on one reliable rule: plan about one drink per guest per hour for the first two hours, then roughly one per hour after, since pace slows once dinner starts. A five-hour reception for 100 guests therefore needs around 400–450 drinks. That single estimate, adjusted for your crowd (a young party crowd drinks more; a brunch wedding, far less), prevents both disasters. Write the number down before you shop: walking into a liquor store without a target is how “just in case” becomes three extra cases.

Translating “drinks” into bottles is where the math earns its keep. A standard 750 ml wine bottle pours about five 5-ounce glasses. A 750 ml spirits bottle yields roughly sixteen 1.5-ounce shots — cocktails stretch further since mixers do half the work. A half-barrel keg holds about 165 twelve-ounce beers. The classic split for mixed crowds is roughly 50% wine, 30% beer, 20% spirits, shifting toward beer for casual outdoor weddings and toward wine for formal dinners. Always round up on the total and keep receipts: unopened bottles from most liquor stores go back.

Food follows the same “per guest plus buffer” logic. Plated dinners are precise — order exactly headcount plus 5% for vendor meals and surprises. Buffets need 10–15% extra because guests serve themselves generously and popular dishes run out first. Late-night snacks (sliders, fries, pizza) have become the beloved insurance policy against a dance floor running on empty. And the golden rule caterers whisper: it is always cheaper to slightly over-order food than to under-order alcohol — guests forgive abundance, never scarcity. A modest dessert table can stretch a tight food budget gracefully; there is no graceful version of an empty bar.