How much alcohol for 50, 100, 150 or 200 wedding guests?
For 100 guests, this example plans 440 alcoholic servings: buy 176 beers, 36 bottles of wine and 6 bottles of liquor. That assumes 80 guests drink alcohol, a five-hour bar, one drink per drinker per hour, a 40% beer / 40% wine / 20% liquor split and a 10% buffer. Change those assumptions above before ordering.
| Wedding guests | Planned servings | Beer cans / bottles | Wine bottles | Liquor bottles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 guests | 220 | 88 | 18 | 3 |
| 100 guests | 440 | 176 | 36 | 6 |
| 150 guests | 660 | 264 | 53 | 9 |
| 200 guests | 880 | 352 | 71 | 11 |
All four rows use 355 mL beers, 750 mL wine bottles with five 150 mL pours, and 750 mL liquor bottles with sixteen full 45 mL pours. Singles are allowed; there is no separate champagne toast. Bottle rounding adds a little capacity beyond the planned servings. Mixers, ice, water and soft drinks appear in your live shopping list.
How this wedding drink calculator works
First, multiply the guest count by the drinking percentage and round up to a whole person. Multiply those drinkers by the first-hour pace plus the pace for later hours. A half-hour bar uses half of the first-hour rate; zero hours means no bar drinks. The default one drink per hour is an editable stock-planning assumption, not a survey average or a recommended amount to drink.
Apply the safety buffer once and round up the total servings. If a toast is selected, reserve one sparkling pour per drinker plus its buffer within that total. Split the remaining servings by your beer, wine and liquor percentages. Whole servings are allocated by largest fractional remainder, so the categories add up exactly.
For wine, liquor and champagne, divide bottle size by pour size and round down to full pours. Then divide required servings by full pours per bottle and round bottles up. A 750 mL liquor bottle provides 16 full 45 mL pours, so this wedding liquor calculator buys 6 bottles for 88 cocktails. It does not assume the leftover 30 mL makes another full cocktail.
Mixers follow planned cocktails at 150 mL each. Water starts at 0.25 L per guest per hour. Soft drinks start at 0.25 L per non-drinker per hour and 0.1 L per drinker per hour, with alcohol-free toast pours added when selected. Ice starts at 1 kg per guest for serving and chilling. The buffer also applies to these supplies; mixers already inherit it from the cocktail count. These are editable allowances, so use your venue's quantities and your cocktail recipes when available.
Does champagne count twice?
No. For the same 100-guest example with a toast, the 440 planned servings become 88 sparkling pours and 352 bar drinks: 141 beer, 141 wine and 70 liquor. Buy 141 beers, 29 wine bottles, 5 liquor bottles and 13 champagne bottles at the default sizes. The other 20 guests get alcohol-free toast pours in the soft-drink allowance. A toast-only event still covers one pour per drinker even when the bar duration is zero.
Can I serve only beer and wine?
Yes. Choose the beer-and-wine preset for an even split, then change the percentages to suit your guests. Liquor and cocktail mixers fall to zero. For an alcohol-free wedding, set the drinking percentage to zero; the calculator still supplies water, soft drinks and ice.
Should I buy bottles or full cases?
The default list uses full cases plus singles. For example, 176 beers means seven 24-packs plus eight single cans, not seven cases alone. Switch on whole-case buying if your supplier sells only cases. The quantities and budget both increase to the actual case purchase. Check the supplier's pack sizes and return policy before ordering.
How do I budget for the bar?
Enter your own prices for the chosen bottle sizes, mixers, water, soft drinks and ice. The budget multiplies each purchase quantity by its unit price, including whole-case rounding. Blank prices remain visibly unpriced. Staff, corkage, tax, rentals, garnishes and delivery need separate lines in your wedding budget.
Can I print or share the shopping list?
Download the PDF for a printable checklist, export the CSV to a spreadsheet, or copy the list into a message to your caterer. Exports include your assumptions and any prices you enter. Everything runs in your browser without a login; download your list before closing the page.
Finish the reception plan
Use the wedding seating chart to confirm your guest count, make printable table numbers, and build a wedding playlist around the reception schedule. You can find the rest in our free wedding planning tools.
By Samudra · WeddingPhoto App · Updated November 1, 2026