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Wedding & Party Alcohol Calculator

Plan beer, wine, and liquor quantities plus ice for a wedding or party based on guest count, drinking rate, and event length — get exact cases and bottles to buy.

When to use this

Use this while planning a wedding, party, or any hosted event with an open bar, to buy roughly the right amount of beer, wine, and liquor rather than guessing.

How it compares

Unlike a generic “one drink per guest per hour” rule of thumb, this calculator accounts for the share of guests who actually drink, a pacing-adjusted hourly rate, and converts the result into exact cases and bottles to buy for each beverage type.

Enter your values below. Calculations run locally as you type.

How it works

Total drinks needed comes from the share of guests who drink, multiplied by the event’s duration and a pacing-adjusted drinks-per-hour rate.

That total is split across beer, wine, and liquor using your chosen percentages (normalized to sum to 100%), then converted into standard serving sizes — 12oz beers, 5oz wine pours, and 1.5oz liquor pours.

Servings are rounded up into whole cases of beer (24 per case), bottles of wine (about 5 glasses per 750ml bottle), and bottles of liquor (about 17 cocktails per 750ml bottle), so you always buy enough rather than running short.

FAQs

Why does drinking pace slow down after the first hour or two?

Guests tend to drink fastest during the first hour or two of an open bar, then taper off as the night goes on. The default rate already reflects this average pacing across a multi-hour event rather than a flat hourly rate.

Should I plan for non-drinking guests by just subtracting them?

You should still budget good non-alcoholic options — sparkling water, mocktails, soft drinks — for the guests who do not drink, rather than ignoring them. This calculator only sizes the alcohol order, not the full beverage budget.

How much ice should I budget per guest?

A common rule of thumb is about 1 lb of ice per guest for drinks alone, more if you are also chilling bottles or using ice for food service or decor.

Worked example

Input

100 guests, 4-hour reception, 85% drink, 0.85 drinks/hr, mix 40% beer / 35% wine / 25% liquor, 1 lb ice/guest.

Output

Total drinks: 289. Beer: 5 cases. Wine: 21 bottles. Liquor: 5 bottles. Ice: 100 lb.

85 of the 100 guests drink, consuming 0.85 drinks/hour over 4 hours for 289 total drinks. Split 40/35/25 across beer, wine, and liquor, that is about 116 beers (5 cases of 24), 101 glasses of wine (21 bottles at ~5 glasses each), and 72 cocktails (5 bottles of liquor at ~17 cocktails each).

Common pitfalls

  • Using a flat drinks-per-hour rate for the entire event ignores that guests drink fastest in the first hour or two and taper off afterward — this calculator’s default rate is already an average across the event.
  • Buying only for the percentage of guests who drink and ignoring everyone else skips planning good non-alcoholic options for non-drinkers.
  • Underestimating ice needs is a common last-minute scramble — budget at least 1 lb per guest, more if also chilling bottles.

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