My mother is getting married on Saturday. This is both her and her fiance’s 2nd marriage and they are keeping things rather low-key. First, they have a ceremony, outdoors at family friend’s house (overlooking a reservoir, very beautiful, but oh my god cicada city). Then, we are having a “dry” dinner at a near-by restaurant. The restaurant has no liquor license and doesn’t allow BYOB. Finally, my mom is going to invite everyone back to her house to drink, mingle and generally party. To ease some of her planning burden, I’ve put myself if charge of buying the alcohol for the after-party.
Oh there are 65 people attending the wedding and most are probably moderate to heavy drinkers.
So far I’ve got:
Beer–>
Case of Coors Light
Case of Bud Light
Case of Miller Light
Case of Corona
12-pack of Heineken
Wine–>
1.5L Merlot
1.5L White Zin
Liqour, Mixers, and Alcohol-Free–>
Crown Royal
Absolute Vodka
Bacardi Rum
Assorted Soda
Bottled Water
Tonic
Questions:
Of the 65 people, how many can I expect to come back and drink (this will be like 8 or 9 pm)?
What other liqour/beer/wine should I get?
Any general rule as to x # of people, need this much beer? As you can tell, I’m expecting a lot of light beer drinkers.
My wedding was also around 60 people. We had a keg and a case and a half of wine, plus champagne–no hard liquor. That seemed to be sufficient. (I was certainly toasty by the end of the night.) It’s not like beer goes bad quickly. What folks don’t drink at the after-party, you can keep around for cookouts and the like.
As far as liquors, I’d also pick up a bottle of gin. You may also want to get champagne for the toasts.
Congrats to your mom, and have fun! It sounds like a blast.
I’m copying this info from “Bartending For Dummies” (I’m not sure how copyright law applies to this–mods, feel free to delete if necessary). First column is number of units (bottles, what have you–it should be self-explanatory) to buy for 60-100 guests, second column is the item plus any comments I have.
11 White wine
5 Red wine (this seems low to me, but people around here drink a lot of wine)
2 Blush wine
6 Champagne (if you wanna do the champagne-toast thing, of course, you'll want at least one glass per adult)
2 Dry vermouth
1 Sweet vermouth
4 Vodka
2 Rum
3 Gin
3 Scotch
2 Whiskey
1 Bourbon
2 Irish whiskey
3 Tequila
3 Brandy/cognac
2 Aperitifs (I think you could skip this)
3 Cordials (nice but optional IMO)
96 Beer (that's bottles, not cases...)
5 Club soda/seltzer
3 Ginger ale
4 Cola
4 Diet cola
4 Lemon-lime soda
3 Tonic water
3 Tomato juice (who drinks that much tomato juice???--the units for juices are quarts)
3 Grapefruit juice (ditto)
3 Orange juice
3 Cranberry juice
5 Mineral water (skippable)
30 Trays of ice (not sure how many bags this works out to--I'd grab at least half a dozen bags of ice, both for use in drinks and to keep bottles cold)
8 Dozen napkins
1 Box of stirrers
2 Bitters (seems like a bit much)
2 Cream of coconut (skippable)
2 Grenadine (nice but skippable, or just get 1)
2 Jars of horseradish (I have no idea what you'd use this for)
2 Bottles lime juice (I'd use real limes)
6 Lemons (no way is this enough)
4 Limes (no way in hell is this enough)
3 Oranges
1 Jar maraschino cherries (depends on size of jar--I'd get at least 2 jars)
1 Jar olives (ditto)
2 Quarts milk (uhh...okay...)
1 Box superfine sugar (skippable)
1 Box kosher salt (not listed in the book, but useful for margaritas if you want to do them)
1 Tabasco sauce (skippable)
1 Worcestershire sauce (skippable)
*Bartending for Dummies * assumes that you have a full-time bartender serving cocktails. That is why there are things like tomato juice, horseradish, bitters, etc. on the list. Dump all that stuff. Ask your Mom what her friends drink. Then:
If they are beer drinkers, get a keg of decent beer (Heineken, etc.)
If they are wine drinkers, get a case of merlot, 1/2 case chardonnay, 1/2 case cabernet
If they are spirits drinkers, get plenty of ice, plenty of mixers, and buy vodka, rum, etc. in large bottles. Let everybody make their own. But ask Mom what the preferred tipple is.
1st Rule of Bartending: You can never have too much ice!
Then lay in bottled water and such for the designated drivers. Good luck!
