Wedding bar planner: how much alcohol, what it costs

How the calculation works

Wedding crowds drink more per hour than typical events. We use a baseline of 1.25 alcoholic drinks per hour per drinker, with style modifiers:

• Formal weddings: baseline pace, wine-heavy mix (40% wine, 25% spirits, 20% champagne, 15% beer)
• Relaxed weddings: baseline pace, balanced mix (30% wine, 25% beer, 25% spirits, 20% champagne)
• Casual weddings: +10% pace, beer-heavy mix (45% beer, 20% wine, 25% spirits, 10% champagne)
• Destination weddings: +20% pace (multi-day events accumulate), tropical-tilted mix (35% beer, 25% spirits/cocktails, 25% wine, 15% champagne)

Bar type changes which categories you buy:

• Open bar: all categories at full quantities. Highest cost but standard expectation in US/UK weddings.
• Limited bar: wine + beer + champagne + 1-2 signature cocktails only. No full spirits selection. Cuts cost by 25-40%.
• Cash bar: you only cover the champagne toast; guests pay for the rest. Saves 60-75% but creates etiquette issues (US: tolerated in cost-conscious markets, frowned on in formal markets; UK: traditional and accepted; EU: varies by country).
• BYOB / pooled: rare. Works for destination weddings and very informal settings. Per-couple cost drops to nearly zero; logistics get complex.

Wedding-specific math notes

Champagne toast: 1 glass per guest = 5 pours per bottle, so 1 bottle per 5 guests. A 100-guest wedding needs 20 bottles for an all-guests toast, 16-17 for adults-only.

Wine: 60/40 red-white split is the typical formula. White slightly more for warmer weather or seafood-heavy menus; red slightly more for steak-or-pasta dinners. 5 pours per 750ml bottle; we use that rate plus a 1.15× buffer because wedding pours run slightly more generous than restaurant pours.

Beer: Mix of mainstream domestic (Bud Light, Coors Light, Stella, Heineken) and one craft option. 60-70% goes to mainstream; 30-40% to craft. Cans are easier than bottles for outdoor or stand-up cocktail-hour formats.

Spirits: The "well bar" essentials are vodka, gin, whiskey (bourbon or rye in US; scotch in UK), rum, tequila. Each 750ml bottle yields ~25 standard 1oz pours. For a 100-guest wedding planning ~150 cocktail orders, you need 6-7 bottles total distributed across categories.

Mixers: Tonic, soda, ginger beer/ale, lemon-lime soda, club soda. Plus juice if making cocktails (cranberry, pineapple, OJ). 1L of mixer per 4 cocktail orders.

Soft drinks: Often under-bought. 2-3 cans or bottles per non-drinking guest, plus 1 per drinking guest (people drink water/soda between cocktails). Don't forget kids if they're invited.

Open vs limited vs cash bar: which to choose

Open bar is the default expectation in most US and UK weddings. It signals "we want you to enjoy yourselves" and avoids the awkward moment of guests pulling out wallets at a wedding. Cost: $30-50/guest US, £35-55/guest UK at supermarket pricing. Add 30-50% if your venue requires their own bar service.

Limited bar (beer + wine + 1-2 signature cocktails, no full spirits) is the smart middle ground. Cuts cost by 25-40%. Most guests prefer wine or beer anyway; the people who would order a top-shelf whiskey don't expect it free at a wedding. Signal it on the invite with "beer, wine, and signature cocktails" rather than "open bar".

Cash bar divides opinion. In most US markets it's seen as cheap; in some UK and Australian markets it's standard. The middle option: provide champagne for the toast + wine with dinner, then cash bar for everything else. Costs $5-10/guest. Just don't surprise guests; signal it on the invite.

Sanity-checking your caterer's bar quote

Caterer bar packages typically run $40-65/guest for "open bar premium" in the US, £45-70 in the UK. The supermarket cost of equivalent drinks is $18-25/guest US, £22-30 UK. The caterer markup (typically 2-3×) covers bartender labour, glassware, ice, transport, and venue fees.

If your caterer's quote is over 3.5× the supermarket equivalent, ask for the line-item breakdown. The two common excuses: (1) "premium spirits" that you didn't ask for, (2) "bartender service fees" that should be itemised separately. Negotiating typically saves $5-10/guest on a 100-person wedding ($500-1000 total).

Some venues allow you to bring your own alcohol with corkage. Corkage fees typically run $15-25/bottle of wine, $25-40/bottle of spirits in the US. Math: if the venue charges $30/wine bottle corkage but your supermarket-bought wine is $12/bottle and the venue would charge $50/bottle if you bought from them, you save $32/bottle. For a 100-guest wedding's 20 wine bottles, that's $640 saved.

What this doesn't capture

• Venue corkage fees (significant if you're bringing your own alcohol; ask explicitly when booking).
• Bartender hourly rates (typically $25-45/hour US, £15-25/hour UK).
• Glassware rental ($1-3 per glass in the US, less in the UK).
• Ice delivery (often a separate caterer charge, $50-150 for 100 guests).
• Tip / service charge (US: 18-22% expected on bar; UK: 10-15% typical).
• Hangover-day brunch supplies (post-wedding breakfast drinks for guests staying over).

Related reading

For other event types: party drink calculator covers non-wedding events. For wedding keg pricing (some destination weddings use kegs): UK keg cost calculator or US keg cost calculator.

Hosting after-parties or rehearsal dinners as part of the wedding weekend? The hosting topic hub covers chip-in math; the 2026 Home Bar Cost Report documents real-world spend patterns at multi-event hosting weekends.