Quick answer
The useful starting point is total expected alcoholic servings, then split those servings across beer, wine and spirits according to your crowd. A fixed “bottles per 100 guests” rule can overbuy one category and underbuy another.
How to work it out
- Estimate how many guests will actually drink alcohol.
- Set reception hours.
- Choose an average drinks-per-hour assumption.
- Split total servings by beer, wine and spirits preference.
- Convert servings to bottles/cases using the package sizes you will buy.
Example
If your crowd strongly prefers wine, a generic one-third beer/one-third wine/one-third spirits split can be badly wrong even if total servings are reasonable. Modeling the mix is what makes the estimate useful.
What can change the answer
Venue rules, bartender policies, local laws, returns and package sizes should be checked before purchasing.
Run the calculation with your numbers
FigureFast keeps the assumptions editable and shows the result immediately. There is no account or email gate.
Open Wedding Alcohol Calculator