Byob: more is better than less right

Also we will be having Agua Fresca drinks for dinner.

We're 3 more days away!!!! Is there anything else that you have to do?

Former restaurant beverage director here:

Take the number of hours your reception is, add 1, and multiply that number by the number of adults. That is how many drinks you want to have.

So if you have a five hour reception and 100 adults, (5 +1) x 100 = 600 drinks.

The thinking is that people drink 2 drinks in the first hour and 1 drink in every subsequent hour. Realistically that won't actually happen (it's a lot of drinks!) but it's good to plan for.

A bottle of wine gets you 4 or 5 glasses, depending on how heavy the pour is. Are people pouring their own drinks or are you hiring a professional? What glassware are you using? This will dictate your serving size.

Same goes for the margaritas. What type of ice are you using? How big is the glass? A proper margarita is about 4 oz, but these days a lot of the glassware out there is unhealthily oversized. If you want people to drink less, the most effective thing you can do is make the glassware smaller.

A gallon of margarita gives you about 38 4oz drinks, not accounting for spills.

Assuming you have 4.5 oz wine pours (standard pour) and 4 oz margaritas, you have purchased 180 glasses of wine, 76 margaritas, and 250 beers for a total of 506 drinks (again, not accounting for spills).

Depending on your glassware, staffing, # of adults, and duration of the reception, this may or may not be enough.

I would also say that your beverage breakdown is really beer heavy. Do you know for certain that you have a beer drinking crowd? A typical wedding (if there is such a thing) generally needs more wine than beer.

View Quoted Comment This is helping me think out loud: seating chart (trying to send it to print @ staples today). Get the creases out of table cloths. Phone meeting with my dj today. Pack my emergency kit. Start packing diaper bag. Straighten my hair tomorrow. Get my daughters nails done. Stop at the bank.
Friday go out to breakfast then be ready to work all day setting up the reception hall lol

View Quoted Comment Wait only 76 margaritas?? For 16gallons of margarita mix? The margarita machine rental place told me 3 gallons is good for 30 servings.
I have 3 days left. I wont be buying anymore glassware or anymore alcohol. If we are seriously getting low on something someone will run to the store. But honestly the way I’m feeling is if we run out then we run out. As long as we have water & other things to drink.

View Quoted Comment What about you?

View Quoted Comment

Sorry! Screwed up the math.

One gallon is 32 drinks so 16 gallons is 512 drinks. Forgot to do that multiplication.

Also I did not realize they were frozen margaritas. Although are you sure 3 gallons = 30 servings? That would mean that each drink is 12.8 oz, or over 1.5 cups (not counting ice). Are you putting them in pint glasses?

View Quoted Comment No im not sure. Thats what i was told so thats what I was calculating the drinks based off of. Let me rephrase 3 gallons was the whole margarita batch mixture (concentrate plus tequila plus water). I have 12oz cups.
It was easiest for me because I bought separate glasses for the toast separate glasses for the wine and one huge case of 1000 cups that I was planning to use for both beer and margaritas.

View Quoted Comment

Oohhhh ok. You're including water in the volume total.

In that case, 16 gallons comes to about 170 12oz drinks, although realistically it's less since you can't really empty a frozen machine completely -- it's gotta have a certain amount of mix in it to work. Not knowing how big your frozen machine is, I'd ballpark 150 margaritas to be conservative.

Sounds like you've got this! I hope your wedding day is lovely.

Have you discussed the beverage menu with your guests so you have a good idea what the majority drink? While one bride and groom may prefer beer/wine only for their guests, another couple may prefer liquor only because they know their guests won’t drink beer/wine and that would be wasted money for them. There is no magic formula.


Buy it’s always better to have too much than not enough. You may be able to return unopened alcohol.

View Quoted Comment I got my pedicure today, eyebrows threaded & tinted tomorrow, hair appointment tomorrow, lash appointment Friday, nail appointment Friday, pick up the cake & cupcakes Saturday to drop off to the venue!

View Quoted Comment Men will drink beer & probably a few will have margaritas. And few will drink wine. Women will drink wine & margaritas. Younger 21+ crowd will drink margaritas & beer. The only liquor served is with the margaritas. We don’t have professional bartenders and buying all different types of liquor for mixed drinks was not an option.

View Quoted Comment Sounds busy but chill at the same time! I got my haircut and eyebrows done last week and nails done yesterday

View Quoted Comment The countdown that shows everytime I open the app is stressing me out! Lol.

View Quoted Comment Yeah definitely a busy rest of the week but all pampering stuff so it's cool

View Quoted Comment 🤣🤣 but it's coming fast so that's a good thing!

I used this website to calculate. It is likely too much, but some places allow you to return what you don't open.

https://www.womangettingmarried.com/wedding-alcohol-calculator-open-bar/