So you’re planning our own backyard wedding and you’re wondering how much alcohol to get for your crowd? Well before you start with the math, there are a few things to consider. 

Know your crowd

A lot of this is based on your crowd. If you have a large drinking crowd, add some extras to your final numbers, maybe about 15-20% more. 

Which brings me to my next point...

Choose your drink options

Drink options - how many should you have? It’s best to have some variety but not TOO much variety if that makes sense. Break down your categories of alcohol and decide how many varieties of each you want.

For example:

• Wine - Keep this one simple, 1 type of red and 1 type of white is all you need. 

• Beer - Maybe choose 2 types of classic beers that the average beer drinker enjoys

• Liquor - I would try to keep this around 3 options that are most common (i.e. vodka, rum, gin) 

Break it down

Now that you have broken down the types of drinks you are going to have, break that down into how much of each you are going to get. 

For example, for 50 people:

• 10 people will drink wine

• 25 people will drink beer

• 15 people will drink liquor

Do the math

This is where the tricky part comes in, and again, may vary depending on your crowd, but it’s usually safe to assume 5-6 drinks per person (some people will drink more, some will drink less).

For each type of alcohol, this is what you will get:

• One bottle of wine = 5 glasses

• One case of beer = 24 beers

• One bottle of 26oz liquor = 25 drinks

Once you have the final number of cases or bottles needed, you can then break that down into what kinds you are getting (i.e. 8 cases of beer could mean 4 cases of option 1 and 4 of option 2) 

If you think your crowd will drink more or less than 6 drinks per person, just change the math accordingly! Good luck! 

SOME FINAL TIPS: 

• Pad your final numbers by 10% (or 15-20% if you have a big drinking crowd)

• Don’t open everything at one time, hire a bartender to open bottles/cases accordingly, so that you can return anything unopened and unused if you have leftover at the end of the night. This always limits you having two half empty bottles of the same thing at the end of the night. 

• Make sure you have your permits in place (usually Special Occasions Permits), but you can visit https://www.agco.ca/ for any questions you have and to get the proper permits needed. You will usually need this SOP to purchase large amounts of alcohol at LCBO. 

• It’s always better to add extra to err on the side of caution. LCBO and Beer Store will let you return if they are unopened (and bought under a SOP). 

• Consider the amount of time guests will be drinking (i.e. from cocktail hour to end of the night)

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