The Ultimate Guide To Choosing Beer For Your Wedding
Should I buy beer bottles or beer kegs for my wedding? How much beer should I buy for a wedding of 100 people? This wedding beer guide was created to make the process of buying beer for your wedding day simple.
By Clara Jaide on Apr. 02, 2019
Buying and choosing beer for your wedding can be an overwhelming experience. There are many things to consider when it comes to choosing the best beer to serve at your wedding ceremony or reception and if youre not having a brewery wedding well, theres more work for you to do.
To alleviate some of that stress and make your beer selecting experience simple, weve created this wedding beer guide to help you select the perfect beer for your big day. This guide will help you figure out which beer styles to serve, what to consider when picking beers for your wedding, how to pair your beer and how much beer you need to buy for a wedding.
Pair By Wedding Theme
Were all about finding ways to make your special day unique so we love the idea of centering your wine choices around the wedding theme. A beach-themed wedding with fresh fruit and seafood on the menu would pair well with a wine with tropical notes, often found in white wines like chardonnay or sauvignon blanc.
How To Calculate Wedding Alcohol & Wine
Whether your wedding will have 200 people or 20, it is important to calculate ahead of time how much alcohol youll need. Lets face it, running out of wine would put a real damper on your wedding . Calculating how much wine youll need at your wedding helps you avoid overspending, while also ensuring that you have enough for each guest.
The general rule of thumb is to have enough drinks for one glass per person per hour of your reception. This includes all alcohol: wine, beer, and liquor. A typical ratio of alcohol to serve at a wedding is beer, liquor, and wine.
This means that if you have 100 guests at your reception, you will need about 30-40 glasses of wine per hour. There are about 4 glasses of wine in a bottle, which means you will end up needing about 8-10 bottles of wine per hour.;
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Bulk Wine Packages Should Be Both Good Quality And Affordable
To be safe, always speak to your venue’s catering or wine professional to make sure you’re getting the best deal, as well as ordering the correct amount of wine for your budgetbut neither should compromise the quality, Giglio notes. While it’s the job of the venue’s catering director to offer you a wide variety of the least-expensive wines available, you should feel comfortable to step in and ask for less variety with a more thoughtful selection. Be prepared with a list of wines you both like to drink . If your wedding is in the same state as where you buy your wine regularly, your venue can likely order that wine for you, or at least try to accommodate your requestbut it’s best to talk about this before you sign any contracts. And if you’re going with wine that your venue suggests, always do a tasting to make sure you like it and it fits with the foods you’ll be serving.
Coming Up With A Total
How much wine to purchase will depend on various factors, including the number of guests, whether it’s a wine-drinking crowd, the format of the reception, the time of year and time of day, and the menu. Here, some general rules of thumb provided by wedding planners, caterers, and married couples who have been through it already:
It’s better to have too much wine than not enough. Guests grumble when the wine runs out and they still have prime rib on their plate, or if they have an empty glass for the toast. Unopened leftovers can usually be returned to the seller .
The standard 750-ml wine bottle holds 25 ounces; count on five servings of wine, at five ounces each, from one bottle. For sparkling wines served in flutes, allow for four ounces per serving , which equals six servings per bottle.
Most caterers count on each guest consuming one-half bottle of wineroughly two glassesevery two hours. If the party lasts four hours, count on one 25-ounce bottle per person. These calculations allow for the fact that some folks will drink more, some less, and some not at all. One bottle each might seem like a lot of wine, yet many attendees want to sample everything, even though they don’t drain their glasses .
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Wines To Go With The Season
People tend to prefer certain types of wine over others, depending on the season. For example, if your wedding is outdoors and during the summer, white wines and even rosé will be a big hit. Conversely, red wine is ideal for cooler months.;;
Whether they occur outside or inside, summer weddings can be hot, and wines on the lighter side are generally more refreshing than reds. Rosés and whites both help make the heat a little more tolerable, ahem, especially after the first three glasses; Depending on the weather during springtime, this can apply then as well.
For fall, winter and cool spring months, your guests are more likely to gravitate towards reds.Now heres the wrench in this rule its not a hard and fast rule. Some people love their white wine no matter what the season, and some are always going to opt for red. Thats just people being people.The key here is to use the season as a guide for the proportion of white vs red wines you buy.
What Is Your Alcohol Budget For Your Wedding
Consider your budget. There are an array of beers you can purchase within any budget, however, your budget is the limiting factor when it comes to your options. Calculate what youre willing to spend on alcohol at your wedding reception and what percentage of that youre willing to spend on beer. How much are you willing to spend per case or per table? Will you be getting bottles or cans? Will you be getting a keg? How much beer are you are expecting your wedding guests to drink? Which ties us into the next factor
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The Ultimate Wedding Wine And Champagne Guide
The final touch at every wedding is an elegant champagne toast. However, getting to that point is more complicated than you think.;Wine and champagne decisions alone include;considering what types to select, when to serve them, plus how many bottles to order without breaking the bank.
De-stress picking and ordering the best wines and champagnes for your wedding day with the insights and calculations below.;Our guide to champagne and wine for a wedding;explores all the necessary;details to nail;down;this planning task so you can move;onto other decisions. You know, like enjoying one of the happiest days of your life.
How Much Wine Should I Get
Running out of wine at your wedding would be a travesty, so make sure you pick up enough to serve everyone. Many people enjoy drinking a glass of wine with dinner, while some enjoy drinking wine throughout the night. To accommodate all of your guests of legal drinking age, the general rule of thumb is to purchase one drink per person per hour of your reception. A typical ratio of alcohol to serve is 1/3 beer, 1/3 liquor and 1/3 wine as well as sparkling wine or champagne. So, if you have 100 guests in attendance then you will need about 30 to 40 glasses of wine per hour. With approximately 4 glasses of wine per bottle, youll need about 8 to 10 bottles of wine per hour. If your reception is 3 hours long, we suggest purchasing about 24 bottles of wine, or 2 cases. Each bottle of sparkling wine or champagne will provide about 8 glasses to toast, so for 100 guests you should purchase 13 bottles of sparkling wine for toasts only.
Photo Credit:;Hakee Chang
Of course, if you know your side of the family are excellent wine-drinkers, then you should tailor your alcohol menu to have more wine. If you find yourself in between cases , we suggest rounding up. After all, if you have any left over after the wedding, you or your guests can take it home!
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Wedding Favours: Mini Wine Or Champagne Bottles
Posted in Ontario0
Hello! We would like to give away mini champagne bottles or wine bottles but are having no luck as to where to order them from. We are in Ontario, and LCBO doesn’t offer them, and everything I’ve found online is for delivery to the USA only. Has anyone had any luck with this or have any suggestions? Your help is greatly appreciated!
on July 23, 2019 at 13:02
Wineries And Wedding Venues
In recent years, winery weddings have become more and more popular. Wineries and vineyards make gorgeous wedding venues, with lush fields, beautiful cellars and sprawling grounds. Thanks to the rising popularity in vineyard weddings, many wineries offer fantastic wedding packages that include a certain amount of wine from their very own cellars as well as champagne for toasts. However, most wineries will not allow you to bring in other wine and if they allow beer and hard alcohol, you will most likely also have to purchase a wine package in order to have a full bar.
Photo Credit: Indu Huynh
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Best Red Wines For Weddings
Red wine is a classic,;sophisticated;option;popular at weddings;as well. As with white wine, youll find a wide range of flavors, bodies;and sweetness levels within each variety, so its always a good idea to taste before you buy.
When it comes to red wine for a wedding, try one of these options:
- Cabernet Sauvignon:;Cabernet sauvignon typically;highlights flavors of;dark fruit, particularly plums, blackberries and black currants. This red wine pairs well with hearty dishes and is;the top pick in America for red wines.;The full body of cabernet sauvignon works with beef, duck,;richly spiced;sauces, marinades and other red meat.
Decide What You Want Your Alcohol Mix To Be
Note: For purposes of this article, were going to assume youre having a full open bar .
While sites like Total Wine encourage you to use a ratio of 50% wine drinkers, 30% beer, and 20% spirit drinkers, we think its safer to say 50% of guests want wine, 25% beer, and 25% want the hard stuff, though keep in mind you know your crowd better than anybody. For instance, at my wedding we had a lot of wine and spirit drinkers, so I would have made it 60% wine, 30% alcohol, 10% beer.
So using ALL those calculations, heres how you would figure out just how much you need in total, assuming the percentages and everything else above for a 100 person wedding:
For 100 guests:
=20 bottles of champagne needed
TOTAL:
So to recap, for 100 guests you would need:
- 70 bottles of wine
- 15 bottles of liquor
- 20 bottles of champagne for toast
Only Having Beer and Wine?
Of course if youre only having beer and wine, the percentages youll need for each would just go up accordingly. So you would most likely assume a 60% wine and 40% beer mix, making your numbers look like:
- 84 bottles of wine
- 280 bottles of beer
Ready to buy? If youre using the wedding alcohol calculator formula weve come up with, above, the shopping list for it is below.
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Buying Wedding Wines: What To Get And How Much
If youre buying your wedding wines yourself, then youve already taken the smartest step forward by caring enough to find out more!
Learn what wines work best for events like weddings and how much wine to have on hand. Wine complements the wedding, so its a great idea to find one thats right for you.
How Many Bottles Of Each Wine Type Should I Buy
Now that you have a general idea of the number of bottles required, you need to determine how many bottles of each type of wine to buy.
Most people offer at least one white wine and one red wine;at their reception. Guests can select the type they most favor and even switch up their selections as the event goes on.
- Order a 50/50 split between your selected red and white varietals:;Skew orders toward one type only if you know for sure your guests have a heavy preference.
Remember that wines varietals are often served to match the season. White wines and rosé are more popular in the summer. If youre having an outdoor or summer wedding, consider ordering slightly more refreshing white wines. Conversely, heavier reds work better in the cooler temperatures of fall and winter. Bump up the amount of red wine you order if your nuptials fall in these seasons.
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What Kind Of Wines Should I Buy
There will be sparkling wine for the toast, but the rest of the wine is up to you! Consider the following:
- Whos attending
- If youre serving rich meats for dinner, consider a full-bodied red wine
- If youre serving fish as the main, consider selecting a rosé or light red wine as your red option
- Think about the time of year and time of day and the theme
Select The Perfect Wedding Wine List
Whether youre tying the knot during COVID or holding out a bit longer for a large celebration, sparkling wine or champagne is an essential part of traditional wedding toasts and celebrations. Here are some tips to help you select the perfect wines for your wedding!
Dont know where to start? Consider these four types of popular wine: red, white, rosé, and sparkling. Within these are subcategories and different bodies and finishes. Regardless of nuanced wine qualities, one thing is for certain: you should serve a variety of wines at your wedding. This doesnt mean you have to provide a huge selection of each type. Rather, opt for getting both red and white wine to serve at your wedding, and sparkling for the toast. That way, the preferences of every guest are accounted for. Here are the most common wedding wines for each category:
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How Much To Budget For Wine
It can be daunting to think about how much you will spend on wine for your wedding. Luckily, it doesnt have to cost a fortune.;
Start with around 15% of the reception budget and be sure to consider less costly wines. Price is not always an indicator of quality, one way or the other!;
One useful tool for giving you an idea of what to budget is a simple how much wine for a wedding? calculator.;
All you need to do is put in the number of wedding guests, how long the party will be, and the average number of glasses per hour your guests are likely to consume. You can always adjust the answer to better suit your wedding party, but the wedding alcohol calculator gives you a base to work with.
To help, Firstleaf has created this handy graphic:
Another thing to consider when budgeting for wine is what other booze youll have on offer. If youre planning to serve up buckets of beer and its an outdoor summer wedding, you might find guests gravitating more towards those APAs than the Pinot Grigio.;
One Red And One White
Look for at least one red wine and one white to serve at your celebration. Some of the most popular wines, such as oaky, buttery Chardonnay and fruity, full-bodied Merlot, aren’t always the best companions for wedding fare: They can overwhelm the hors d’oeuvres at a cocktail hour, and they don’t always fit well with lighter dishes. They also tend to have a higher alcohol content.
Two wines that go very well with many different types of foods and that can be served year-round are Sauvignon Blanc for a white and, among reds, Pinot Noir. Both of these are lighter in body and less fruity than Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. They’re also excellent when served as aperitifs.
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Sparkling Brut Bubbly And Refreshing
Free tracking on all orders. The cab sav’s bold flavor means it can stand up to adventurous sauces and spicy dishes. The most classic pairing is cabernet sauvignon wine and steak. Go sober this october with fre learn more. For some celebratory bubbly without booze, enjoy these champagnes. The perfect wine experience without the alcohol discover our wines. One stop wine shop is the premier online shopping destination for red, white, rosé and sparkling wines delivered straight to your door. Fre delivers a luxe wine experiencefrom vine to glasswithout the alcohol. free tracking worldwide save money on orders over $200. Wine drinkers pair favorite reds with almost every meal imaginable. The extremely versatile pinot noir wine’s high acid content lends itself to pairing well with duck. Replace beer with malbec wine, a laid back red that goes well with a burger. Like liquor, wine, and fine spirits?
We’re not saying middle sisters are the best. Learn more about zogby, a top tier liquor store with the best possible prices. Like liquor, wine, and fine spirits? We’re the best home service. The extremely versatile pinot noir wine’s high acid content lends itself to pairing well with duck.
