Civil wedding · the town hall, then lunch
Wine for a civil wedding followed by lunch: few bottles, so good ones
Thirty guests, the town hall (mairie) at 11 am, a glass on the way out and lunch at a restaurant or at home: altogether it drinks 23 bottles. At this volume, case prices gain you nothing. What changes the day is the price of each bottle, and this is the one wedding where going up a notch costs a few hundred euros, not a few thousand.
The numbers for 30 guests
Set for 30 guests and 80% drinkers: one hour of drinks reception (vin d'honneur) outside the town hall, all sparkling, then a seated lunch, white with the starter, red with the main course and cheese. The calculator counts by the bottle and concludes, honestly, that for this volume you don't need us.
Where to spend on 23 bottles
The 23 bottles from the settings at the calculator's three levels: price per bottle incl. VAT, 2026 Bordeaux ranges, sparkling counted as champagne, delivery excluded.
| Item | Bottles | Decent | Good | Fine wine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The town hall glass (sparkling) | 9 | €216 | €288 | €405 |
| The starter (white) | 5 | €40 | €70 | €160 |
| Main course and cheese (red) | 9 | €81 | €144 | €360 |
| Total | 23 | €337 | €502 | €925 |
| Per guest | €11 | €17 | €31 |
The right compromise: sparkling and white at the good level, red at fine-wine level. €718, or €24 per guest. Moving the red up to fine wine costs €216 here; the same step on the 30 reds of a hundred-guest wedding costs €720.
What is worth the money
The town hall glass
Two flutes per drinker on the steps or in the garden, no more: lunch is waiting. A non-vintage brut from a good champagne house; crémant is possible on request and costs less, but the calculator counts in champagne.
The lunch
A dry white with the starter, a red with the main course and cheese. This is where one notch up gets noticed: thirty people at the table taste the wine, and nine bottles of fine wine are still an outlay of a few hundred euros.
The bottle of the year
A Bordeaux from the vintage you met, or from the birth year of one of you, opened with dessert or kept for your first anniversary. The birth-year vintage page says what is still drinking, year by year.
How many bottles for a civil wedding and lunch for 30 people?
23, margin included: 9 bottles of sparkling for the glass after the town hall, 5 whites and 9 reds for lunch. The raw count is 20 bottles for 24 drinkers; the calculator adds 10% and rounds to the bottle, not the case, because at this volume you buy by the bottle. At 40 guests, it switches to cases: 36 bottles.
The lunch is at a restaurant: can you bring your own wine?
Often, for a corkage fee. The lunch opens 14 bottles: at €15 corkage, that is €210 in fees, about what it costs to move the red from the good level to fine wine. The town hall glass, served before arriving at the restaurant, isn't affected. The corkage calculator gives the break-even point for your figures.
Do you need a wine merchant for a civil wedding?
For the volume, no: 23 bottles can be bought at a local wine shop, and the calculator tells you so. For a specific wine, sometimes: a fine-wine red in a ready-to-drink vintage, a bottle from the year you met, nine bottles of a wine the shop only has two of. In that case, ask for a quote on those bottles, not on the whole lunch. If a big party follows a few months later, that is what justifies a full quote: the wedding wine page does the count for a hundred guests.
What wine to serve at a wedding lunch?
Lighter than at dinner. A dry white Bordeaux or Pessac-Léognan with the starter, a ready-to-drink red with the main course: a Médoc or Saint-Émilion of about ten years, already supple, rather than a young wine built for ageing. At midday, the afternoon goes on: water on the table before the wine. The which Bordeaux for a wedding page gives the appellation moment by moment.
Mistakes at a small midday wedding
- Buying three cases of red “to be on the safe side”. Nine bottles get drunk; the other nine are left over, and unopened cases are not taken back.
- Putting the budget into the number of wines. A fourth colour, a second red, a dessert wine: that many bottles left half-finished. One champagne before, two wines at the table, that's all.
- Serving a great wine too young. A three-year-old grand cru is closed and hard at midday. For the same price, an older vintage from a more modest appellation often makes a better lunch.
- Forgetting the heat outside the town hall. In June, the glass is served outdoors: sparkling at 8 °C in an ice bucket, not straight out of the car boot.
Thirty guests with an evening party too? The small wedding page counts the whole day. A specific wine to find for the lunch? Ask for a quote on those bottles, reply within 48 working hours.