Drinks reception · quantities per guest
Drinks reception: how many bottles for your guests?
One bottle per three guests over two hours. That is the rule caterers use, and it holds. For 100 people over two hours, that makes about fifty bottles, half of them sparkling. The calculator below applies it to your figures.
The calculation for your drinks reception
Set for 100 guests over two hours, 80% adults who drink. The vin d'honneur, the drinks reception after the ceremony, on its own: if a meal follows, tick it, or go to the wedding page, which counts the whole day.
Why one bottle per three over two hours
A guest standing with a glass in hand drinks two glasses in the first hour, then one glass an hour after that. Thirst drops, conversations settle in, glasses get forgotten on a side table. At six glasses per bottle, the first hour therefore takes one bottle per three drinkers, the second one per six. Over two hours, it comes back to half a bottle per drinker.
The calculator counts only drinkers. Out of 100 guests, about twenty don't touch the wine: children, drivers, pregnant women, those who don't like it. That is the “share who drink wine” field, set to 80%. A family party with lots of children goes down to 70%, drinks among colleagues goes up to 90%.
| Guests | 1 hour | 2 hours | 3 hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 24 bottles | 30 bottles | 36 bottles |
| 100 | 36 bottles | 54 bottles | 60 bottles |
| 150 | 54 bottles | 78 bottles | 96 bottles |
Orders of magnitude with 80% drinkers, an 8% margin and rounding up to cases of 6, all colours together. The calculator gives the exact figure and the split.
Sparkling, white, rosé: the split that works
A drinks reception is sparkling first and foremost. People clink glasses, raise a toast to the couple, and do it again. Champagne supplied, crémant on request.
A dry white Bordeaux, chilled, for those who don't want sparkling and to go with the savoury canapés.
In summer, outdoors, it goes fast. In winter, indoors, you can bring it down to 10% and move the rest over to white.
No red at the drinks reception, or hardly any. Standing, with no plate, a tannic red doesn't get drunk; it stains dresses and stays on the trays. Keep it for the meal. If you want all sparkling, the page champagne for a wedding does the sums for that item alone.
How many bottles of champagne for a drinks reception?
Half the bottles at the drinks reception. For 100 guests over two hours, allow 24 bottles of sparkling, six flutes each, and the rest in white and rosé. If you serve only sparkling, double that figure.
How long does a drinks reception last?
An hour and a half to two hours when it comes before a seated meal, up to three hours when it stands in for the reception. Beyond that, it is no longer a drinks reception but a party, and consumption drops to one glass an hour, mostly sparkling and rosé.
Should you plan more if the drinks reception is in high summer?
Not more wine, but more water and more cooling. Heat makes people drink, but it makes them drink water. On the other hand, 54 bottles to chill need tubs, ice and two hours' head start: a domestic fridge won't do it.
What if not all the guests come to the meal?
Count the drinks reception on all the guests, including evening guests arriving later if they are there for the reception, then the meal on the seated guests only. The general calculator lets you do two separate calculations with two headcounts.
Classic mistakes
- Serving large glasses. A glass filled to 15 cl takes a bottle from six glasses to five, and your 54 bottles become 45. Ask the waiter to pour 12 cl, or count five glasses per bottle.
- Opening everything at once. Sparkling opened at the start of the reception is flat by the end. Open in waves, a third at a time.
- Ordering “just in case”. Unopened cases are not taken back. The calculator's 8% margin is enough: one case too many gets drunk; five cases get stored.
On budget: the cost of a drinks reception for 100 guests, from €250 to €1,500 depending on the wines.
Are your quantities ready? Request a quote with the calculator's figures.