Champagne · 20, 50 or 100 guests
How many bottles of champagne for 20, 50 or 100 guests?
It all depends on what the champagne is doing during the day. A toast is one bottle for six guests. A whole drinks reception, one for two. The table below gives the three cases for 20, 50 and 100 people; the calculator, set for 50 guests and a two-hour drinks reception all in sparkling, does your number.
The numbers for your guest count
Set for 50 guests, a two-hour drinks reception served only in champagne, 80% drinkers. Change the number, and add the evening party if the bubbles flow there too.
Three uses of champagne, three figures
The toast only
One flute per person at the speech or the cake. Six flutes per bottle, every guest counted, children included for the gesture.
The whole drinks reception
Two hours of sparkling: two flutes in the first hour, one in the second. Three flutes per drinker, half a bottle each.
Drinks reception and evening party
Two more hours of evening party: one flute in the first hour, half a flute after that. This is the scenario where people over-order most.
The table for 20, 50 and 100 people
Rough figures; the calculator gives the exact number. The toast counts every guest; the other two rows count 80% drinkers, an 8% margin and rounding up to cases of 6.
| Use | 20 people | 50 people | 100 people |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toast only | 4 | 9 | 17 |
| 2-hour drinks reception, all champagne | 12 | 24 | 48 |
| Drinks reception + 2-hour evening party | 18 | 36 | 66 |
Between the toast and the evening party, the figure is multiplied by four. It is the biggest decision in the drinks budget, and it is made in flutes, not by feel.
How many bottles of champagne for 50 people?
Nine for a toast, twenty-four for a two-hour drinks reception served all in champagne, thirty-six if the bubbles carry on into the evening. The classic drinks reception, half sparkling and half white and rosé, brings the champagne down to twelve bottles.
How many flutes in a bottle of champagne?
Six 12 cl flutes, seven if the server pours a light 10 cl, five in wide coupes. It is the first figure to agree with whoever is serving: the how many glasses in a bottle page details every format, magnums included.
Champagne or crémant?
Champagne is supplied; crémant is available on request. For the toast, you can taste the difference; at the drinks reception, it shows mostly on the bill, a third less. Many do the toast in champagne and the rest in crémant, and nobody complains. The wedding champagne page takes this reasoning through to the budget.
How do you chill 24 or 48 bottles of champagne?
Not in a home fridge. A tub of water, ice and salt brings a bottle down to 8 °C in twenty minutes; allow one 100-litre tub for twenty-four bottles. The chilling 50 bottles page calculates tubs, ice and time.
The expensive mistakes
- Ordering for the evening party as for the drinks reception. After midnight, one flute in the first hour then half a flute is enough. The rest competes with water.
- Counting children at the drinks reception. For the toast, yes, for the gesture; after that, no. Out of a hundred guests, twenty don't drink.
- Serving it lukewarm. It is the most frequent complaint, well ahead of quantity. Chilling is prepared the day before.
- Mixing up toast and drinks reception. If the drinks reception is already in sparkling, the toast needs nothing more: the flute is already in hand. Don't add them together.
Champagne is only part of the drinks reception: the drinks reception (vin d'honneur) page also counts the white and rosé. For a shop or office opening, where sparkling does most of the work, see the opening party page.