Wedding · 30 guests, small and intimate
Wine for a small wedding: thirty guests, and when one case per colour is enough
Thirty guests is a wedding that fits around three tables. The drinks reception and the dinner get through about twenty bottles: the equivalent of four cases, which are better bought singly from your local wine shop. With an evening party, it goes up to seven cases. The calculator below tells you which side you are on, and when you don't need us.
The calculation for 30 guests
Set for a drinks reception (vin d'honneur) of an hour and a half, a seated dinner and a two-hour party, 80% drinkers, so 24 people drinking wine. Untick the party, shorten the drinks reception: the verdict changes.
Depending on how the day runs
For 30 guests and 24 drinkers. “Needed” is consumption including margin, before any rounding; “Shown” is what the calculator has you buy.
| Running order | Needed | Shown | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dinner only | 13 | 14 | 9 red, 5 white, bought singly. You don't need us. |
| Drinks reception 1 h + dinner | 22 | 24 | 9 red, 8 white, 5 sparkling, 2 rosé, bought singly. You still don't need us. |
| Drinks reception 1 h 30 + dinner | 24 | 36 | The threshold is crossed: each colour goes to the case, 12 red, 12 white, 6 rosé, 6 sparkling. |
| Drinks reception 1 h 30 + dinner + 2 h party (the setting) | 31 | 42 | Seven cases: 12 red, 12 white, 12 sparkling, 6 rosé. |
| Same day, 3 h party | 33 | 42 | The third hour of the party fits in the cases already counted. |
The middle row is the one that matters. Between 22 and 24 bottles needed, the calculator jumps from 24 to 36: you don't need twelve more bottles, but four colours rounded up to the case make four opened cases. If you are on the borderline, two options: buy singly, or drop a colour.
How many bottles of wine for a wedding of 30 people?
Around thirty for a full day: 28 bottles drunk for a drinks reception of an hour and a half, a dinner and two hours of party, 31 with the 10% margin. Rounded up to the case per colour, that gives 42 bottles, 12 red, 12 white, 12 sparkling and 6 rosé, or 1.4 bottles per guest. With no party and a one-hour drinks reception, 24 bottles bought singly are enough.
When is one case per colour enough?
When there is no party. A one-hour drinks reception and a dinner for thirty get through 24 bottles including margin, four cases by volume. But not one of each colour: 9 red, 8 white, 5 sparkling, 2 rosé. At a wine shop, you buy exactly that. In cases of six, even leaving out the rosé, you need five: the red and the white each go over six bottles, and the unopened cases stay with you.
What wine budget for a small wedding?
For the 42 bottles in the setting, €540 at the decent level, €816 at the good level, €1,512 at grand cru level, or €18, €27 and €50 per guest. That is a little more per head than for a hundred guests, because of rounding up to the case, not the wine. With no party, the 24 bottles bought singly cost €440 at the good level. When the volume is small, the money goes on the price of each bottle: the civil wedding and lunch page shows where.
With thirty guests, should you go through a wine merchant?
Often not, and the calculator says so. Below about 24 bottles, it counts by the bottle and concludes that you don't need us: a wine shop will sell you nine reds and five sparkling without making you take a case, and advise you just as well. A wine merchant becomes useful from six or seven cases, or if you are looking for a particular wine the wine shop doesn't have in quantity. The merchant, wine shop, supermarket or producer page compares the four without taking sides.
What do you do with the bottles left over?
Keep them: unopened cases are not taken back, by us or by most wine merchants. At this page's setting, the margin and the rounding leave fourteen bottles more than average consumption, enough for the next day's lunch or the first wedding anniversary. If there is a brunch the next day, the day-after wedding brunch page counts it with what is left.
Small wedding mistakes
- Keeping four colours for thirty people. Four colours means four opened cases. Rosé is the first to go: the white covers the drinks reception, the sparkling the party.
- Buying by the case what should be bought singly. Below 24 bottles, a case of six per colour has you buying up to a dozen bottles too many, which nobody will take back.
- Counting as if for a hundred. The one-bottle-per-person rule comes from big weddings, party included. For thirty, dinner alone uses less than one for every two people.
- Aiming for volume rather than the glass. Thirty guests around a table actually taste the wine. Moving the 9 dinner reds from the good level to grand cru costs €216: it is the only wedding where that step stays affordable.
The same calculation without the wedding outfit: the 30 people page. A hundred guests or more: wine for a wedding. Seven cases, or a particular wine to find? Quote request, reply within 48 working hours.