Champagne · six flutes per bottle
How many bottles of champagne for a wedding?
It all depends on what the champagne covers. A toast is one flute per person: 17 bottles for 100 guests. The whole drinks reception is half a bottle per drinker. The reception and the evening party is double that. The calculator below is set to the most common scenario.
The calculation, sparkling only
Set for 100 guests, a two-hour drinks reception and a two-hour evening party, all champagne. Untick the party if the champagne stops at the meal; the dinner wine is counted on the wedding page.
Three scenarios, three budgets
The toast only
One flute per guest at speech time, 100 guests, six flutes per bottle. The drinks reception is done with white and rosé.
The whole drinks reception
Two hours of champagne for 80 drinkers, two flutes in the first hour then one an hour. Margin and rounding included.
Drinks reception and evening party
The calculator's setting. Adds one flute in the first hour of the party, then half a flute an hour. This is the scenario where people over-order most.
Between the first and third scenarios, the difference is 49 bottles. At €32 a bottle, that is nearly €1,600: the biggest decision in the drinks budget, and it deserves to be made with figures in hand rather than by feel.
Six flutes, not eight
A 75 cl bottle makes six 12 cl flutes. You often read “seven to eight flutes”: that is true with narrow flutes filled to 10 cl, which never happens on a wedding day, when the waiter pours generously and everyone holds out their glass twice. The calculator counts six, and you won't run short.
| Guests | Toast only | 2 h drinks reception | Drinks reception + 2 h party |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 12 | 24 | 42 |
| 100 | 18 | 48 | 78 |
| 150 | 30 | 66 | 114 |
| 200 | 36 | 90 | 156 |
Bottles rounded up to cases of 6, 80% drinkers, 8% margin. The toast counts every guest, children included, because everyone raises a glass even if they don't finish it.
Champagne or crémant for a wedding?
Champagne is supplied, crémant on request. Blind, at a reception where people talk more than they taste, few guests can tell the difference; at the toast, when everyone looks at their glass, champagne gets noticed. Many couples do the toast with champagne and the rest with crémant, which halves the cost. The calculator counts everything as champagne; it is up to you to adjust.
How much champagne for 100 people?
17 bottles for a toast, 48 for a two-hour drinks reception, 78 if the sparkling carries on for two hours into the evening. These three figures frame almost every wedding of 100 guests; the calculator adjusts them to your exact number and timing.
Do you need champagne with dessert?
One flute per seated guest, so 17 more bottles for 100 people, if the wedding cake is served with a speech. Many prefer to go straight into the evening party: the same bottles then serve both, and the calculator counts them in the party.
How do you chill 66 bottles of champagne?
Not in a fridge. A 100-litre tub, half ice, half water, with a handful of salt, brings a bottle down to 8 °C in twenty minutes. Allow three tubs for 66 bottles, or the caterer's cold room the day before. Lukewarm champagne is guests' most frequent complaint, well ahead of quantity.
What throws the count off
- Opening all the bottles at the start. An open bottle is flat in forty minutes. Open as you go, a tray of twelve flutes at a time.
- Letting the children toast with champagne. A glass for the photo, yes; a flute left full on the table is a bottle lost for every six children. Plan alcohol-free sparkling for them.
- Ordering for the party as for the reception. After midnight, one flute in the first hour then half a flute an hour is enough, and sparkling competes with water and soft drinks. The calculator slows the pace by itself.
Want the full calculation with the white and rosé for the reception? The drinks reception page splits the colours. Are the figures right? Request a quote.