Wedding · symbolic ceremony at the venue
Wine for a symbolic ceremony: the drinks reception starts earlier, and lasts longer
When the ceremony takes place on site (a cérémonie laïque, the non-religious, non-legal ceremony led by a celebrant), there is no longer a journey between the town hall or church and the venue. The vin d'honneur, the drinks reception after the ceremony, starts as the ceremony ends and runs until dinner: three hours instead of two. For 100 guests, that makes 138 bottles instead of 126. The calculator below is set that way; change whatever does not match your day.
The calculation for 100 guests
A three-hour drinks reception, seated dinner, a three-hour evening party, 80% drinkers, so 80 people drinking wine. It is the setting for a classic wedding, with one more hour of drinks reception.
The day of a symbolic ceremony
Arrival
The guests arrive and wait for the ceremony. Cold water and lemonade, no wine: the witnesses have a speech to make, and every glass served here adds to the drinks reception.
End of the ceremony
The toast is served as the couple come out: 80 flutes, 14 bottles of sparkling, already included in the drinks reception in the calculation. The ice tub must be going during the ceremony.
Drinks reception
Two glasses in the first hour, one an hour after that. Half sparkling, the rest white and rosé. This is where the on-site ceremony adds an hour, and two cases.
Dinner and evening party
Nothing changes: three glasses at dinner, one glass then half a glass an hour during the party. The detail is on the page wedding wine.
Depending on how long the drinks reception lasts
For 100 guests and 80 drinkers, dinner and a three-hour evening party. “Need” is consumption including the margin, before any rounding; “Shown” is what the calculator has you buy.
| Drinks reception | Need | Shown | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 h, ceremony elsewhere | 117 | 126 | 30 red, 30 white, 24 rosé, 42 sparkling. |
| 3 h, ceremony on site (the setting) | 132 | 138 | 30 red, 36 white, 24 rosé, 48 sparkling. The red does not move: it is drunk at dinner. |
| 3 h 30 | 139 | 150 | 30 red, 36 white, 30 rosé, 54 sparkling. |
| 4 h | 147 | 162 | 30 red, 42 white, 30 rosé, 60 sparkling. Beyond three hours, serve food: the drinks reception becomes a standing dinner. |
Each half-hour of drinks reception adds about seven bottles of need for 80 drinkers. The shown figure climbs in steps of six, as colours cross into another case: that is why, from 3 h to 3 h 30, the bill takes twelve bottles when the table drinks only seven more.
How many bottles for a symbolic wedding for 100 people?
138 at this page's setting, or 23 cases: 30 red, 36 white, 24 rosé and 48 sparkling, 1.38 bottles per guest. Average consumption is 120 bottles, 132 with the 10% margin. That is twelve bottles more than a wedding whose ceremony takes place elsewhere, all of them at the drinks reception.
What wine budget for a symbolic ceremony?
On the setting's 138 bottles: €1,902 at the decent level, €2,808 at the good level, €4,944 at the grand cru level, so €19, €28 and €49 per guest. The extra hour of drinks reception costs €276 at the good level: six whites at €14 and six sparkling at €32.
How do you stop a three-hour drinks reception costing too much?
Keep the sparkling for the toast and the first hour, then move on to white and rosé: at the good level, a bottle of champagne costs €32, a bottle of white €14. Serve food from the second hour, people drink less on a full stomach. And if the venue allows it, bring dinner forward rather than stretching the wait. For the toast alone, or the whole drinks reception on champagne, the page champagne for a wedding does the count.
The venue charges corkage: what difference does it make?
One more hour of drinks reception means twelve more bottles to open. At €5 a cork, €60; at €15, €180. Check in the contract whether the fee applies from the end of the ceremony, and whether it is paid per bottle opened or per guest. The corkage calculator tells you whether bringing your own wine still pays.
And if the ceremony is in the garden, at home?
Then the long drinks reception adds to the problem of keeping things cold without a cold room. The page wedding at home works out the tubs and the ice for sixty guests.
The mistakes at a symbolic ceremony
- Counting the drinks reception as for a classic wedding. Two hours instead of three, and you are two cases short at 7 pm.
- Serving wine while people wait. Half an hour of welcome drinks with wine is half an hour more of drinks reception, before the ceremony has even started.
- Putting the sparkling on ice after the ceremony. The toast is served the minute it ends. Start the tub during the speeches: the page chilling 50 bottles quickly gives the tubs and the ice.
- Running three hours on champagne. The calculation puts half sparkling at the drinks reception; beyond that, each extra hour on champagne costs more than twice the same hour on white.
Ceremony at the town hall or church, then the reception: wedding wine. Ready to price it? Quote request, reply within 48 working hours.