Wedding Alcohol Calculator
Enter your guest count, how long the bar is open, and how your crowd drinks. You'll get an exact shopping list, from wine by the case to bags of ice, plus how many bartenders to hire and what to tip them.
Plan one drink per guest per hour, then add 20 percent. For 150 guests over 4 hours, that's about 72 bottles of wine, 8 cases of beer, and 9 liters of liquor, plus 2 bartenders.
Build your bar shopping list
Count drinking-age guests, from 1 to 1,000.
Reception length. Defaults to 4.
How your crowd drinks. Wine-leaning classic is the safe default for a mixed guest list.
Enter your split. If it doesn't add up to 100, we normalize it for you and show the result.
The one drink per guest per hour rule
Nearly every reliable bar guide lands on the same starting point: plan for one drink per guest per hour. That's the number The Knot and Zola both use, and it's the rule this calculator runs on. Multiply your guests by the hours the bar is open and you have your baseline. A 150-person wedding with a 4-hour bar needs about 600 drinks before you add anything for safety.
Count drinking-age guests, not the full headcount. If a chunk of your list is kids or non-drinkers, use the number of people who'll actually visit the bar. And treat one-per-hour as an average, not a ceiling. The first hour of any reception runs heavy as everyone gets a drink at once, so some planners buy for two drinks in that opening hour and one an hour after that. The flat rule bakes that surge into the average across the night.
Why we build in a 20 percent buffer
Running dry at your own wedding is the one outcome worth over-spending to avoid, and here's the good news: most liquor stores take back unopened bottles. Because returns make over-buying nearly free, the calculator adds a 20 percent buffer on top of the baseline. That's deliberately at the high end. The common outside guidance is a 10 to 15 percent cushion, but we'd rather send you home with a few unopened cases than leave a line at a dry bar. If your store doesn't accept returns, trim the wine and liquor a touch.
Pick a drink mix that matches your crowd
The split between beer, wine, and liquor changes the whole list, so the calculator gives you presets pulled from the sources that actually publish them. The default, wine-leaning classic, is 25 percent beer, 50 percent wine, and 25 percent liquor, which mirrors Haskell's planning split and Zola's near-identical breakdown. Prefer cocktails? Liquor-forward runs 25/25/50. Craft-beer crowd? Beer-forward is 40/30/30. Keeping it simple with no spirits? Beer and wine only comes in wine-heavy at 40/60. Or pick Custom and enter your own three numbers, and we'll normalize them to 100 for you.
The liquor math assumes a standard 1.5 ounce pour, which yields about 22 drinks per liter. Bump to a heavier 1.75 ounce pour and a liter stretches to closer to 19, so if your bartender pours generously, round the spirits up.
A worked example: 150 guests, 4 hours, wine-leaning
Say you've got 150 guests and a 4-hour bar. The baseline is 600 drinks, and the 20 percent buffer brings you to 720 to buy. At the wine-leaning 25/50/25 split, that's 180 beers, 360 wine pours, and 180 liquor drinks. Convert those and you get roughly 72 bottles of wine (6 full cases), 8 cases of beer, and 9 liters of spirits. Add about 50 quarts of each mixer, 225 pounds of ice, and 450 cups. Two bartenders cover the night, and you'd tip them 100 to 200 dollars total. Change any input above and the whole list rebuilds instantly.
How much alcohol by guest count
Here's the buy list for four common guest counts, all at a 4-hour bar and the wine-leaning default, with the 20 percent buffer already baked in:
| Guests (4 hrs) | Drinks to buy | Wine | Beer | Liquor | Bartenders |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 240 | 24 bottles (2 cases) | 3 cases | 3 liters | 1 |
| 100 | 480 | 48 bottles (4 cases) | 5 cases | 6 liters | 2 |
| 150 | 720 | 72 bottles (6 cases) | 8 cases | 9 liters | 2 |
| 200 | 960 | 96 bottles (8 cases) | 10 cases | 11 liters | 3 + barback |
These use the wine-leaning default of 25 percent beer, 50 percent wine, and 25 percent liquor. Shift the mix toward beer or spirits, or change the hours, and every row moves. Run your own numbers in the calculator above.
How many bartenders, and the tip
Staff about one bartender per 75 guests, and add a barback once you cross 200 guests. That ratio keeps lines reasonable for a mixed bar. If you're running a full-cocktail bar and want short waits, staffing closer to one per 50 is smart, since cocktails take longer to make than pouring a beer. The calculator uses the one-per-75 figure and flags the barback for you.
For tips, the standard is 50 to 100 dollars per bartender handed over at the end of the night. Zola specifically suggests tipping around 100 dollars to each bartender. If you've got a lead bartender running a bigger team, give them the top of the range and the line bartenders a little less. One caveat: read your contract first. If the venue already charges a service fee that's distributed to staff as gratuity, you may not need to tip on top. Our service charge vs. gratuity guide explains how to tell.
Cash bar changes the tipping math
Everything above assumes you're hosting an open bar. If you run a cash bar instead, guests tip 1 to 2 dollars per drink, so the bartenders earn steadily all night. In that case you can skip the end-of-night gratuity entirely, or give a smaller 25 to 50 dollars each just to recognize them. For the full open-vs-cash tradeoff, including how the guest experience shifts, see our open bar vs. cash bar guide.
Prices and quantities shift by region
This calculator sizes the quantities, not the bill. What a case of wine or an hour of bartending costs swings hard by market, and a full open bar in a coastal city can run well above the same setup a few states inland. Use the list to know what to buy, then check local pricing. Our tipping and cost norms by state and by city pages show how far the numbers move once you zoom in on where you're marrying.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much alcohol do I need for 150 guests?
For a 4-hour reception, plan on about 600 drinks, which after a 20 percent buffer means buying enough for roughly 720. Split wine-leaning at 25 percent beer, 50 percent wine, and 25 percent liquor, that's about 72 bottles of wine, 180 beers, and 9 liters of spirits, plus mixers, ice, and cups. Enter your own guest count and hours above to get the exact list.
How much alcohol do I need for 100 guests?
For a 4-hour reception, 100 guests come to 400 drinks, and the 20 percent buffer rounds that up to 480 to buy. At the wine-leaning 25/50/25 split that's about 48 bottles of wine (4 cases), 5 cases of beer, and 6 liters of liquor, plus mixers, ice, and cups. Two bartenders cover it. Change the hours or mix above for an exact list.
How many drinks does each guest have per hour?
Plan for one drink per guest per hour. That's the standard rule from The Knot and Zola, and it holds up whether the bar runs 3 hours or 6. A 150-guest, 4-hour reception works out to 600 drinks before any buffer. Crowds that drink lightly land under that, and a heavy-drinking crowd can push toward two drinks in the first hour.
Why does the calculator add a 20 percent buffer?
Running out is worse than having extra, and most liquor stores take back unopened bottles. The common outside guidance is a 10 to 15 percent buffer, but we deliberately use 20 percent as the top of that range because returns make over-buying low-risk. If your store doesn't accept returns, you can mentally trim the wine and liquor a little.
How much wine, beer, and liquor should I buy?
It depends on your mix. A bottle of wine pours about 5 glasses, a case of beer is 24, and a liter of spirits makes about 22 mixed drinks at a 1.5 ounce pour. The calculator does this conversion for you and shows wine by the case, beer by the case with a keg equivalent when it makes sense, and liquor by the liter.
How many bartenders do I need, and how much do I tip them?
Plan for about one bartender per 75 guests, and add a barback once you pass 200 guests. A full-cocktail bar can lean closer to one per 50 if you want short lines. For tips, the standard is 50 to 100 dollars per bartender at the end of the night, and Zola specifically suggests around 100 dollars each. Confirm the contract first, since some venues fold gratuity into a service charge.
Do guests still tip at a cash bar?
Yes. At a cash bar, guests tip 1 to 2 dollars per drink, so the bartenders earn throughout the night. You can skip the end-of-night gratuity, or give a smaller 25 to 50 dollars each as recognition. At an open bar, guests aren't tipping per drink, so your end-of-night tip is the bartender's main gratuity.
Now sort the rest of your vendor tips
You've got the bartender tip. Our full wedding tip calculator turns every other vendor into exact amounts, a cash denomination breakdown, and a printable envelope checklist.
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Last updated: May 2026