File under: "Stuff we wish we thought of saying ourselves."
Over in the Plunge Forums, user "corkdork" (his choice, not ours) chimed in with some helpful rules of thumb for people serving outside booze.
The upside is obvious: you can (usually) negotiate a better deal, you have greater flexibility, and you can more easily personalize the beer and wine label. (Note: by "personalize the beer and wine label," we don't mean actually putting your name on pink and flowery labels-vomit, right?--we mean you can choose the precise brands of beer and wine you like.) If your venue lets you do it, think about doing it.
But how much do you need? What do your guests expect? What kinds of wine should you provide? Given a rash of recent Ask the Expert questions on alcohol, we'll soon bring you a more comprehensive guideline for booze (including when not to serve it.)
In the meantime, thanks to corkdork for the following:
A couple of tips from a guy in the business (I work for a major wine retailer, so I do a lot of wedding planning as a part of my job):
1. Check on the return policy where you buy the booze -- you don't want to be stuck with 2 bottles of Smirnoff you don't want. Most places have a return policy of "if we can put it back on the shelf, and you have a reciept, it's cool." Talk to them, get comfy with them, they may be helping you pick booze -- which is the core of a good party.
2. Expect every adult will have about 1 drink per hour. So, if you've got 100 adult guests... that's 100 drinks per hour. Yes, that includes your Aunt Donna who doesn't drink -- she's balanced by your cousin Steven who consumes Jack-and-Coke like they're water. 1 drink per hour leaves you with a little extra over a 4 hour party.
3. Figure about 4 glasses of wine per bottle of wine (8 per magnum). About 40 out of a 1.75 L bottle of booze, and 17 out of a 750 ML. Around 110 12oz servings of beer come out of a 1/2 keg (that's the normal size -- nobody makes a full keg).
4. For wine: red, white. That's it. Pick 2 wines, be done with it -- a chard and a merlot, or a pinot grigio and a Chianti, whatever. People order red, or white at weddings; they don't tend to ask for a particular kind of wine.
5. For booze: vodka and whiskey in large quantities. Small quantities of both dark and light rum, tequila, and gin. Mixers in quantity to match.
6. For beer: Equal amounts of light and regular. Keep it simple, make your life easy.
7. For toasting wine: 8 servings per bottle. Get the cheap stuff (Spanish Cava works well...) for the guests -- nobody pays attention to it, and honestly 95% of people can't tell the difference between Cooks and Laurent-Perrier (hint: the former is $5, the latter is $80) without the bottle for reference. Get a good bottle for the head table (something you like, or think you'll like, of course!). Honestly, since the toast goes with cake, ask for sweet wines -- Asti, or semi-seco Cava, and Demi-Sec Champagne.
Full discussion in the forums here.
Loading Poll...