Wedding calculator
Wedding alcohol calculator: how much to drink, eat and chill
Enter your guest list and what the party looks like. The calculator takes out the guests who usually don’t show and tells you what to buy the way it is sold: cases of beer, bottles of wine, bags of ice. Every number says where it came from.
- Free, no sign-up
- In cases, bottles and bags
- Every number explained
Your shopping list
For 85 expected guests
76 adults and 9 children, from 100 invited (15% no-shows), over 6 hours.
With Ring’s online RSVP, you know who’s really coming. How it works
Food
Appetizers
6 pieces per adult and 3.6 per child
With a served dinner, appetizers only carry the cocktail hour.
538 pieces
Wedding cake
1 serving per guest
Bakers size a cake by servings: one per guest.
94 servings
Drinks
Beer
2.1 beers per drinker
Each drinker has 2 drinks in the first hour and 1 an hour after. Beer takes its share of them.
6 cases of 24
144 12 oz cans
Wine
3.5 glasses per drinker
Wine’s share of each drinker’s drinks, poured at 5 oz: 5 glasses a bottle.
47 bottles
Liquor
1.4 drinks per drinker
The cocktails’ share of each drinker’s drinks, at 1.5 oz: about 17 a bottle.
6 750 ml bottles
Champagne for the toast
1 glass per adult
A 4 oz glass for every adult to raise. About 6 a bottle.
14 bottles
Soda and mixers
1.8 cups per non-drinker
5 oz an hour, 70% of it soda. A drinker counts as a third of a person (mixers), a child as 0.8.
16 2-liter bottles
Juice
0.76 cups per non-drinker
The other 30% of those 5 oz an hour. Children reach for it first.
7 64 oz bottles
Water
1.2 bottles per guest
About 3.4 oz an hour for every guest, drinking or not.
5 cases of 24
120 16.9 oz bottles
Ice
Ice
1.5 lb per guest
For the glasses and the cocktails. The drinks stay cold in the fridge.
13 10 lb bags
Before you buy
Ask about returns
Many liquor stores take back unopened bottles. Buy the “so nothing runs out” number and return the rest the next day.
Hand the caterer a final count
Caterers usually want the final number one to two weeks out. Close your RSVPs before then, so you pay for who is coming.
Ice arrives on the day
Have it delivered the morning of the wedding and kept in the shade. In the heat, get more: it melts before it reaches a glass.
Better than guessing: knowing who’s coming.
With Ring, every guest answers from a link, with nothing to install, and you know how many are really coming. Your plan tells you when to give the caterer the final count and when to order the cake.
Online RSVP
Every invitation with a link of its own. See who’s coming, who isn’t and who hasn’t answered.
A plan that keeps time
“Choose the caterer”, “Order the cake and desserts”, “Settle the final guest count”: each task shows up when it is time for it.
Seating chart
Once the list is confirmed, the app seats your guests without splitting anyone who came together.
Coming soon to iPhoneHow the wedding calculator works it out
It starts from the guest list, not from who shows up. Some guests always don’t: planners count on 15% to 20% before RSVPs and about 5% after, more for a destination wedding or a holiday weekend. The calculator takes that out and splits the rest into adults, children and drinkers.
The bar is counted in drinks, the way bartenders do: 2 in the first hour and 1 an hour after for every drinker, times how much your crowd drinks. Those drinks are split across what the bar pours (half wine, three tenths beer and a fifth liquor when all three are served), then turned into 12 oz beers, 5 oz glasses of wine and 1.5 oz shots. The champagne toast is counted on its own, a glass per adult. Soda, juice and water are counted by the hour, and heat adds 15% to beer, 20% to soft drinks and 30% to water and ice. Ice depends on where the drinks stay cold: with a fridge, only the glasses’ (1 lb a guest, 1.5 lb with a full bar); in coolers or tubs, 1 lb more a guest to chill them.
Food follows what caterers use: 6 appetizers an adult during a cocktail hour before dinner, 12 at a cocktail reception of up to 4 hours (and 2 more an hour after that), a serving of cake per guest. A child counts as 60% of an adult for appetizers.
Each item is then rounded up to what you buy: cases, bottles, pounds and bags of ice, with the cushion you picked. If your caterer pours differently, change the per-person number on any line and the list updates at once.
References
Wedding calculator: frequently asked questions
How much alcohol do I need for a wedding of 100?
If all 100 come, 80 of them drink and the reception runs 6 hours, plan on about 560 drinks: 56 bottles of wine, 7 cases of beer and 7 bottles of liquor, plus 16 bottles of champagne for the toast. Add a 10% cushion, and fewer if you count no-shows.
How many drinks per guest at a wedding?
Two drinks in the first hour and one every hour after, for each guest who drinks. That is 7 drinks over a 6-hour reception, about 30% fewer for a light crowd and 30% more for a lively one. Guests who don’t drink aren’t counted.
How many appetizers per person at a wedding?
About 6 pieces per adult for a cocktail hour before a served dinner, and 12 when heavy appetizers are the meal, plus 2 an hour past 4 hours. Children eat about 60% of that.
How many guests don’t show up to a wedding?
Usually 15% to 20% of the list before RSVPs come in, and around 5% after. Destination weddings, holiday weekends and long guest lists see more; small weddings with close family and friends see fewer.
How much ice do I need for a wedding?
It depends on where the drinks stay cold. If the venue has fridges, ice is only for the glasses: about 1 pound per guest, 1.5 with a full bar. If drinks chill in coolers or tubs, plan on 2 to 2.5 pounds per guest, and 30% more in summer heat.
Are my numbers saved?
The math runs in your browser and nothing is sent to Ring. It is kept on this device for when you come back, and the share button makes a link that opens the same list on another phone.
More from Ring
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