How Many Drinks Do You Need for a Wedding? 🍾 The Ultimate Guide

Planning your wedding bar can feel like solving a Rubik’s cube after three champagnes. Too much booze? You blow the budget. Not enough? Your guests are doing the awkward empty-hand shuffle on the dance floor.

So, how many drinks do you actually need for a wedding? Let’s break it down, Boss Bar Hire style.

🎯 The Golden Rule: 3–4 Drinks Per Guest, Per Hour

As a general guide:

• First 2 hours → 2 drinks per person, per hour (guests arrive thirsty).

• Remaining hours → 1–1.5 drinks per person, per hour.

👉 Example: For a 5-hour wedding with 100 guests, you’ll need around 500 drinks total.

🍷 Beer, Wine, Bubbles or Cocktails?

A well-balanced bar keeps everyone happy. Here’s the mix we usually recommend:

• Beer & Cider: 40–50%

• Wine & Champagne: 25–35%

• Cocktails & Spirits: 25–35%

So for those 500 drinks, you’d be looking at:

• 200–250 beers/ciders

• 125–175 wines/champagnes

• 125–175 cocktails/spirit serves

👉 Younger, cocktail-loving crowds? Push that cocktail percentage higher. Mixed-age or family weddings? Beer and wine often dominate. We recommend a 2 x 50L beer kegs for a wedding with 100 guests.

🍺 Kegs vs Bottles vs Cans

Wondering what’s easiest for service? Here’s the quick lowdown:

• Kegs: Cost-effective, eco-friendly, and faster to serve (no bottle caps or can rubbish). Perfect for beer, cider, and even cocktails on tap.

• Bottles: Great for wine and champagne, but take up fridge space.

• Cans: Handy for casual events but not exactly wedding-worthy.

👉 Pro tip: One 50L keg = about 175 pots of beer.

🥂 Don’t Forget the Champagne Toast

A champagne tower or toast moment is iconic at weddings. For 100 guests, you’ll need roughly 30–36 bottles of champagne (depending on pour size). At Boss Bar Hire, we also offer 4-tier and 5-tier champagne towers to make that toast unforgettable.

💸 Budgeting Tip

Most couples spend around $30–$50 per guest on drinks. Going with keg hire and a mobile bar service can actually stretch your budget further, less waste, faster service, and a bar that looks incredible in photos.

✅ Quick Wedding Drinks Calculator

• Guests: 100

• Hours: 5

• Total drinks needed: 500

• Breakdown (example cocktail-heavy split):

  • 200 beers/ciders

  • 140 wines/champagnes

  • 160 cocktails/spirit serves

Final Sip

When it comes to weddings, getting the drinks right is half the party. Too little and you’re scrambling; too much and you’re stuck with warm leftovers.

That’s where we come in. At Boss Bar Hire, we’ve got custom mobile bars, kegs, bartenders, glassware, champagne towers, and full drinks packages to make sure your wedding bar runs smoother than a freshly shaken martini.

👉 Ready to lock in the perfect bar setup for your big day? Get your custom quote today.