Imagine you're at your wedding, everyone is having a great time, it's 12:30 AM and your Wedding Planner comes up to you and whispers in your ear that the alcohol is running out. 😭😱 What do you do? Send someone to buy bottles at the OXXO? How many bottles should you buy to make your wedding last until 3 AM?

This tragedy has been repeated at weddings that could have lasted until 4 AM, but there wasn't enough blessed alcohol to quench the guests' thirst. The option of buying the remaining bottles at Oxxo might seem like a good idea, but also a very expensive one. You can solve this with a good calculation of your bottles.

If there's one thing that can't be missing from your wedding before 3 AM, it's alcohol. Let's be honest, the candy bar might give your guests energy for about 30 minutes (the famous sugar rush 🍭), but nothing gets the party going like drinks.

In this blog, we'll give you 6 tips to follow so that the party never stops on one of the most important days of your life.

OJO* Un error muy común en las bodas es considerar comprar menos alcohol para ahorrar dinero, sabemos que es una inversión muy fuerte, pero es un arma de doble filo. Evítate la molestia de tener que ir a comprar más alcohol durante tu boda y gastar más!

1. Know Your Guests

The first thing you should do before choosing which alcohol to buy is to know your guests. If you know your family are tequila lovers at heart and could drink like fish, make sure to consider buying more tequila. Do a lot of your friends drink whiskey? Perfect! Make sure there's enough! These types of questions will help you get a bigger picture of what type of alcohol will be consumed the most.

If you don't know the tastes of all your guests at all, we recommend using the Poseidon's Trident: Tequila, Whiskey, and Rum. Applying the formula 40%, 30%, 30%.

2. How Many Adult Guests Will Attend Your Wedding?

Once you have the number of guests, you'll need to divide them into age ranges:

• 5 – 15  (Only consider them for soft drinks or non-alcoholic beverages)
• 18 – 35 (High alcohol consumption)
• 36 – 49 (Medium/high alcohol consumption)
• 50 – 65 (Low alcohol consumption)
• 65+ (Very low/no consumption)

3. Where and When Is Your Wedding?

You need to consider the location and date of your wedding to know which spirit might be consumed the most. Here are some tips for each season and type of venue:

Summer ☀️

If your wedding is outdoors and in the summer, the heat will undoubtedly increase alcohol consumption. If it's in a hall, we recommend making sure there's good ventilation so your guests don't die of heat and decide to finish all the alcohol to cool down. For summer, our recommendation would be Gin&Tonics 😍

Spring 💐

Spring weddings (from March to June) tend to offer stable weather, so we would only recommend preparing for an outdoor wedding if you plan on having a bit more alcohol, as the weather is perfect for a cool drink. Margaritas are ideal for this time of year 🍸

Autumn/Winter 🍂☃️

During these cold afternoons, the consumption of spirits tends to decrease, but wine consumption tends to increase. We recommend offering coffee cocktails! 🥃

4. Is your wedding during the day or at night?

Definitely one of the key points to consider to know how many bottles you need for your wedding.

If your wedding starts during the day, you'll need to spend double on alcohol to cover from the meal until the early morning. On the other hand, if your wedding starts in the afternoon/evening, you'll only need to consider alcohol for dinner and onwards.

Additionally, as we mentioned in point 3, if your wedding is during the day, consumption will surely increase with the heat, so take these variables into account for your calculations.

5. Calculate how many bottles you need for your wedding

The most important point. Although there are various ways to calculate the number of bottles you need for your wedding, we'll share our magic formula for calculating by number of guests.

These are the golden rules:

• Always plan for 1 drink per person per hour of the event.
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• If your guests are heavy drinkers, consider 1.5 to 2 drinks per person per hour of the event.
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• A 750ml bottle yields approximately 16 well-poured glasses.
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• A well-poured glass is 45ml.
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• A full glass is 55ml.
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• Use the Poseidon's Trident formula if in doubt.

If your wedding is from 6pm to 2am and you have 100 guests, your formula would be:

100 guests x 8 hours = 800 glasses

800 glasses / 16 well-poured glasses = 50 bottles

This is the formula we use for our events, but there are other ways to calculate the bottles you need for your event.

Algunas wedding planners recomiendan calcular de 1-3 botellas por mesa de 10 invitados para una buena boda, pero si de plano quieres una bodachera, entonces considera de 4-6 botellas.

6. Spirits that can't be missing from your wedding

What definitely can't be missing from a wedding and is generally liked are: Tequila, Rum, and Wine (Red and White).

With tequila and rum, you have the perfect Ying & Yang; there's no one who would refuse a Cuba Libre or a Paloma when everything else is scarce.

As additional bottles, we suggest: Vodka, Gin, Mezcal, Brandy. Not everyone's palate enjoys these bottles, so they should only be considered if the couple likes them or if a large portion of their guests are consumers of these spirits.

We hope this article has been useful and that you can prepare for your big event! Remember that for your drink calculation to be correct, you need a professional service that serves drinks and cocktails with proper measures.

To make your bottles last, we work with jiggers to serve perfect shots, always 45ml.

If you want a quote for our cocktail and open bar service just click here

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