How Much Alcohol for a Party?

A full bar for 100 guests at a wedding comes to 41 bottles of wine, 5 cases of beer, 19 bottles of champagne, and 6 bottles of spirits, about 447 drinks once the 5-hour reception is accounted for. Every figure includes a 15 percent buffer, so these are what to buy rather than what will be drunk exactly.

The number of drinks is set by guest count and how long the party runs, not by how many kinds of alcohol you put out. Serving four drinks instead of one does not raise the total; it divides the same total between them. What changes by event is the split. Wine leads the bar at 4 of the 13 events here, beer at 6, and the extremes are wide: beer takes 60.9 percent of a Super Bowl bar, while champagne takes 50.8 percent of a wedding shower. Pick your event below for the full breakdown.