You are planning your wedding and you probably have a million questions. How to choose your dress or suit? Which caterer for your wedding meal? Which photographer will be able to immortalize this day?
And there is also the choice of drinks... We know that this can quickly represent a headache and a significant expense. So, we'll give you a little help on the big question of the quantity of wine and champagne for your wedding!
How many guests will consume wine and champagne?
We're not going to teach you anything, but the number of glasses of wine and champagne for your wedding will depend on the number of guests and their consumption throughout the meal.
The first question to ask yourself is: how many people drink alcohol? This may seem silly to you, but we tend to calculate everything based on the total number of guests, but not everyone drinks alcohol. So do this first sorting in order to have the actual number of guests who consume alcoholic beverages. However, this remains an estimate, don't spend too much time on it! The amount of wine needed is an average and will be smoothed out within your margin of error.
The quantity of wine depending on your menu
It is important to plan the stages of the reception where you will serve wine and champagne. The main stages of a wedding meal are the reception or cocktail, the starter, the main course and the dessert.
During the reception, guests are mostly standing and can enjoy light snacks such as canapes and seafood. It is a convivial time for guests to meet and celebrate the occasion while waiting for the start of the wedding meal. Plan here for two or three glasses of champagne or crémant per guest.
This will allow you to choose the most appropriate drinks for each stage of your menu and plan the necessary quantities. Be precise in your planning, this will allow you to avoid additional costs and adapt the quantity of wine and champagne at your wedding to your guests.
How many bottles of champagne to plan for your wedding?
Generally, champagne is served during the reception, but you can also plan to serve it for dessert. Each bottle of champagne can provide up to 6 glasses. The key question is determining how many glasses to serve per guest.
Let's start at the beginning: the cocktail. If you are serving bubbles for your cocktail or your reception wine, champagne or crémant, we recommend one bottle for three people, which is equivalent to two or three glasses of champagne or crémant per guest.
For dessert, if you bring out your bubbles, plan this time for a bottle of champagne for 6 guests. Let's not forget that they will have already drunk and eaten well!
And how many bottles of wine for your wedding?
For the meal, we can count on one bottle for three guests on average.
The wines selected for the meal should pair with both the starter and the main course. The guests are seated and take the time to taste your menu. Entertainment can punctuate the meal and therefore increase the time spent at the table. So bring enough white and red wines to accompany the entire meal.
A bottle of wine serves 6 to 7 glasses. For red wine, allow around three glasses per person.
Also provide white wine for your guests. White wine goes mainly with starters or fish. But, even if your entire meal is mostly accompanied by red wine, some people don't like red wine, don't forget them!
The optimal distribution of white and red wine for a wedding menu will then be around a bottle of red for two people and a bottle of white for four people.
For some more Mediterranean wedding menus, you can replace white wine with rosé in the same quantities.
Finally, if your wedding menu includes cheese served on a platter or plate, count on an additional glass of red wine per guest. It will therefore be necessary to count one bottle for 6 people.
Some concrete examples of quantity of wine and champagne for a wedding
Here are some examples of receptions with 60, 80 and 100 guests to give you an idea of the quantity of wine and champagne for a wedding.
Reception of 60 guests:
- Cocktail: 24 bottles of champagne
- Wedding meal: 30 bottles of red wine and 18 bottles of white wine
- Dessert: 12 bottles of crémant or champagne
Reception of 80 guests:
- Cocktail: 30 bottles of champagne
- Wedding meal: 42 bottles of red wine and 24 bottles of white wine
- Dessert: 18 bottles of crémant or champagne
Reception of 100 guests:
- Cocktail: 36 bottles of champagne
- Wedding meal: 54 bottles of red wine and 30 bottles of white wine
- Dessert: 24 bottles of crémant or champagne
In the examples above, the wedding meal includes a vegetarian or fish-based starter, a main course consisting of meat and cheese.
In summary, the amount of wine and champagne needed for a wedding depends on several factors, such as the number of guests, planned consumption, type of wine and length of the reception. It is important to plan and budget carefully to avoid unnecessary expenses and to ensure that all guests will be satisfied.
We hope that these tips will help and guide you. We will come back quickly with other tips for your weddings and events.