Wine Order for Wedding

Is there a convenient rule of thumb for how much wine to order for 100 guests (around 30 of which won't really be drinking)?  We're having the wedding at a winery, and have to purchase the wine beforehand - and unlike some wineries, they will not buy back the wine if there are bottles left over.  But they WILL pull off the shelves if we order too little.  We are not having hard liquor, but will be serving beer if guests want beer.

I don't think we mind if there is a case left behind, because we'll just give it away, but if there is more than that, we'll have problems (we don't live in the area and cannot transport them back easily).

I am in the same situation.  My caterer told me to plan for about 3-4 people per bottle. Our venue states that we have to buy 2 bottles per person, although I got them down to one. Thats still a lot of wine! So, for us, we are going to plan on using a couple bottles at our rehearsal dinner too. HTH!

Ash are you serious?  2 bottles per person is the rule!?  That is absolutely insane that they even think they can do that.  Ridiculous!

Jellie-  have you asked the winery?  Usually they can compare past weddings & let you know how much other people have ordered for similarly sized events.  Get some numbers, then order a bit less than that.  If you need more, they'll get more.  :)

Buy your own wine... we put a bottle of red wine & a bottle of white wine at each table of 8. Plus one bottle of champagne & one bottle of cide per table for the toast. People dont need to get sloshed at your wedding. Other tables that don't drink usually pass their bottles on to the drinking tables.

-Leann

leann@budgetdesignerflorals.com

http://www.projectwedding.com/vendor/show/budget-designer-florals

MTTB - Good advice!  yes, the winery gave us some kind of rule of thumb (something similar to the 3 people per bottle rule Kohler's caterer recommends), but I also think they were surprised to hear that there were going to be many non-drinkers in the crowd.  It's just very hard to gauge.  Will the non-drinkers nevertheless have a sip for the toasts?  How many will prefer beer?  We also don't want to order too much lest the caterers go crazy and start opening bottles needlessly.

Kohler, wow, that is a pretty ridiculous requirement.  2 bottles per person?  We'd initially ordered 6 cases (72 bottles), and I thought, considering we estimate our number of drinkers to be around 70, 1 bottle per person may be a bit too much. 

I think that is a great idea - using some of the wine for the rehearsal dinner.  Unfortunately, we're doing ours at Hotel Healdsburg, so we have to purchase additional wine there.  *sigh* there really is no way to cut costs, is there?

Hmm, what about using the wine for your bridal shower? Bachelorette party? Guestgifts?  If we have any left over wine we'll share it with family and take ours home to our wine fridge :)

Kohler: 2 bottles per person is insane. My family and friends are big drinkers but I honestly don't know if I've ever seen ANYONE drink two bottles of wine, (especially at a classy social function like a wedding).

The rule I had heard... though really don't know people will drink this much, is 2 drinks the first hour and a drink every hour after. This is what we are doing, but we are allowed to provide all the alcohol and will return the unopened bottles! I think it really differs on the amount people normally drink.

I'm stumped on this same topic.  I read some time ago that you should anticipate guests at a dinner function serving only wine to drink approx. 1-2 glasses within the first hour and average about 1 glass per hour after that.  For a 4 hour reception, thats 4-5 glasses per person...I don't know about you, but I think that's a bit excessive.  I've now decided to calculate 2-3 glasses per person.  For the people that don't drink, I'll still count because that will hopefully make up for those that do drink more than the average. 

I also read 2 glasses per person for champagne/sparkling wine.  Some will drink a little for the toast, so the rest will be for the people that drink it through the evening.

HTH

Our caterer suggested one case of red and one case of white plus champagne/sparkling per groups of fifty. I think it really depends on the crowd that you're inviting but beware of having the wine sitting on the tables because people can go through it a lot faster than you think. I was at a three hour function last night and I think our table went through two bottles of sparkling, two red, and a white. It's too easy for people to drink a lot when they can help themselves.