Drinks planning is one of the few wedding decisions where getting the maths slightly wrong is immediately visible — an empty bar at 9pm, or three unopened cases in the back of a car. Here's the model we use when we quote a wedding.
The volumes that work
Arrival: one welcome drink per guest, plus 30% for second serves during photographs. Allow more if your drinks reception runs beyond an hour.
Wedding breakfast: roughly half a bottle of wine per guest across the meal, split around 60/40 white and rosé to red in summer, closer to even in winter.
Toast: one glass of fizz per guest, and remember that not everyone drinks it — a good alcohol-free alternative saves waste.
Evening: two to three drinks per guest across the evening bar, weighted heavily towards the first two hours after the first dance.
Building the timeline
The bar should open the moment the ceremony ends and stay open through the photographs — that's the window where guests are standing around with nothing to do.
Close or slow the bar during the meal and speeches, then reopen properly before the first dance so there's no crush the moment the music starts.
Last orders 30 minutes before the venue curfew, with the bar physically closed 15 minutes before, keeps everything calm at the end of the night.
Signature serves and the alcohol-free list
Two signature cocktails, batched in advance and named after the two of you, will outsell almost everything else on the menu and speed up service dramatically.
Treat the alcohol-free list as a real menu. Roughly one in five UK wedding guests won't be drinking, and a considered zero-proof serve is remembered.
Getting help with it
We model all of this against your specific running order when we quote wedding bar hire — guest count, timings, season and venue restrictions included — so you're never guessing at a spreadsheet the week before.