How to calculate how much to buy and what to buy without breaking the bank.
Firstly, you need to decide how long your event will last. An average wedding, for example, is about 6 hours, starting from around 5 pm or so.
Then you need your guest count – that’s where RSVP’s are useful. Traditionally, weddings, engagement parties and reunions will RSVP. Backyard parties, not so much! Events set-up through Facebook work well for getting a rough idea of who is attending.
Once you have this information, next work out the drink count. Usually you will have a mix of light, average and heavy drinkers. Don’t worry about pleasing everyone! It will all work out with this easy calculation.
Normally you can expect most people will have 2 drinks in the first hour and one every hour after that, so take your number of adult guests (let’s say 100) and multiply that by the number of hours (working on 6 hours here in the example).
100 x 6 = 600 drinks. Then add an extra serve = 700 drinks.
At most functions, 35% will drink beer, 35% wine and 30% spirits (or a cocktail).
Now break it up:
700*35% = 245 beers (approx 8 ctns x 30 or 10 ctns x 24)
700*35% = 245 serves of wine (150mL serves @ 5 serves per bottle = 49 bottles)
700*30% = 210 serves spirits (30mL per serve @ 23 serves per 700mL bottle = 9 bottles
Of course this calculation varies if you have a different male/female ratio. And it’s okay to play with the percentages. A party of 50 ladies, might look a bit more like 50% wine, 50% spirits, or even just 100% bubbles!
Save money on your alcohol budget by serving only wine and beer (break the calculation 50-50 instead) and keep your choices for guests simple – 2 choices of beer, 1 red type, 2 types of white. You will need less ice too for just beer & wine! Provide a few extra reds during winter months, not so much in summer.
Stretch your beer out a bit further by buying 30 packs of cans: 1. There is more beer in a can than a bottle; 2. Cans get colder faster; 3. More cans in a carton; 4. Cans are easier and safer to dispose of than bottles.
Offer a cocktail using your spirit bottle count – narrow the field down to only 2 cocktails as this lessens the number of mixers and garnish you will need. Also, cocktails can take longer to make so ones that can be batched or served in a punch bowl are ideal.
Don’t forget your non-drinkers! Add a few bottles of lemonade, soda water, juice or coke for them. And water too of course!
Cairns’ humidity will melt your ice really quickly. The way you pack your esky makes a big difference to how much ice you need. Always stand your drinks upright in an esky then put the ice on top – jiggling it down between the cans or bottles. Lying drinks on their side doesn’t achieve anything except to waste space and ice. An 82 litre esky will generally need 2 to 3 bags of 5kg ice. If serving spirits/cocktails, it’s usually about a 5kg bag for every 10 guests. Place your eskies in shade, and keep your spare bags for drinks in a separate esky or 2.
But that doesn’t look like enough? Yep! It will be – but if you do think guest are going to drink a bit more than normal, add an extra drink in per person. Just remember though that some people don’t drink at all, some will only have 2 or 3 drinks and some guests leave early too. This leaves more for others to take up the slack!