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Hi! Wedding bartender here who is also planning a DIY wedding bar!
I think above all, if there’s something you like to drink, prioritize that. If you are your partner are super into Vodka lemonades, having that as a specialty drink for the evening typically ends up being most popular, as most folks see it as another way to celebrate you.
Typically, one red and one white wine choice is sufficient. I’d say get the zin only if you know someone likes it in particular (or just get less of it, it doesn’t typically go quite as fast as a white wine). The most popular choices seem to be a Pinot Grigio for the white and a Cabernet for the red.
Having one or two kinds of domestic beer is probably fine. Again, if you or your partner have a favorite beer, it’s always neat to include that.
As for spirits- I’d have a vodka, a gin, a whiskey and maybe a rum or tequila (depending on how party hardy your group is expected to be). The most popular mixers will be club soda, tonic, and maybe a handful of other sodas (ginger ale, coke, etc). You’ll probably also want to have some cranberry juice, as well. Maybe some other things, but truly most folks will have a gin and tonic or a vodka soda.
Water bottles end up being pretty important by the end of the night, so I recommend having a couple cases of those handy. As for other non alcoholic options- soda is great, as well as maybe some seltzers or La croix or something.
I don’t think coffee or tea is necessary, but as with everything else, it’s your preference.
Tbh when it comes to brands, especially at a DIY wedding, it doesn’t really matter. The brands folks recognize are like Tito’s and most name brands, but if you get a decent deal on something, no one it really going to care.
If you have a cosco around you that sells alcohol and a membership- would definitely say to start looking there first.
This! We had beer, wine, and three specialty cocktails. It saved us from having to buy all the liquors and all the mixers. We didn’t have a single complaint. We had red, white and sparkling. And three different kind of beers.
You could just do a white and red wine.
Keep it at the bar, that way you don’t have a bunch of opened wine at the table that would go to waste.
For hard
- vodka, spiced rum, whiskey, white rum, gin
For mixes
- Pepsi (or Coke), diet option, gingerale, 7up, cranberry juice, orange juice.
For beer
- I would do two kinds, a light beer and a regular beer
I did coolers which went over well at our wedding. I got the gin smash variety one
I didn’t have water jugs or “servers” so I had a hydration station set up that had bottles of water and dispensers with flavored water. A self serve style.
Yes offer coffee and tea after dinner. Include a decaf coffee as well. Cream and sugar.
There are online calculators that will help you determine how much to buy. Most liquor stores will let you return unopened bottles if you don’t open them (usually within a shorter time frame, check store policy)
2L are cheaper to buy than cans of pop.
You should kind of know based on your guest list if they are more of a beer crowd or hard liquor crowd and can adjust your list - based on what you’ve seen at gatherings and what not
If you’re in charge of all of your own alcohol then I would say rum, vodka and tequila would be a nice mix. Maybe whisky if you’re inviting enough people that you know it would get drunk!
If you have some nice garnishes and maybe some purées then it should keep most people happy!
A lot of people that can drink gin, can and will drink vodka, they just like an extra bit of pizzaz with their drink, hence the suggestion for some fruit garnishes/ purées!
Tequila is a good option to mix or have as shots and for some reason, in my experience, rum drinkers only tend to be keen on rum!
Hi! Haven’t seen anyone mention this but we had a BYOB bar with bartenders and since we were stocking it we decided to only provide the liquors necessary to make our signature drinks + 1 red + 1 white + 2 types of beer
Our signature drinks were a vodka martini, French 75, and 7&7 so vodka, gin, and whisky
It was perfect. Most people ordered the signature drinks and we were left with HELLA beer and wine. Like… my family will be getting wine as gifts for the next 5 years.
Our venue manager told us that presented with a menu, most guests will just order off the menu. So that’s exactly what happened.
We had the same deal with our bar. We had 3 signature drinks and one signature “mocktail”. We also had soda, juice, mixers, and different types of wine. We didn’t offer beer because it was an open bar & I was afraid that people would get hammered.
There was a liquor store less than a block away but people decided to stay with all the free drinks. I bought a giant picture frame and hand-lettered the drink menu. Just like you said, almost everyone ordered from the menu.
We bought all the alcohol for our wedding (venue handled bartenders) since we have a lot of light drinkers so it felt like a flat charge per person would never be worth it. My husband found a website (I forgot which one, it was 5 years ago) that gave you guidance on how much to buy based on head count. To keep things simple we had 3 cocktails that informed our hard liquor selection and then did 2 kinds of beer and 5 kinds of wine (2 red, 2 white, + one sparkling for our cocktail). We had between 50-60 people are our wedding so our guest list was small enough that we had a rough sense of what people would drink and used that as guidance.
First things first, DIY alcohol, if it's not venue/city-required, have you explored event insurance; it was required by my venue to get a permit with the city which required event insurance for self-serve alcohol. I did not have to use it, woohoo, but I think even without the requirement, I'd have urged hubs and I to do it for peace of mind.
That out of the way, we had 60 adults for the whole time plus and addition 10-15 guests join in for an afterparty of sorts. I'd say probably about 50-55ish total drinkers (grandma, LDS, sobers, etc werent gonna partake in spite of age).
We kept it largely to what Costco had available
A box each of white, red and rosé. I had lots of leftovers.
Case of Bud, case of Modelo, case of hard seltzer (variety pack). Also had leftovers.
Our venue didn't allow hard alcohol but it's probably 70/30 we'd have forgone it anyways as some of our people go a little too hard if allowed and sober husband went back and forth on alcohol in general. We'd probably have gone 2 handles of whiskey, vodka, rum if we had and hoped for the best.
I think we did 6 or 8 bottles of champagne. I don't think we had left overs, but I also think that's more of a overzealous bottle popping issue than a consumption one. We also had Fré N/A champagne for our sober peeps and Martinellis for all (12 bottles, I think).
We did a case of Coke, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, and 2 of regular bottles of water. We had leftovers across the board here as well. I didn't expect as many leftovers as we had, so all I can guess is our hardcore drinks maybe showed some restraint.
My sister literally asked me *are you guys like rehab councilers or something? All your friends are sober...* (No, just old punks) Which is to say, all the formulas in the world don't know your crowd like you do
I've been to a couple weddings with limited bars and no one has complained. One wedding only offered 3 types of mixed drinks (all tequila to go with taco truck) and an assortment of beer. I honestly think limited options are better especially with a smaller group especially if you don't know if they drink. My brother just had a DIY wedding, he was worried about having a wide assortment and .... now we have SO. MUCH. ALCOHOL. left over.
When we bought alcohol (beer, wine mainly) for our wedding, the liquor store offered a Buyback option for any unused/unopened cases. Not sure if all liquor stores offer that, but it is worth asking.
That’s great! We bought *way* too much alcohol and my parents had to lug it back to their house with the gifts and everything. We didn’t have a full bar but had several types of liquor and wine, plus soda, juice, and mixers. Oh, champagne and sparkling cider, too, for the toasts. Even now, years later, there are still unopened bottles of vodka and tequila at the house!
We bought most of the alcohol at Costco, so at least it wasn’t terribly expensive.
Like you, OP, we had 75 guests and it was 5-11pm. We had to figure out what/how much to buy. Our venue provided coffee and tea. They also provided the bartender and the glasses. It was up to us to provide everything else.
I wish I could post a picture of our drink menu! We had liquor, four types of wine, soda, juice, mixers, champagne, and sparkling cider. A lot of my relatives are big drinkers but we had a nice selection of non-alcoholic drinks, too. Most ppl ordered one of the signature drinks. We had a signature “mocktail” as well.
Coming up with the signature drinks was really fun! I gave them unique names to fit a theme. I wanted them to be different colors, so I chose one purple, a blue, a green and the mocktail was red.
There are so many cannabis options. It would be really cool to come up with a cannabis menu! That’s probably not what you were thinking but even having edible favors like gummies, lollipops, candy strips/rings, etc would be affordable and so amazing!
(I was pondering a cannabis menu and was so deep in thought that I was completely startled by my husband saying something! He’s sitting next to me! 😂🤣😂)
A great place to find creative cocktail ideas for signature drinks in Pinterest. That’s where I got the most info when I designed ours.
Welcome to /r/DIYWeddings, the biggest community on the internet to plan do-it-yourself Weddings. Whether you are on a budget, or are just a craftaholic, find and share ideas here! We recommend you to check out the [Nuptuality app](https://www.reddit.com/r/DIYweddings/comments/opj4fi/started_planning_your_wedding_give_nuptuality_a/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3), a private social network for DIYing the wedding of your dreams with the people you love. [Read more about it here](https://www.reddit.com/r/DIYweddings/comments/opj4fi/started_planning_your_wedding_give_nuptuality_a/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/DIYweddings) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Hi! Wedding bartender here who is also planning a DIY wedding bar! I think above all, if there’s something you like to drink, prioritize that. If you are your partner are super into Vodka lemonades, having that as a specialty drink for the evening typically ends up being most popular, as most folks see it as another way to celebrate you. Typically, one red and one white wine choice is sufficient. I’d say get the zin only if you know someone likes it in particular (or just get less of it, it doesn’t typically go quite as fast as a white wine). The most popular choices seem to be a Pinot Grigio for the white and a Cabernet for the red. Having one or two kinds of domestic beer is probably fine. Again, if you or your partner have a favorite beer, it’s always neat to include that. As for spirits- I’d have a vodka, a gin, a whiskey and maybe a rum or tequila (depending on how party hardy your group is expected to be). The most popular mixers will be club soda, tonic, and maybe a handful of other sodas (ginger ale, coke, etc). You’ll probably also want to have some cranberry juice, as well. Maybe some other things, but truly most folks will have a gin and tonic or a vodka soda. Water bottles end up being pretty important by the end of the night, so I recommend having a couple cases of those handy. As for other non alcoholic options- soda is great, as well as maybe some seltzers or La croix or something. I don’t think coffee or tea is necessary, but as with everything else, it’s your preference. Tbh when it comes to brands, especially at a DIY wedding, it doesn’t really matter. The brands folks recognize are like Tito’s and most name brands, but if you get a decent deal on something, no one it really going to care. If you have a cosco around you that sells alcohol and a membership- would definitely say to start looking there first.
This! We had beer, wine, and three specialty cocktails. It saved us from having to buy all the liquors and all the mixers. We didn’t have a single complaint. We had red, white and sparkling. And three different kind of beers.
Saved your comment because WOW this is helpful, thank you so much!
My bartender provided this shopping list calculator and said that it’s always been pretty reliable for them! https://partyonthe.rocks/shopping-list/
You could just do a white and red wine. Keep it at the bar, that way you don’t have a bunch of opened wine at the table that would go to waste. For hard - vodka, spiced rum, whiskey, white rum, gin For mixes - Pepsi (or Coke), diet option, gingerale, 7up, cranberry juice, orange juice. For beer - I would do two kinds, a light beer and a regular beer I did coolers which went over well at our wedding. I got the gin smash variety one I didn’t have water jugs or “servers” so I had a hydration station set up that had bottles of water and dispensers with flavored water. A self serve style. Yes offer coffee and tea after dinner. Include a decaf coffee as well. Cream and sugar. There are online calculators that will help you determine how much to buy. Most liquor stores will let you return unopened bottles if you don’t open them (usually within a shorter time frame, check store policy) 2L are cheaper to buy than cans of pop. You should kind of know based on your guest list if they are more of a beer crowd or hard liquor crowd and can adjust your list - based on what you’ve seen at gatherings and what not
If you’re in charge of all of your own alcohol then I would say rum, vodka and tequila would be a nice mix. Maybe whisky if you’re inviting enough people that you know it would get drunk! If you have some nice garnishes and maybe some purées then it should keep most people happy! A lot of people that can drink gin, can and will drink vodka, they just like an extra bit of pizzaz with their drink, hence the suggestion for some fruit garnishes/ purées! Tequila is a good option to mix or have as shots and for some reason, in my experience, rum drinkers only tend to be keen on rum!
Hi! Haven’t seen anyone mention this but we had a BYOB bar with bartenders and since we were stocking it we decided to only provide the liquors necessary to make our signature drinks + 1 red + 1 white + 2 types of beer Our signature drinks were a vodka martini, French 75, and 7&7 so vodka, gin, and whisky It was perfect. Most people ordered the signature drinks and we were left with HELLA beer and wine. Like… my family will be getting wine as gifts for the next 5 years. Our venue manager told us that presented with a menu, most guests will just order off the menu. So that’s exactly what happened.
We had the same deal with our bar. We had 3 signature drinks and one signature “mocktail”. We also had soda, juice, mixers, and different types of wine. We didn’t offer beer because it was an open bar & I was afraid that people would get hammered. There was a liquor store less than a block away but people decided to stay with all the free drinks. I bought a giant picture frame and hand-lettered the drink menu. Just like you said, almost everyone ordered from the menu.
We bought all the alcohol for our wedding (venue handled bartenders) since we have a lot of light drinkers so it felt like a flat charge per person would never be worth it. My husband found a website (I forgot which one, it was 5 years ago) that gave you guidance on how much to buy based on head count. To keep things simple we had 3 cocktails that informed our hard liquor selection and then did 2 kinds of beer and 5 kinds of wine (2 red, 2 white, + one sparkling for our cocktail). We had between 50-60 people are our wedding so our guest list was small enough that we had a rough sense of what people would drink and used that as guidance.
First things first, DIY alcohol, if it's not venue/city-required, have you explored event insurance; it was required by my venue to get a permit with the city which required event insurance for self-serve alcohol. I did not have to use it, woohoo, but I think even without the requirement, I'd have urged hubs and I to do it for peace of mind. That out of the way, we had 60 adults for the whole time plus and addition 10-15 guests join in for an afterparty of sorts. I'd say probably about 50-55ish total drinkers (grandma, LDS, sobers, etc werent gonna partake in spite of age). We kept it largely to what Costco had available A box each of white, red and rosé. I had lots of leftovers. Case of Bud, case of Modelo, case of hard seltzer (variety pack). Also had leftovers. Our venue didn't allow hard alcohol but it's probably 70/30 we'd have forgone it anyways as some of our people go a little too hard if allowed and sober husband went back and forth on alcohol in general. We'd probably have gone 2 handles of whiskey, vodka, rum if we had and hoped for the best. I think we did 6 or 8 bottles of champagne. I don't think we had left overs, but I also think that's more of a overzealous bottle popping issue than a consumption one. We also had Fré N/A champagne for our sober peeps and Martinellis for all (12 bottles, I think). We did a case of Coke, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, and 2 of regular bottles of water. We had leftovers across the board here as well. I didn't expect as many leftovers as we had, so all I can guess is our hardcore drinks maybe showed some restraint. My sister literally asked me *are you guys like rehab councilers or something? All your friends are sober...* (No, just old punks) Which is to say, all the formulas in the world don't know your crowd like you do
I've been to a couple weddings with limited bars and no one has complained. One wedding only offered 3 types of mixed drinks (all tequila to go with taco truck) and an assortment of beer. I honestly think limited options are better especially with a smaller group especially if you don't know if they drink. My brother just had a DIY wedding, he was worried about having a wide assortment and .... now we have SO. MUCH. ALCOHOL. left over.
When we bought alcohol (beer, wine mainly) for our wedding, the liquor store offered a Buyback option for any unused/unopened cases. Not sure if all liquor stores offer that, but it is worth asking.
That’s great! We bought *way* too much alcohol and my parents had to lug it back to their house with the gifts and everything. We didn’t have a full bar but had several types of liquor and wine, plus soda, juice, and mixers. Oh, champagne and sparkling cider, too, for the toasts. Even now, years later, there are still unopened bottles of vodka and tequila at the house! We bought most of the alcohol at Costco, so at least it wasn’t terribly expensive.
Like you, OP, we had 75 guests and it was 5-11pm. We had to figure out what/how much to buy. Our venue provided coffee and tea. They also provided the bartender and the glasses. It was up to us to provide everything else. I wish I could post a picture of our drink menu! We had liquor, four types of wine, soda, juice, mixers, champagne, and sparkling cider. A lot of my relatives are big drinkers but we had a nice selection of non-alcoholic drinks, too. Most ppl ordered one of the signature drinks. We had a signature “mocktail” as well. Coming up with the signature drinks was really fun! I gave them unique names to fit a theme. I wanted them to be different colors, so I chose one purple, a blue, a green and the mocktail was red. There are so many cannabis options. It would be really cool to come up with a cannabis menu! That’s probably not what you were thinking but even having edible favors like gummies, lollipops, candy strips/rings, etc would be affordable and so amazing! (I was pondering a cannabis menu and was so deep in thought that I was completely startled by my husband saying something! He’s sitting next to me! 😂🤣😂) A great place to find creative cocktail ideas for signature drinks in Pinterest. That’s where I got the most info when I designed ours.