Self Catering

cookiedough38

we are self catering for our wedding, we have a cottage from friday afternoon until monday morning.

We are doing a ploughmans buffet for lunch and possibly curry and jacket potatoes for the evening.

We need to buy in alcohol, both sets of parents love wine. In total there are 20 adults and 2 children.

How much alcohol should I buy in and what kind of spirits?

thanks in advance

HelzBelz

Vodka, Gin, Bacardi, Whiskey would be the basics,

maybe a dark Rum or brandy and bayleys

Lots of mixers and beers and I'd say at least 2 bottles of wine per adult

McKneff

Dont forget the sherry

Mme.Hibou

We're self catering for 60ish, one full day, 6 days before Christmas. 10 of the 60 people attending will be under 11.

We're also trying to weigh up what we'll need and how much of it too. I'm going to keep an eye on this thread.

shelovestobuystuff

Loads of cheap easy drinking white wine.
I was looking at getting some of the 'silver star' wine from tesco,its about £2 a bottle:cool: ,and putting my own personalised wedding labels on so no-one will know how cheap I am;)
Honestly though,I appreciate nice wine and prefer dry wines myself but I know that most of my family just like the sweet whites which are easy to throw back so I am not wasting a fortune on good wine which won't be appreciated when I know they really prefer the cheaper ones anyway:o .
I will have a range of different wines but the vast majority will be this cheapy one.
As for how much to allow and how much to buy.Well I know some of my guests will drink their own body weight in alchohol without even slurring their speech so I am going to allow for the average which is a glass with each course of food,or half a bottle per adult over a meal,then quadruple it!

We are going away for the whole week and will have our guests with us for 3 nights/4 days.There will be 12 adults and 2 kids.For the wedding day alone I am allowing:
6 bottles of champagne(alright cava!)
6 bottles of various roses
12 bottles of my cheap white wine
one bottle of Glayva to go with dessert
crate of german beer for the men for our midnight BBQ
Hope that will be enough.

The night before the wedding I am severely restricting the alcohol intake at dinner as I dont want everyone hungover for the wedding.

I will wait until the evening after the wedding before I have a drink,apart of course from a small amount to toast with.We are having a party the night after so will need probably a few more bottles of wine,beer and whisky for that too.

Horace

For kids, offer them lemonade or coke and if they want to feel as though they are participating in the toast, let them have a glass of elderflower fizz as this is non-alcoholic (Bottle Green do one).

With all types of wine - allow 4 glasses (standard size not large) per bottle. 6 glasses if you use really small glasses.

Go to somewhere like Majestic Wine Warehouse and see if you can buy wine etc on a sale or return basis that way you don't end up with lots of bottles that you can't drink. You may also be able to get free glasses from them too or they can be hired from them at nominal cost.

McKneff

Ask at the supermarkets or the off licences if they will do a sale or return
on drinks. Some do and it will save a lot of guesswork/wastage.
Also think about boxes of wine.

cookiedough38

I am not too worried about having too much, its a december wedding so any left overs can go into hampers etc. Any half opened bottles of spirits will go to any family members willing to take them.

Horace - I love your idea about letting the children join in with the toast, but both the girls are mine (5 and 15 months at the wedding) and the 5 year old doesnt like fizzy drink. But I may make up an alcohol free cocktail for her (and me!!) to drink as I know she would love that.

Thanks for the ideas on spirits, thats really helped

MsChazzer

I'm just wondering what amounts we should be having, any ideas?

We're having about 70 guests, let's say around 10 will be kids/non-drinkers (possibly more with people driving but will err on the side of caution). Ceremony at 2pm, glass of sparkling wine afterwards at around 2.30pm then photos, barbecue from about 3/3.30pm, finishing up around 7pm when we go on to the evening venue (which has a bar people can buy their own drinks from). We want to provide wine, beer (bottles of real ale) and soft drinks. I don't drink so I'm rubbish at calculating this kind of thing and OH prefers quality real ale over quantity.

shelovestobuystuff

for a non-alcoholic drink for the girls try elderflower cordial in schweppes lemonade,almost tastes like champagne.

MsChazzer

shelovestobuystuff wrote: »

for a non-alcoholic drink for the girls try elderflower cordial in schweppes lemonade,almost tastes like champagne.

We're going for the Cairn O'Mohr one, think we've spoken about this one before?!