The ultimate wedding bar checklist

Planning the bar and drinks for your wedding reception is a pivotal part of your event preparation. To ensure that your guests have a fantastic time and that everything runs smoothly, follow this detailed guide.

Decide on your drink offerings

One of the first things to decide is which drinks you’ll offer to your guests for your wedding reception. Ideally, your drinks offering should include a variety of options so that just about anyone can find something they like on the menu.

Here’s a brief overview of the traditional drinks selection offered at a wedding reception.

• Beer - If you’re including beer in your drinks offering, be sure to include at least a small range of options. This could include a traditional lager, an ale and a light beer for your guests to select from. The most popular among your beer selection should be the most abundant in your bar.
• Wine - Offer both red and white wines as a starting point for your wine selection. From here you can pick two or three varieties of each to cover a broad range of taste preferences. For red wine, include light-bodied to full-bodied wines like Pinot Noir and Shiraz, and for white wines, offer fresh, light options like Riesling and richer options like Chardonnay.
• Simple Cocktails - Choose one or two classic cocktails such as margaritas, mojitos, and martinis for your cocktail offering. These are popular and are easy to make in large batches, saving you costs and your guests time spent at the bar. Because cocktails are usually stronger than beer and wines, you likely won’t have to stock so many in your wedding bar.
• Mixed Drinks - Include simple mixed drinks like gin and tonic or rum and coke. These are versatile, widely enjoyed and easy to make.
• Non-Alcoholic Options - Provide a range of non-alcoholic drinks like sparkling water, fruit juices, and soft drinks to accommodate all guests.

Estimate Drink Quantities

Accurately estimating the number of drinks to stock is crucial to ensuring a smooth and enjoyable wedding reception. There’s nothing worse than a dry bar at a wedding, but overestimating what you need can lead to unnecessary costs and waste. 

To strike the right balance, consider your guest count, the timeframe of your reception, and the variety of drinks you plan to serve.

• Determine guest count - Confirm the number of guests attending your wedding before you finalise any drink stocking orders.
• Estimate drinks per person - There’s no hard and fast rule for how much wedding guests drink on average. This could vary significantly depending on who is present. However, a good ballpark figure to help you plan is approximately 1-2 drinks per hour per guest. For a 4-hour wedding reception, this means between 4-8 drinks per guest.

Use the following table as an example to estimate total drink quantities for a 4-hour wedding reception

This table is only a rough guide for the total drinks volume if each type of drink was the only one offered at your wedding reception. As you add more drinks to your menu, you can proportionally lower the volume of other beverages on offer, and vice versa.

Setting up the bar

In addition to the drinks offering, it’s important to consider how your guests will actually get their drinks. There are a number of ways to organise this, and you’ll have the venue, your guests and any laws regarding appropriate alcohol serving standards.

• Choose a location - The bar should be in a central and accessible location. Ensure it doesn’t obstruct the flow of the event but is easy for guests to reach at just about any time.
• Consider bar stations - If you’re hosting a large number of guests at your wedding reception, it might be a good idea to spread out your drinks service locations to ensure your guests can get drinks promptly and easily. You could achieve this with one major bar alongside one or two minor drinks stations in different locations around the venue.

Hire and Manage Staffing

Professional staffing is crucial for efficient drink service at your wedding reception. Depending on where you’re hosting your reception, it may also be a legal necessity that your guests are served drinks by accredited bartenders.

• Number of bartenders - A good starting point is to hire one bartender for every 50-75 guests. This helps ensure timely service for your guests. If you’re planning on offering a large amount of cocktails for your wedding, you may want to hire more bartenders to make sure they each have time to prepare the drinks.
• Table service waiters - If you’re offering table service to serve wine to your guests, you’ll want to hire extra bartenders. Generally, it’s a good idea to have one server for every 25 to 35 guests. 

Experienced bartenders and servers will keep the bar running smoothly and handle any issues that arise, allowing you to focus on enjoying your celebration with your guests.

Prepare for operation

To ensure a smooth and successful bar at your wedding, thorough preparation is essential. This involves more than just stocking the bar with drinks.

• Pre-mix cocktails - If you’re offering cocktails, make sure to have large batches of signature cocktails prepared and chilled in advance to streamline service during the event.
• Ice supply - Arrange for an adequate supply of ice. You’ll need to consider which types of drinks you’re offering, including mixed drinks with ice, and whether you’re keeping bottled drinks at your stations chilled with ice. If you’re not sure about the amount of ice you’ll need, it’s best to have too much rather than too little.
• Glassware - Ensure you have enough glassware, including wine glasses, beer mugs, cocktail glasses, and tumblers.

As your wedding day approaches, you’ll also need to finalise a few things to help ensure that your bar is stocked and ready to operate.

• Double-check drink quantities - Review and adjust drink quantities based on your final guest count to ensure you have enough of each type.
• Coordinate with the venue: Confirm bar setup and logistics with your venue to ensure everything is in place.
• Create a drink menu: Prepare a drink menu or signage to guide guests through the available options. This is an excellent way to help manage the volume of drinks without telling your guests what they can and can’t order. For example, highlighting cocktails is likely to encourage more guests to order them.

By attending to these details, you’ll ensure that your bar service is well-organised and prepared to show your guests a good time. Best of all, by sorting out these details ahead of time, you’ll have more time to relax and enjoy your big day.

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‘Til next month xx