It can be a little daunting to make the decision to buy your wedding wine yourself. But, it does allow you to choose which wines you want which makes your wedding day just that more special.
Follow this guide to learn what wines work best for events like this and how much to purchase.
Budget
The first thing we’ll delve into is the most important, budget. This is how we’ll figure out how much you can spend per bottle. A good rule of thumb is to take your number of guests and divide it by 2.15. This will give you the number of bottles of wine you’ll need to purchase.
For example, if you have 100 guests, 100/2.15 = 46.5, therefore you should get around 46 bottles of wine for your wedding. From there you can determine how much you can spend on each bottle.
Note: if you’re serving cocktails you can buy 30% less wine.
What type of wine to buy
For Fall, Winter, and early Spring weddings, people tend to drink more red wine. We recommend 50% of your wine purchased be red wine, with the other 50% be a mix of white and sparkling wine.
For late Spring, Summer, and outdoor weddings, people lean towards white wine a bit more. We recommend 40% of your wine be white wine and add Rosé as an option.
Once you’ve decided how much of each type of wine you’re buying you’ll need to figure out what kinds of reds and whites to go with. If you and/or your guests aren’t huge wine drinkers, it’s best to go with fan favorites like Cabernet Sauvignon for red and Sauvignon Blanc for white. If you are more of a wine drinker, we love the idea of going nostalgic and choosing a wine that reflects your relationship. It could be your favorite date night wine, a wine that reminds you of a special memory, etc.
What about the champagne toast?
We suggest dividing your guest count by 8, this should give you enough sparkling wine to pour everyone a half-glass of bubbly for the toast. As important as this toast is, most people won’t drink more than half a glass of sparkling wine, therefore you won’t need to purchase that much.
Congrats on your engagement and have so much fun planning this big event!