Wines and SpiritsHow to calculate how many glasses you'll need at a function
It is very easy to over or under supply glasses for your event or function. Often you won"t be sure of the numbers attending and you may be tempted to cut a middle number for the glasses.
Or perhaps you will say - 100 people, 100 glasses - easy! The problem is that people change drinks, move from red wine to white, prefer soda water as the evening draws to a close - particularly if they will be driving. How many times have the function staff had to collect glasses and expedite one of the team to the kitchen to wash and speedily dry the returns before they run out at the bar?
How many glasses should you order? around twice as many as your guests - but that is dependant on what you"ll be drinking - In the next section we look at what that might be and how to select quantities of glasses based on types of drinks likely to be consumed, the style of event and the type of guests you expect to be present at your event.
Some influences on glass ware requirements?
Expanding a little on the theme of having enough glasses and types of glasses at your function! There are a couple of major influences at any function or event that will normally give you the lead on how many and what types of glasses you need to provide. The two biggest influences are; will champagne be served (and is it French)? and will bottled beer be provided?
Let"s start with the beer issue. If you are serving beer then you are more than likely expecting a good quota of guys on your guest list. It"s not that women don"t drink beer - but they do drink it less frequently and in lower quantities than blokes. Similarly beer drinkers in Australia (men and women) will more than likely drink from the bottle - even at swanky events - so your need for highball glasses just diminished considerably.
IMPORTANT: If you are not in Australia then apply the drinking habits of your country to these calculations. For countries where beer is typically drunk from a glass you will need to DOUBLE the highball calculations below.
Champagne. Flipping the coin over here, your champagne drinkers will be predominately, but not exclusively, women. Now why the "French" Champagne question? Well of course any French man or woman will tell you that champagne can only be champagne if it comes from the region called Champagne in France - true enough! - but regardless and whether the esteemed quality is generally discernible or not - if it is French champagne - your champagne drinkers for the night will stay on this drink for longer, before moving to another drink - e.g. wine (very often white wine) - and of course this means that you will need more champagne glasses (flutes). Just an additional note - if the quality of the champagne is good, then more of the gentlemen will drink it too - again, more champagne flutes!
So where does that leave us in terms of actual numbers? Well for a 100 person event where champagne is served we"d go 30 - 40 highballs (mineral waters, soft drinks etc.), 50 - 60 champagne flutes (but 70 where the quality is very good) and 50 wine glasses which will cater for men who prefer wine or move to wine (often red wine) after beers and for women who move to white wine after their champagne.
No champagne? Then 30 - 40 highballs as before and 70 wine glasses. Don"t forget some jugs for water (2-4) and plenty of ice. It"s nice to have slices of lemon handy for the sparkling mineral waters too. Guests are especially grateful for these towards the end of the evening.
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