The Elle Guide To Wedding Wine

So, you’ve said 'yes' to the wedding dress, chosen your shoes and decided on a photographer. Now it’s time for some very important maths. Yes, we’re talking wedding wine. Whether you plan to serve it from noon until the early hours, or just with your wedding breakfast, you’ll want to make sure the bottles you go for are loved by all (and importantly, come into budget).

To help ensure you buy the best bottles, and enough of each, we’ve trialled four wedding wine services, picking out the best red, white and sparkling buys from each retailer.

How do you calculate your wedding wine?

While there is no definitive way to calculate how many bottles you’ll need for the big day, there are a couple of formulas you can apply.

Some say to divide the total number of adult guests by half — in other words, allow for half a bottle per guest. While we think this could be fine if you’re only planning to provide wine with dinner, for longer periods this seems a bit mean.

Another way to approach things is to assume your guests will drink two glasses of wine in the first hour, followed by one glass per hour thereafter. You get five glasses of wine from a bottle, so based on 100 guests drinking from 2pm until midnight, you’d need 220 bottles of wine.

Sounds a lot, right? Luckily many retailers offer sale or return...

Sale or return

Have you ever been to a wedding where they’ve run out of wine? We’re guessing the answer to that is ‘no’. That’s because people always overestimate how much will be drunk. And while that’s a good thing on the day, the next morning you’ll likely wake up to cases of wine that you no longer need.

Now you have two choices; turn the spare room into a wine cellar and begin married life merrily sozzled (tempting) or take up the offer of sale or return. Sale or return (SOR, as it's often referred to) is where a retailer will refund you for wine returned in a saleable condition (basically, unopened bottles). Either way, we’d keep a bottle (or two) of your wedding fizz for celebrating your first anniversary. Cheers!

Corkage

While there are still some unicorn wedding venues out there that don’t charge corkage fees, many do. However, it can still work out cheaper (and result in better wine) to buy quality bottles you adore and pay the corkage fee. For example, caterers often inflate the price of ‘house’ wine (charging £10-20 for something not worth that), so it’s worth checking to see if you can save by buying wines in bulk and adding on the fee. Even if you don’t save money, you’ll probably end up with a much better glass of vino.

Tastings

The fun bit! Many retailers offer free in-store or virtual tastings, where wine is sent to you at home. The wine experts will ask you a few key questions, including your budget, wine preferences, menu and number of guests, and make suggestions accordingly.

If you’d prefer to have a bit of an idea before setting up a meeting, our ELLE wine and spirits expert has picked the best white, red and sparkling wine from each retailer. We recommend ordering a few bottles to try at home alongside similar dishes you plan to serve on the big day. You can also rope in bridesmaids or groomsmen, to crowdsource their favourites over the course of an evening. This will avoid palate fatigue (which can happen when trying multiple serves at the same time!)

Discounts

Whatever your budget, you’ll want to feel like you’re getting a good deal on your wedding wine. After all, it’s likely to be the biggest booze order you’ll ever place! All retailers offer a discount, which generally increases, the more you buy, but you’ll start to see savings when buying as little as six or more bottles. We’ve highlighted the best value white, red and sparkling bottles from each retailer below, to get you started.