Good company. Enough cups.
Plan the drinks, count the ice bags, and leave with a practical shopping list.
What's under the hood
The planner keeps water separate for everyone, then divides one shared allowance of other drink portions between nonalcoholic drinks and any alcohol you explicitly add. Children and adults not drinking alcohol receive only nonalcoholic allocation. Mixers add liquid to spirit drinks, not extra drink portions.
Default site assumptions are 250 mL of water per guest-hour, 0.5 other portions per adult-hour, and 0.4 per child-hour. Alcohol starts off. If added, the default allocates 50% of drinking adults' other portions to alcohol, divided 60% beer and 40% wine. These are adjustable purchasing assumptions, not consumption targets or safe-drinking advice.
Serving ice starts at 0.12 kg for 50% of water, other nonalcoholic, and spirit-drink portions. Optional cooler ice starts at 0.75 kg per litre of planned purchased liquid, excluding spirits. Warm outdoors multiplies water by 1.25 and cooler ice by 1.5. Neither ice estimate predicts actual melt or cooler performance.
A 10% buffer is applied once to unrounded demand. Only then does each quantity round up to whole packs. Serving and cooler ice are combined before rounding to bags. Units change the display, not the underlying plan.
Worth knowing
Try it on paper first
Real inputs, real outputs, and the assumption that changes the answer.
A simple 20-person gathering
3 water packs, 3 soft-drink packs, and 2 ice bags. Each water pack contains 12 × 500 mL bottles; each soft-drink pack contains 12 × 355 mL containers. Ice bags are 7 lb each.
The unrounded needs after buffer are 16.5 L of water, 11.715 L of other nonalcoholic drinks, and 5.94 kg of serving ice. Package rounding leaves some extra.
Adults, children, and a few supplies
2 water packs, 2 soft-drink packs, and 2 ice bags. Add one pack each of 50 plates, 50 cups, 100 napkins, and 24 utensil sets.
After buffer, the liquid needs are 9.9 L of water and 6.5604 L of other nonalcoholic drinks. Supply assumptions are 1.5 plates, 2 cups, 3 napkins, and 1 utensil set per guest before the 10% buffer.
Alcohol for only those who want it
4 water packs, 3 soft-drink packs, 1 beer pack, 1 wine bottle, and 3 ice bags. Beer uses 12 × 355 mL containers per pack; wine uses a 750 mL bottle. Water, soft drinks, and ice use the same package sizes as above.
Before buffer, 40 nonwater portions divide into 30 nonalcoholic, 6 beer, and 4 wine portions. Water remains separate. The 150 mL wine pour is a planning input, not a universal standard drink.
Receipts, where they matter
These sources support outside facts or conventions. The calculator's arithmetic and assumptions are still explained above.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration · government
Keep ice used to cool the outside of bottles or cans out of drinks. The Food Code is model food-service guidance; this citation does not establish party ice quantities or a local legal requirement.
Accessed 2026-08-30Unicode Consortium · standards body
Conversion factors for U.S. fluid ounces to metric volume and pounds to kilograms. These factors do not support consumption rates, package sizes, ice allowances, or supply estimates.
Accessed 2026-08-30Short answers
Start with the guest count, duration, and what people actually prefer. This planner divides an adjustable allowance across beverage categories, keeps water available for everyone, and rounds the result to the package sizes you enter. Its rates are transparent assumptions, not a prediction of what each guest will consume.
No. Serving ice goes in cups. Cooler ice chills the outside of packages and may melt as it works. The planner shows each requirement separately and rounds their combined weight to bags. Set aside the clean serving supply before filling coolers.
No. Alcohol is off by default. If you add it, enter the number of adults expected to drink it. That number cannot exceed your adult guest count. Adjust the allocation and beverage mix to suit your guests; quantities are not safe-drinking advice.
Yes. Open the optional controls to edit each container size and pack count. Exclude any disposable supplies you already have or will replace with reusable items. Tap or refill-station water stays in the required volume but is removed from bottled-water purchases.
You can copy the list yourself or use your browser's print dialog. The planner does not save your entries, create a share URL, or send your guest counts, preferences, or quantities to an external service.