Free ice calculator

How much ice per person?

There is no single number, because ice does different jobs: a glass of iced tea takes a few cubes, while a tub of beer needs ice around every can, and more as it melts. So the calculator works out each use on its own. These are the base rules, for a mild day indoors in insulated coolers and a party of five hours or less.

Drinks in glasses

We use 1 lb a guest for water, soda, tea and juice, which leaves room for refills.

A cocktail bar or open bar

We use 1.5 lb a guest, the figure in our free wedding alcohol calculator, so the two pages agree: 150 lb for 100 guests. It covers glasses at the bar and the ice behind it, so don't tick it with drinks in glasses for the same guests.

Chilling cans and bottles

Half a pound for each can or bottle, so a 10 lb bag chills 20. The calculator assumes two drinks a guest in the cooler; type your own count, restock included.

Drink dispensers and beverage tubs

15 lb for each dispenser core or tub, for the first fill. The calculator suggests one for every 50 guests.

A food display or seafood bar

25 lb for each display: the bed of ice under a tray, table or raw bar. Ask your caterer or local health department how long food may sit on it, and who brings the ice.

How heat, location and hours change the amount

Ice melts faster in heat, in sun and in a container that lets warmth in. The calculator turns that into one melt factor: the day's heat, times 1.2 if you are outdoors, times a figure for the container. Here is what it does to 200 cans and bottles in insulated coolers.

An insulated cooler with a lid is the base, 1. A drained trough, open but shedding meltwater, is 1.15; an open plastic tub is 1.3. They multiply, so 200 drinks in an open tub on a hot day outdoors need 234 lb, more than double the 100 lb of a mild day indoors.

Ice that goes straight into glasses is used up before it can melt in storage, so heat counts for half of the glasses and bar figures. Chilling, dispenser and display ice gets the whole factor.

Up to five hours we change nothing: a cooler's first fill is the same whether the party runs two hours or five, and it keeps us in step with the alcohol calculator, which has one ice figure for any length. Past five we add 15% for each extra hour, so eight hours is 1.45 times the base.

None of this is a lab result. It is our guesses, aimed at leaving you ice to spare. If you know your coolers hold ice better or worse, change the numbers under "Our planning rules" and the page follows.

Worked example: 50, 100, 150 and 250 guests

This is the calculator's own output for four party sizes. It is an example, not a recommendation for your event.

Every row lands near 3.2 lb a guest because every quantity here scales with the guest count. Yours won't: a seafood bar is the same size at 50 guests and at 250. The coolers column counts the ice on site at the start, at 40 lb a cooler, another rule we chose; change it if yours hold more.

How much ice for a wedding?

Most weddings have a bar, a water station and sometimes a coffee or lemonade table. If the venue or caterer supplies the bar, ask what they bring first (questions below). If you supply it, start from 1.5 lb a guest, which our wedding alcohol calculator uses too: for 100 guests, 150 lb on a mild day indoors, 188 lb on a warm afternoon outdoors and 210 lb on a hot one.

A cocktail hour in the sun is where ice goes fastest. A water station for guests who aren't drinking is its own line: tick drinks in glasses for them and keep the bar for those who will use it.

How many bags of ice do I need?

Divide the pounds by the weight of the bag and round up. Bag sizes differ by brand and store, so read the weight printed on the bag you can get and pick that size in the calculator. Here is the sample party in each size.

Small bags are easy to carry and fit a freezer shelf; large ones mean fewer trips. For 30 or 40 guests, a few store-bought bags do it. At a few hundred pounds, ask an ice company about delivery. The calculator rounds up to whole bags, so you never buy less than the rules say.

How to store ice at a venue

Buying the right amount only helps if it is still ice when people want it.

Freezer space

Ask whether you can use a freezer and how much room it has, and put the answer on the BEO, since a kitchen may need the space. Keep bags frozen solid until use: ice that thawed and refroze fuses into a block.

A delivered pallet

A bulk delivery arrives on a pallet. It needs level ground or a dock, someone to receive it and a spot out of the sun, so agree a delivery window and move the ice inside it.

Coolers and drains

Meltwater speeds melting, so open the drain plug on storage coolers and stand them on blocks so the bags don't sit in water. A cooler you serve cans from is different: some water around the cans chills them faster, so leave serving tubs wet and drain the storage.

Shade

Put coolers under the tent, behind the bar or in a shaded corner, and move them before the afternoon sun reaches them, not after.

Lid discipline

Every open lid lets warm air in. Give each cooler one person, usually the bartender, and keep a second cooler for restocking so the main one stays shut. Scoop drink ice with a clean scoop, never a glass, and never from the cooler that holds the cans.

Signs you ordered too little

• The ice is half gone before the party is half over.
• You can see the cans through the water, with little ice on top.
• The bartender is scooping drink ice out of the beer cooler.
• Someone asks where the ice machine is, and it makes ice slowly.

A planned second delivery beats a panic run to a store, which is why the calculator suggests one when it expects heat and sun over more than three hours. Keep the supplier's number and delivery window on the day's schedule.

Common mistakes

• Counting guests but not uses: a bar, a water station and 100 chilled bottles each need their own figure.
• Ordering for a mild day and getting a hot one. Check the forecast the day before and change the weather box.
• Ticking both drinks in glasses and the bar for the same guests.
• Delivering everything at 8 am for a 6 pm party.
• Using the same ice for drinks and for chilling cans.
• Forgetting the caterer, who uses ice for prep and the raw bar. Ask what they bring.
• Not telling the venue, so the ice melts on the dock.

For venues and bar managers

The ice question lands on the venue before the couple, so settle it early. Questions to ask, or to answer in your own package:

• What does the venue supply? Some include ice in the bar package; others expect the caterer or bartender to bring it all.
• Where is it stored: a freezer, a walk-in, coolers in a corridor? Who holds the key?
• Does the bar have an ice machine, and what is its capacity? Daily output says little about the bin at 8 pm, so ask how full it will be when doors open and how fast it refills.
• What are the delivery windows? Where is the loading dock, how far is it from the bar, and who receives?
• Who calls and pays for a second delivery?
• Is dry ice allowed, and who approves it?

Put the answers on the BEO: quantity, bag size, delivery time, who receives it and where it is stored. Our free BEO template has a bar section for it. Price the bar with the free open bar cost calculator and work out bottles and mixers with the free wedding alcohol calculator; both take the same guest count and hours as this one.

In MyVenueHQ the BEO, the contract and the floor plan attach to the same booking, so the bar order sits beside the guest count and the layout.

Add this ice calculator to your website

Venues, planners and wedding blogs can put it on their own site for free. Paste this where you want it; it works in WordPress, Squarespace, Wix and plain HTML. Nothing is tracked about your visitors beyond page views.