A cocktail party offers a great time to bond with your friends, family, and companions whom you have not connected with for some time. Mixed drink parties offer an ideal way to mingle and have a good time. Discussions continue streaming with individuals stirring up with one another quite well. Regardless of whether it is tied in with catching up with old companions, engaging business partners or hanging out with friends, a cocktail party will do the job for you. This article looks at seven tips for catering a cocktail party.
- Pick The Right Venue
You cannot host a cocktail party just anywhere. The venue must reflect the type of party, which is a cocktail party. The most appropriate venue for a cocktail party is in a restaurant bar section because it has the best setting for this kind of party. It has the necessary glasses, mixers, ingredients, seats, lighting, and theme that resonates best with a cocktail party. This way, you do not have to go through the hassles of going up and down looking for the right ingredients and a mixer.
- Stick to One Signature Cocktail
Although you will serve many drinks at your cocktail party, it is good to stick to one signature cocktail. You can even go ahead and give it a special name and the idea around the way you mixed should be special. It can be inspired by what the celebration is all about. You should also consider reducing its liquor substance to make it agreeable and drinkable for alcohol-disinclined visitor. Your mark mixed drink need not be the main liquor at your gathering, yet restricting non-signature alternatives to lager and wine is the ideal approach to control costs.
- Limit Open Bar Hours
An open bar layout allows guests to have as many drinks as they would want through the night. This means that they are going to consume lots of liquor. Not unless your budget is big enough to cater to that amount of booze, limits the number of open bar hours in a bid to limit the consumption of booze. This will save you some money if you are operating on a budget.
- Use Free or Cheap Labor
No one would hate to save some few dollars when it comes to hosting a cocktail party. You want to have as much money to impress your guests as possible. It, therefore, means that anything that would help you save that much-needed money is a go. Take the advantage of family and friends to serve the guests if hiring serving staff is not an option for you. You can use the money saved to buy more booze and food.
- Buy booze in bulk
Can you imagine it is in the middle of the night while the cocktail party is at the peak and then the booze runs out? This can be quite embarrassing and it is something you would not want to experience. To avoid this stress and embarrassment, buy booze in bulk and early enough. This will also help you enjoy reduced prices at the liquor store. Even as you do that, ensure that you take into consideration the tastes and preferences of your guests so that you can prepare in advance. Usually, each guest will have three servings of each type of liquor.
- Get Enough Food
Although a cocktail party is all about drinks, it is important to get enough food so your guests are not just drinking on empty stomachs. Food can make or break a party and you hence have to ensure that it is in plenty. You do not have to overthink this as simple foods like meatballs, chips, and fried pickles will do a good job.
- Hire a Caterer
You do not want to spend the rest of the evening preparing food and drinks and serving them to the guests, instead of enjoying the time with them. No matter how you look at it, you cannot entirely cater to the party alone. You will need a helping hand to serve the guests so that you can have enough time to chat and enjoy the party with your friends. It thus does make a lot of sense to hire a caterer to help you out.
As seen in this article, you can throw an incredible cocktail party as long as you follow the aforementioned tips. The only downside with doing everything yourself is that you might end up not having fun in your own party, as you will be too busy. It hence does make sense to hire professional caterers to help you out.