Party rental and special events in Quebec, Canada, Bravo Rental

When planning your event, whether it’s a corporate gathering, a wedding, or a simple cocktail party, one makes the decisions of offering their guests alcohol or not. Not to say there is anything wrong with hosting an alcohol-free event but if you will be serving booze, make sure you’re serving it right.

First things first: How many bars do you need? We’ve all been to those parties where we’ve had to stand in line a good 15-20 minutes to get a glass of wine. Considering parties are more often than not held for the people attending, making them spend half their night waiting kind of defeats the purpose of throwing a party in the first place. A good guideline is having 1 bar per 75-100 guests. If you are closer to the 100 mark, make sure it is a longer bar than usual (most bars are average 5’ long.) Another option would be to create specialty bars. Having a wine bar or a martini mixing station can add funk and flare to your evening. You can also make a bar configuration which becomes a focal point of the room. U –bars, doughnut bars or square bars are all great options for larger gatherings. (Check out the U-bar we created for the Guerlain party.)

Bar en U

Another popular question people ask is how many glasses will you need to stock your bar. Several factors contribute to this answer: What type of alcohol will you be serving? What type of alcohol is most popular with your guests? How many drinkers will be attending? Do you have access to a dishwasher?

A general rule of thumb is to have 3 types of every glass available for every guest. So, let’s just say you will be using wine glasses, highballs and lowballs and are expecting 100 guests; you will need to have 300 wine glasses, 300 highballs and 300 lowballs. Sounds like a lot right? One way of cutting down not only on the cost of glass rentals but on the cost of your bar in general would be to limit the type of alcohol being served. You can only serve wine and bottled beer at your bar, in which case you would only need to order 300 wine glasses (maybe 400 to be safe). You can also choose to serve a signature cocktail and then wine at the guests’ tables. That would mean you only need as many wine glasses as you have guests and 3 or 4 of the glasses you will be needing for your cocktail per person. Ordering an extra rack or two, regardless of the situation, is always recommended. You never know when you will run into a clumsy waiter or a faulty dishwasher.

Tables Arrières

So now you have the bar, you have the glasses…don’t even start to think you’re done! Depending on whether you chose a bar with shelving or not, you may need some extra racking for your back-bar. A cheaper option would be to simply add an extra table behind your bar on which you would store your bottles and glasses. You also need your bar tools. Martinis, mojitos and marguaritas don’t make themselves! You will need some shakers, strainers, pilons, zesters, bottle openers, bar mats, jiggers, cutting boards, knives, pitchers, buckets, ice tubs, blenders, bar trays etc… Obviously the tools you will be needing depend on the drink options you will be serving. You don’t need a blender or a pilon in a wine bar; you will however need bottles openers and buckets. You may also want to think of putting a small fridge behind your bar if ice is not readily available. Try anticipating your guests’ needs so that once the event is underway you won’t find yourself missing anything. It’s better to be over-prepared than under-prepared.

Hiring a professional bar service, seeking advice from a wedding planner or a well-trained rental consultant may help to ensure peace-of-mind when stocking your bar because, as you can clearly see from this article, there are a million and one things to consider… and this is just for the bar!

Cheers!

Bar Spandex et Inox