Mobile Bar For Weddings: What You Need To Know What Weddings Need A Mobile Bar? To start with, mobile bar for your wedding is based on your wedding location. Many venues have built in bars that are either ran by the venue in house or…
Mobile Bar For Weddings: What You Need To Know
What Weddings Need A Mobile Bar?
To start with, mobile bar for your wedding is based on your wedding location. Many venues have built in bars that are either ran by the venue in house or you can hire external staff to work on. We also aid couples with venue help should you require it. If you are looking at a marquee wedding, home wedding, festival field wedding or any other wedding based on a blank canvas.
The style of your wedding will decide the type of wedding bar hire : For example if you are having a marquee wedding and your bar in the centre of the marquee; you will require a circular bar ideally matching to the colour or style of your wedding. If you are looking more festival/boho style; a horse trailer mobile bar will fit the wedding theme better. You can find different bar styles and vendors with comparison companies like FeastIt, who veto all suppliers to make sure you are dealing with an established and reliable supplier.
Why Your Wedding Needs A Bar
With drinks being a key part of the hospitality at weddings, your bar provides a great relaxed point for guests to collate and enjoy your wedding, bars are known to be the centre of socialising for years and provide the same for your wedding. You can still perform drinks without a bar at your wedding should your venue not have one, but having the banter with bartenders, watching drinks get made at the bar and the general atmosphere of a wedding bar is special. Count the bar as part of your wedding entertainment, styling and decor as well as your food and drinks. Mobile bar for weddings can be chosen based on your tastes as discussed and provides another factor you can leave your mark on your special day.
How Much Do Mobile Bar For Weddings Cost?
Different vendors and styles obviously all cost different amounts. To help you get accurate quotes have the following information ready when you enquire with your suppliers:-
- Date & Location of Wedding (even if not fully confirmed yet)
- Amount of Guests Attending
- How many hours are you looking for service
- Are you having a drinks reception
- What time can supplier setup
To help you with estimate costs, below you can see how our wedding planner would calculate the rough costings of a 100 persons marquee wedding:-
- Semi Circle Wedding Bar Hire – £700
- Cocktail Menu Of 4 For a 4 Hour Period – £25 per person
- Wedding Drinks Reception (Prosecco) – £3 per person
- Waste Removal – £100
TOTAL – £3600
When designing mobile bars for weddings, the type of service greatly effects the price. You should also consider a dry bar hire against your all inclusive quote to see which package suits your needs better. Dry hire bars are when you hire each part seperate from the mobile bar to the staff. If you are looking to provide all your own alcohol for the bar, these types of packages may suit you better.
Price Up My Bar Please
What quantity of alcohol should you buy for your wedding?
Whether you are having a marquee wedding or are using a venue which allows you to bring in your own alcohol, it’s quite baffling to finalise how much to spend on your spirits|beers|fizz to make sure you have enough but don’t overspend so that you have a year’s stock of beer in the house after the wedding! Before we go into calculating your stock costings, make sure you have the following confirmed:- you have confirmed with your venue that you will be bringing your own booze and have agreed the corkage fee if there is one or not, you have arranged transport for the stock to be delivered and collected from the venue, included time to cleanup venue after the wedding by your staff/cleaners.
Your bar/drinks provider should be happy to aid you in quantities of each product you want at your wedding bar, we recommend having your bar provider provide:-
- Ice & Glassware
- Staff
- Cocktail Reception
The last thing you want to be worried about on your wedding day is that your bar is short on ice or ran out of glasses, hence if you leave those elements to your supplier it gives you an additional peace of mind.
A few handy figures to bear in mind:-
Bottle of fizz = 6 glasses
Bottle of wine = 6 glasses
1L of spirit = 24 single shot servings
Cocktail stock is separate to bar stock
Base your drinks on 5 drinks per person for a 4 hour period on average. If it is a bigger drinking group base it on 6-8 drinks per person.
Help Me With How Much Alcohol To Buy For My Wedding
DIY WEDDING BAR MISTAKES
Not buying enough drinks
This is always going to be a topic which confuses people. How can you possibly get this right? The stress and anxiety alone keeps most people up at night. There is a few key points which can help you. Consider the following;
Guest numbers, demographic and event length. So first of all split your guests into drinkers and non drinkers. Then use the following rule of thumb for an idea:
Moderate Drinkers: 2 drinks per head per hour.
Heavy Drinkers: 4 drinks per head per hour.
Once we have an idea of the drinks per head we can begin to calculate the stock we will need to carry on the bar. This will change based on what you would like to serve but for now lets imagine that you have wine, beer and spirits and mixer drinkers. Here we have split the drinks fairly equal but you may alter these to suit your guests tastes.
Base it on 100 guests all of whom are moderate drinkers for 4 hours service.
2 drinks per head x 4 hours service x 100 guests = 800 drinks or serves
350 Spirits (28 single shots per bottle) = 13 x 70cl bottles
350 Mixers (6 x 150ml per ltire) = 52 x 1 ltr bottles
225 Beers (24 per case) = 10 cases
225 Wines (5 glasses per bottle) = 45 70cl bottles
This will help you to ensure you cover as many bases as possible. Always remember to round up any numbers. We always carry a contingency stock just in case we run out and guests are still drinking. You can always return this providing the seals are not broken.
Running out of ice
The one thing that can turn great drinks into luke warm disaters. This happens far too often when running a DIY mobile bar as most people don’t realise how much ice is used when serving a full room of thirsty guests.
Our suppliers provide 12kg sacks of cubed ice so we shall use this for guidelines.
Cocktails: 40 drinks per 12kg.
Spirit/Mixers: 60 drinks per 12kg.
Again we always ensure we have a contingency in case people drink more than planned or if it’s a warm day for example. Please ensure to increase your qty order if you wish to serve ice to tables or with bottles.
Please don’t forget the water
When planning its very easy to overlook something that we take for granted. Water! Most mobile bar installations do not have easy access to running water and if they do it may not be suitable for drinking. Ensure that you have some water for later on in the evening for when guests need to hydrate.
Choose the right stock
This will be the hardest part of planning your wedding bar. Most people do get this wrong. Remember, simplicity is the best way here. Its an inclusive bar and people will no doubt wish to have a good time so by keeping your selections to the popular choices you reduce waiting times and you are less likely to run out of one product in particular.
Try to have your main spirits, main mixers and when it comes to beer and wine opt for one of each selection. If you wish other types of wine for example these can be placed on tables.
Don’t forget the garnishes
To ensure you have the best drinks for your wonderful guests don’t forget to have an ample supply of fresh fruits. These could be cases of lemons, limes, mint and basic fruits from your local veg market. Your drinks will have a better flavour and appeal when garnished correctly.
Saving money on staff
Another key ingredient to a successful bar is having the right team of bartenders and waiting staff. Too few staff will no doubt hinder service.
Removing a bartender may well save a few bob but your drinks service may be a lot slower. Likewise removing a waiting staff while you may not be doing service will mean that glasses will build up on tables looking messy.
HIRE A BAR BACK
A bar back is the fundamental support structure for the bar team. They will work with the bar tenders and the floor staff to ensure that glassware and drinks are stocked and replenished continuously. Without a bar back will lead to a point in the night when glasses build up on the bar, service slowing down if products run low and the bar may become untidy spoiling the experience fro your lovely guests.
Calculating the correct staff numbers
A rule of thumb for staff would be;
1 mixologist per 50 guests for a standard bar
1 mixologists per 35 guests for a cocktail bar
1 waiting staff per 4 tables of 10 for clearance only
1 waiting staff per 2 tables of 10 for table service
Something to bare in mind when requesting table service is adding additional bartenders for table drinks only.
Using the right bar for the job
The bar is another key factor in delivering a great service. Ensure that you have enough space for the bartenders to operate adequately and fro your guests to be comfortable ordering.
Use specifically designed equipment, a table or side counter will not service a room of 250 guests efficiently at all.
Once you have the right bar ensure that its placed in the correct location both for your guests and for your staff. A bar, surprisingly, uses a lot of equipment, stock and glassware so try to plan for this to be in a place which is accessible to the back of house team. At the same time if possible balance this with a position which gives the best aesthetic placement and enables guests to move through the room freely.
About Mr Flavour Mobile Bar For Weddings
Your mobile bar for weddings package is much more than just a bar, it’s the experience, the centerpiece to the drinks at your event & a social hotspot for your event. Bearing this all in mind Mr Flavour has create a diverse range of bars ranging LED, mirrored, rustic & much more as well as the choice of circular, semicircular, straight to give you full control in your event venue design and layout of your room as well as giving us the versatility to take up as much or as little space as you require us to! All bars come with our professionals transporting our bars to your venue, full setup & takedown to aid your event logistics. For more information on bar styles check out our dry hire page
With your mobile bar package you have the option for a total package including mixologists/flair mixologists/hostesses/waiting service by our team of drinks catering professionals & full glasses hire, bar furniture hire, cocktail equipment hire, backbar hire, fridgeds hire, full stock dropoff & any of our other event services. By having specialist teams both in events & in drinks we provide a one stop alternative to any requirements you may need for your event.
Why use us for your bar requirements? Simple, we pride ourselves on our creativity, originality and understanding our clients with our complimentary consultations and bespoke drinks solutions including bespoke cocktails, mocktails, smoothies, fresh juices & ice cream all created fresh and in front of your eyes at one of our mobile bars. Also check out our drinks showcase video for ideas for your liquid catering!
For more specific information on specific bar packages click your chosen package below:-
Contact Mr Flavour
Mr Flavour fully customise each of our events exactly to our clients requirements. For a quote from us simply fill out the form with your requirements for your event and we will email you a quote tailored to your interests. We get in touch for all our enquiries in less than 24 hours.
Alternatively give us a call today to discuss your needs and we can start working on some ideas for you