Cocktail Bar for Hire – DIY guide

We have a beautiful cocktail bar which is perfect for serving drinks at your party or wedding.

Cocktail Bar

But does the thought of trying to set up and stock your own bar seem like an extra headache you could do without?  Fret not! 

The benefits of setting up your own DIY wedding or party bar far outweigh the cons so here is our own personal guide that hopefully helps you cover everything you need, to plan and execute this personal touch to your big day. 

Our DIY Wedding Bar Guide gives you:

• A complete checklist of what you need to get.
• A list of things to do.
• A list of the types of bars you get to choose from (in terms of costing and styles)
• Calculations on how much liquor to buy for 100 guests.
• Jabula’s Own BIG 5 COCKTAIL MENU.
• A short write up on some of Cornwall’s finest craft spirits.
• A few fun ideas for mocktails – for the kids and teetotallers.

What are the benefits of hiring a DIY wedding bar?

• Beats the budget – It will save you a small fortune on booze. This means you can either put more money towards your honeymoon or go all out and add a speciality bar or a Welcome Bar. If your budget is tight, hiring your own bar means you can still provide your guests with generous amounts of wine, beers, ciders, and sodas.

• Adds a personal touch – The DIY Wedding Bar creates a unique experience for guests. The sky’s the limit and the bar can be decorated to fit in with the theme of the wedding. Serve signature cocktails, stick to a traditional drinks menu, or create a unique, but limited, cocktail menu for guests to choose from.

• It’s versatile – You get to use the bar as a Welcome Bar (pre-ceremony or pre-reception) or the main bar, it depends entirely on you. Some couples opt for using the venue’s bar and then add the DIY bar to serve signature cocktails from. 

Where do you begin, when planning your DIY Wedding Bar?

Before we get onto the fun stuff of choosing the drinks and décor, let’s first get the essentials sorted. Below is a list of all the things you need to book, hire or buy for the wedding bar, regardless of what type of bar you choose to set up.

DIY Wedding Bar Essentials 

Checklist – 

• Glasses
• Ice
• Ice Buckets
• Bottle Openers and Wine Openers
• Crates/Basins/Fridges
• Muddlers/shakers/blenders
• Garnishes
• Liquor
• Mixers/Non-Alcoholic Beverages/Bottled Water

The DIY Wedding Bar “To Do” List

Before you create an action plan to organize your DIY Wedding Bar, you must decide on what type of bar you want. Here are some popular, but easy-to-manage, DIY bar set-ups.

The Welcome Bar – The Welcome Bar enhances the atmosphere of the venue and highlights any theme or style that you’re going for. If your day is chic and elegant you could cover the bar entirely with fabric. Draping fabric creates an eye-catching area. Be creative and artistic, but remember, less is more. Place flowers on a table next to the bar and display a blackboard menu describing the welcome drinks. Give both an alcoholic and a non-alcoholic option. With this type of decor, you can add a bar fridge with glass doors and UV lights. 

If your set-up is rustic, you could serve beers straight from a tub or wooden basin, and add self-service punch bowls filled with alcoholic and non-alcoholic options. The beauty of a DIY Wedding Bar is that you get to do exactly what you envision! Your DIY bar will add to the intimate feel that your choices create.

Find out the following:

• How will the drinks be kept chilled? 
• How will the bar be staffed?
• Will there be space for a washing station?
• Will there be plug points for a fridge and extra lighting?
• How many guests are expected?
• Will there be a tap nearby or will you need to supply your own water for washing up?
• What permits will you need to serve alcohol on-site?
• Does the venue charge a corkage fee?

What Type of DIY Wedding Bar Options are there?

Open Bar – This is the most popular option for guests! Everyone loves free plonk!  Most DIY Wedding bars are open bars, meaning all the drinks are covered for the entire wedding. At a wedding venue, where the bar is part of the service, and not DIY, the host will either let the tab run all night or set a limit. Once that is reached, guests have to start paying per drink.

This is why a DIY bar is often the more generous, and cost-effective, option. When it comes to a DIY bar, it’s easier to control the cost as you will only be serving alcohol that you have purchased, as opposed to an open bar at a venue, where prices per drink vary widely.

Cash Bar – Also called a consumption bar. This is a straight-up, pay-as-you-go bar. It’s a good way to keep costs down by getting guests to pay for their own drinks. If you are on a tight budget, this is often the best option. Some couples choose this bar option because it boils down to choosing a honeymoon or an open bar.

If you have to go with a cash bar due to financial constraints, you can hire the DIY bar and just serve welcome drinks. And then let the reception drinks be pay-as-you-go. Affordable options are mulled cider, sangria, or even just champagne to toast with.

Soft Bar – A soft bar leaves out the hardtack. Only beers, ciders, wines (red, white, rose), and champagne are served.

White Bar – A white bar is exactly as it sounds. Only white drinks are served. These include spirits like vodka, gin, cane, and white rum as well as white wine. This is a very elegant bar option if you are going for a classic, elegant theme.

Dry Bar – A dry bar serves only non-alcoholic beverages. This is the perfect option for non-drinkers. You can serve teas, coffees, milkshakes, fruit juices, soft drinks and flavoured waters. Again, you could stock the bar with a selection of choices or stick to a non-alcoholic signature drink that all the guests will enjoy.

Speciality Bars – This is one of the more popular (and often easiest) options to go for. A speciality bar is as the name suggests, a limited range of choices are served, but there is a definite theme. You get Speciality Craft Gin Bars and Speciality Whiskey Bars, hugely popular among young professionals and hipsters. A speciality bar could be a simple welcome bar that serves one signature drink, like a Cornish gin cocktail, or it can be a bar with its own unique cocktail menu, that offers 3-5 cocktails and nothing else. 

Some couples may choose to put a bottle of champagne, for toasting, and a bottle of red or white wine on each table. People wanting something else could then get served from the speciality bar. Also, people could toast with the drinks they have instead of using champagne, if the cost is an issue.

• Speciality Craft Gin Bars  can be a lot of fun. Often hand-harvested or foraged berries, herbs, and edible flowers get used. Guests can choose their own concoctions or ask the bartender to muddle up their favourite combinations. 

Interesting craft gin muddles include:

• Basil and strawberries
• Elderberries and jasmine flowers
• Cucumber, blueberries and mint

These combos served with a slice of lemon, the craft gin of your choice, and a few ice cubes hit the spot every time. And guests will enjoy the interactive experience.

• Whiskey bars can be as fancy or simple as the budget allows. Add a cigar bar to compliment the whiskey. Choose from a selection of top-shelf whiskey brands or use decanters and serve the decanted “cheap” whiskey from a range of unique decanters.

• Speciality Candy Bars are great fun. In addition to your drinks bar, you can add a candy bar where guests help themselves to an assortment of chocolates and candies. Again this could be a colourful affair of all sorts of sweets or a more refined display using Turkish Delights, nougat, Belgium chocolates, and high-end nut brittles. You could go for store-bought treats or use handcrafted favourites like fudge, toffee, and truffles.

Use the DIY Wedding Bar as a Welcome bar at the reception or before the ceremony, and then refashion it into the candy bar for after the meals have been served.

How To Calculate Liquor For 100 Guests

What type of alcohol will you be serving? And how many guests are coming? When you know, then you can work out how much liquor you’ll need. 

Assume that on average, people will consume between 5-7 drinks during the wedding. This could be way less or way more, depending on what your friends are like when it comes to celebrating. So just for good measure assume that each guest will have 5 drinks during festivities. Or measure it as 1 drink per hour per person.

Another consideration is your male to female guest ratio. If it is roughly half and half you can assume at least half the men will drink beer and most of the women will drink wine or champagne. So you can split your calculations into one-third beer, one-third wines, one-third spirits. That is if you are doing a plain open bar, not a speciality bar.

• 1 bottle of wine (750ml) = 5 wine glasses. Red wine glasses hold slightly less than white wine glasses but  for the sake of simplicity work on roughly 125ml per glass
• 1 bottle of champagne (750ml) = 7 champagne glasses (flutes)
• 1 bottle spirits (750ml) = 30 tots (25ml) 30 tots = 15 drinks

A generous shopping list for an open bar, serving 100 adult guests that all drink, would look something like this:

• 30 – 40 bottles of wine (mixed)
• 15- 20 bottles of champagne for toasting (optional)
• 200 – 400 bottles of beer or 3 – 5 kegs
• 10 – 15 bottles of spirits
• 10 – 20 2l bottles of mixers. This would cover the non-drinkers too.
• 30 – 50 1l bottles of water 
• 100 – 150 small bottles of water (Some venues will supply water for free and it can just be placed in jugs on tables)

This list can be squirrelled down quite drastically to fit any budget. But it’s a good starting point to work from.

What’s On The Cocktail Menu? And should you hire a professional bartender?

Often the wedding venue will have proper bar facilities. In this case, the DIY wedding bar is strictly an add-on to give you a chance of treating your guests to some fun cocktails.

Pre-mixed cocktails make the bar work much easier. People can either serve themselves from huge punch bowls or you can hire a bartender for the night. It’s not advisable to get a friend or family member to do this job. However noble their intentions may be, it often turns into a nightmare, with the bartender drinking too much or just not being qualified to give the guests the right type of service or experienced enough to keep up with the service. 

Bartender duties include things like:

• keeping the drinks flowing, 
• washing glasses, 
• replenishing garnishes, 
• mixing the right quantities, 
• taking payments if it’s a cash bar

Pre Mixed Party drinks

Having premixed party cocktails makes it so much easier and quicker to serve.

Yukka – our favourite party drink

If we’re just choosing one party drink that makes everyone happy, Yukka is our main choice. It’s a favourite in South Africa and is traditionally made in a large bucket, filled with ice, sugar, freshly squeezed lemons and vodka. It’s best if you leave it to brew for awhile, to allow the ice to melt. In South africa it melts fast but in UK sometimes you just need to add water if the ice doesn’t melt.

How to make it: Pour vodka into cooler of some sort, squeeze lemons and limes into mix (also throwing in peels), pour sugar. Mix well.  A quick method is to first dissolve the sugar in a mug of hot water. Flavor to taste (maybe more sugar? ) Finally, add big bag of ice and mix well again.

Sangria – another party favourite

Sangria is a punch that traditionally consists of wine, chopped fruit and a mixer (usually lemonade, orange juice or sparkling water) as well as other ingredients such as liqueurs and spirits.

• oranges 2, roughly chopped
• dry, light red wine 750ml
• mixed fruit (we use strawberries and peaches but other berries, apples and pears also work well) 400-500g
• brandy 100ml, (or 50ml brandy and 50ml orange-flavoured liqueur – we used Cointreau)
• lemonade 500ml

Muddle the oranges in a large jug, mix in the wine and brandy, and put in the fridge for 1 hour to let the flavours mingle. Add the fruit and top up with the lemonade. Stir well and serve over ice in tumblers

Jabula’s Very Own Big 5 Cocktail Menu

And now we get to the fun stuff!! 

What will you put on your cocktail menu? 

Staying with our Jabula Tents African theme, we have concocted a simple cocktail menu that our clients are welcome to use. It is based on South Africa’s Big Five. 

For those who don’t know what this is, it’s the 5 animals that are known as the Big Five. They are the elephant, the lion, the leopard, the wildebeest (gnu) and the rhino. They get their reputation for being the most difficult game to hunt. Sad to think so many people would want to kill these magnificent beasts. 

But our menu is called the Big 5 because these cocktails will knock you down if you don’t pace yourself. They are perfect for serving guests that don’t usually drink but want to let their hair down. They taste great and will get the party swinging!

Cocktail 1: The Spring Bokkie Ice Crush

In South Africa, Springbokkies (pronounced: “spring bok kiss”) are served as shots. A tot of Amarula is poured first and topped with a shot of peppermint liqueur. Our Spring Bokkie Ice Crush is made using Baileys or Cape Velvet or Amarula Cream liquor and any peppermint liqueur of your choice. 

• Add 2 parts cream liqueur to 2 parts peppermint liqueur Pour over crushed ice and enjoy. 
• Alternatively, you could pour these as shots and serve as a welcome drink at the reception.

This represents the elephant because they eat the fermented marula fruit that falls off the trees. And get drunk! Imagine coming across a drunk elephant in the bush!

Cocktail 2: The Black Rhino

This coffee liqueur-laced cocktail has its roots in Russia where it is called the Black Russian. It contains coke/cola, coffee liqueur, and vodka. Garnish with maraschino cherries. And serve with crushed ice.

• Add 2 parts vodka to 1 part Kahlua (coffee liqueur)
• Serve by pouring over ice cubes and garnish with a cherry. Or use crushed ice.

Cocktail 3: Leopard’s Lush

This is our take on a Tequila sunrise. We use tequila with the gold specks in it. This represents the leopard’s spots and the regal nature of this powerful cat. It is a simple refreshing cocktail made with Gold Tequila, orange juice, and a splash of grenadine. The African sunrises are spectacular and the sun rising represents a new dawn. A wedding is the start of the couple’s “new dawn” so we quite like the symbolism behind this frisky number!

• Mix 3 parts orange juice (fresh or commercial) to 1 part Tequila.
• The grenadine can be added first or last to make it a sunrise or a sunset!

Cocktail 4: Blue Buffalo

The R100 note (South African currency) is blue and it features the Buffalo or Wildebeest (pronounced: “vill da beer st”) A great idea for the bride’s something blue! LOL! 

• Mix 2 parts blue liqueur with 1 part Ouzo and 6 – 8 parts lemonade. 
• Serve over crushed ice. And garnish with a slice of lemon.

Cocktail 5: The Roaring Lion

This cocktail will unleash the beast. It has a shot of brandy, a shot of rum, a shot of whiskey, a shot of lime cordial, ginger ale, a shot of kola tonic, and a shot of lemon juice. It’s not for everybody! 

• Mix 1 part kola tonic, 1 part lime cordial, 1 part lemon juice with 2 parts brandy,  2 parts whiskey, 2 parts rum. Add 12 parts ginger ale. Premix and decant into jugs or a big punch bowl. Add chopped fruit, like apples, grapes, and pineapple. (optional).
• Serve in wine glasses.

Closer To Home: Cornish Craft Gin Bar Menu

If you, your friends and your family love gin, then hiring a DIY Wedding Bar to serve craft gin from is a brilliant option. Cornwall has an amazing array of craft gin distilleries. Each with its own unique backstory and gin recipes.

Stock up on a selection of Cornwall’s best craft gins and lay out a smorgasbord of fruity, spicy, and herby muddlings. Cornwall has a reputation for having some of the UKs best craft gin. Below is a list of four of our favourite craft gin companies.

List of the Finest Cornish Craft Gins

• St. Ives Liquor Co. The Thompson brothers gin is made the old-fashioned way, cold-compounded. And contains their unique 13- botanical blend. Great care is taken with each small batch of hand-crafted gin. All botanicals are from sustainable sources.
• Caspyn Cornish Dry Gin – From Pocketful of Stones Distillery in Penzance, comes this superbly crafted, copper-distilled gin. Created by Shaun Bebington, the original gin is flavoured with lemon verbena, lemon grass, hibiscus flowers, japanese tea and seven other botanicals. Their range is expanding and they now offer over three different craft gins, as well as an absinthe. Made with passion and love, this ex-South African surfer is now a pirate from Penzance!
• Tarquin’s Cornish Gin – Handcrafted in small batches, this gin was the result of an intense labour of love. Tarquin, at 23, embarked on a mission to teach himself how to distill botanicals and craft the fine gin you see today. He then developed his award winning Pastis a year later, in 2014. Tarquin Cornish Gin is distilled by Southwestern Distillery at Higher Trevibban Farm, Cornwall.

For something truly unique

• Howl and Loer, made in St Ives, a wild spiced botanical spirit. The spirit is made from apples picked from a traditional orchard where no insecticide or artificial nitrogen are used and this is then infused with herbs grown themselves or harvested from the wild.

Mocktail Menu

Whether you make these for pregnant ladies, teetotallers or the tweens, your wedding bar should also be beautifully rounded off with a few non-alcoholic cocktails, getting everybody into the festive celebrations of your dream nuptials. 

Non-alcoholic Sangria – Perfect for an exotic venue

Virgin Sangria is just glorified fruit punch. Depending on your guests or budget you can either buy canned cocktail fruit it comes in a sweet syrup and is already chopped. Or you can spend time chopping fruit like pineapples, pears, apples, and add cherries. 

If you are making a big bowl of sangria or a large cooler box that can be decanted into jugs for each table, make sure you have 1 kg of fruit (if tinned this weight should be the drained weight)Also if using tinned fruit, you can add the syrup and use soda water and lemonade as your mix. Use 2l of each. To get the lovely red/pink colour, add grenadine.

Another method is to add your choice of tonic water. There are lovely combinations on the market like blueberry and cardamom, rose and cucumber, and pink tonic. Add a dash of bitters and voila!!!! An alcoholic tasting virgin sangria

Non-alcoholic Bellinis – Perfect for Morning Weddings

Bellinis are traditionally champagne or sparkling wine and orange juice. To make virgin Bellinis, all you have to do is replace the champers with non-alcoholic sparkling wine!

Last Rounds

And that’s a wrap, folks! I hope you found this article helpful and entertaining! 

If you need advice or would like to hire one of our beautiful stretch tents and your own DIY cocktail bar, please feel free to contact me