With summer here and the sunshine finally starting to peep its head out, we have teamed up with our friends at The Pop-Up Bar Company, for a guide to throwing the perfect summer party. Learn from the pro’s, the do’s and (more importantly) do-not’s to ensuring you’re the host with the most and throw an epic party that your guests talk about for years to come. Now, over to The Pop-Up Bar Company to get this party started!
It’s never too early to start planning a party for the sunny weather – the more time you have to prepare the better. Now its common knowledge that everyone loves a good party, especially in the summer, the warmer (hopefully!) climate seems to just put everyone in a good mood. However, throwing the perfect party isn’t necessarily easy. Our line of work means we have been invited to work a variety of parties over the past few years, so learning from these we have put together the fool proof list to follow in order throw the perfect summer party.
A quick pre-event checklist;
- Have plenty of coasters at hand to save your furniture from water rings
- Make sure there is plenty of seating – vary it up to create some character (chairs, beanbags, footstools etc.)
- The kitchen always becomes the center hub so ensure you put everything away you don’t need out.
- Keep your mixers in the fridges so they stay cold
- Ensure you have plenty of ice in the freezer
The most important thing is for you the host is to get your house back in the same condition as you started. Imagine the horror of someone smashing your favourite photo frame in the middle of an impromptu dance solo! So, ensure all breakable and fragile items are either put away, or at a safe distance from the main party area.
Moving onto lighting – it depends what vibe you are going for, but we feel like for the optimal experience keep the lighting dim and enhance the ambience with candles, lamps and fairy lights. Being summer, hopefully it doesn’t get dark outside too early either, meaning you can keep the garden as an additional space for the maximum amount of time as possible – just make sure its not too noisy so you don’t upset the neighbours.
Music can either make or break a party and really sets the tone for the evening. Make different playlists for different times and situation throughout the night. You will need to cater for everyone, even if that means playing something, you’re not particularly fond of – just make sure you include a lot of crowd pleasers, whoever your crowd may be. Start slowly and build the mood, creating the party buzz later on in the evening. When it comes time to want to kick everyone out, wind the music down gradually, rather than just cutting it off altogether.
The things that make a party heroic are the food and drink (mostly drink!), which happens to be our area of expertise. So first of all, the food - Keep it simple with easy finger food like nuts and crisps, (you could even bring out the old cheese and pineapple hedgehog classic). Anything that is easy to eat without plates and cutlery, is your best bet, then you don’t even have to wash-up! Now onto the drink - The easiest and cheapest way to do drinks is to get your guests to bring their own. It means everyone will have something they enjoy and can drink as little or, more usually the case, as much as they brought. We advise that you keep in stock of a variety of mixers (coke, tonic, soda etc), as there will always be someone that forgets to bring these, and it provides an alternative to alcohol if someone gets a bit too carried away.
Alternatively, if you do want to provide the drinks for all your guests, the easiest, most stress-free solution is to hire in a bar company. Nothing impresses your guests more than having professional bartenders waiting on them hand-and-foot for their drink needs all evening. We can vary in the services we offer, from just bartending with alcohol you supply, bringing a fully stocked bar, and even creating the perfect cocktail to represent you and your party. You name it and we can create a bespoke service to meet your needs.
Our last golden rule is just to have fun! Enjoy your evening as what can really go wrong, with a night with friends, good food and drink and some games to laugh off the week of work and start the weekend the right way.
Thank You The Pop-Up Bar Company for helping us with his months blog post, and come on down to the Firs Field event on 20th July at, The Firs Field, Combe Down, where we will be running our annual dog show, and The Pop-Up Bar Company will be once again providing the bar and their excellent service. If you need help with any events you will be hosting this year get in touch with them at. http://www.popupcocktailbar.com/.
To see what they get up to and hear their latest news find them on their socials:
Twitter: @Popupbarbath
Instagram: @popupcocktailbar
Facebook: @popupbarsbath
