You want to supply all the alcohol and drinks for your wedding and just use a mobile bar company to serve these. Unfortunately Sip ‘n’ Swig do not offer the option to provide staff only or offer a ‘Dry Hire’ Bar. Dry Hire would mean that you hire the bar structure, all bar equipment and staff from a company but you supplied all of the products.
Why don’t we offer Dry Hire?
Sip ‘n’ Swig pride themselves on the products we choose to serve on the bar. We use local and independent companies where possible and every product is considered before it is served. Most of our work is from referrals and recommendations, we feel that this would be compromised if we were serving more mainstream products and potentially running out of drinks.
We do however offer staff to serve your provided drinks during the wedding breakfast as long as we are running the bar also. You could also ask your caterers to provide staff to serve your drinks during the meal. In either case, you will need to provide glassware.
What should I consider if I want to provide all the drinks for my wedding?
Providing drinks is often seen as a cheaper option to provide free drinks to your guests, however this is not always the case. We would always recommend providing welcome drinks and table wine and water but if there are budget restraints we’d suggest skipping the Toast and running a cash bar in the evening. Perhaps even putting some money behind the bar that would have been spent on this toast. If you are not able to compromise on offering guests free drinks throughout and this is important to you, an Open Bar ran by a mobile bar company may still work out more cost effective and a better experience due to;
- Staff Costs – you will need at least 2 trained bar tenders, serving a large number of people in a relatively short space of time is totally different to having a local pub job as a teenager. You will always need two staff to ensure there is at least one person on the bar at all times.
- Glass Collector – Even with plastic glasses and lots of bins, you will still want someone to keep the venue tidy. If using glass, a glass collector is required to keep the area tidy and safe.
- Glassses – if providing your own drinks, you will need glassware. We often suggest using a hire company for this such as Plato Catering Hire. They will deliver to your venue in stackable crates and collect again after your day. No washing up, no falling apart cardboard boxes, no trying to dispose of glasses brought just for the occasion (which isn’t eco friendly either!)
- Bar – you will need a bar structure if your venue doesn’t already provide this. This could be hired from a bar hire company, furniture hire or marquee company
- Ice – no one wants to be going to the shops on their wedding day to pick up ice! Imagine if the local supermarket had run out, a stress that isn’t necessary
- Fruit / Garnishes – similarly to above, someone will need to collect fruit garnish on the day or day before
- Bar Equipment – If providing your own drinks, don’t forget spirit measures, wine measures, ice bucket and scoop, fruit tongs, bins, blue roll, slops bucket
- Wastage – you are likely to be left with a number of open bottles. Similarly with items purchased such as straws.
- Time – Researching, Ordering and collecting stock takes time
- Sale or Return – with a service you will only pay for what you use whereas you will need to buy lots of stock of everything you want to offer guests. You can get items such as wine and fizz on sale or return but this does mean that someone will have to return after your day
- Running Out / Restocking – you may need to allocate someone to be able to restock if you are running out of something – this should be a last resort but it is an educated guess on how much drink to provide
- Chilling – you will need to chill your provided drinks, this could be using a chiller trailer such as the ones from Chill Quick.
A mobile bar company would provide all required glassware, garnishes, ice, bar. bar equipment, trained staff and provide a seamless service with no additional work for you either before or after your event.
