A client books catering for a hundred and twenty and plans to bring their own drinks to save money. Nobody discusses glassware, ice, chilling, who serves it or who is legally responsible for serving alcohol.
On the day there are warm bottles in a car park, no glasses for spirits, and a caterer being asked to pour drinks at an event where nobody has established that they are permitted to.
The question that comes before everything
Who holds the licence. A licensed venue, a temporary authorisation, the caterer, or nobody. Until that is answered, no drinks arrangement is safe.
Option one: a fully licensed bar
The caterer or venue supplies and sells. Highest revenue, highest operational load, and it requires the licence and the stock investment to go with it.
Option two: drinks included in the package
A defined allocation per guest, served by your staff. Predictable for the client, predictable for you, and the easiest arrangement to price.
Option three: client supplies with corkage
They buy, you serve. Popular, considerably cheaper for them, and it needs corkage priced honestly rather than resentfully.
Option four: an external bar company
They bring the licence, the stock and the staff. Less revenue for you and far less risk, and it is the right answer for many caterers.
Option five: a dry event
More common than caterers expect, for cultural, religious or practical reasons. It should be offered as a normal option rather than treated as unusual.
Price corkage honestly
Glassware, ice, chilling, staff time and the washing up afterwards. A corkage figure with a reason is accepted, and an arbitrary one is negotiated.
Explain the chilling problem
Chilling drinks for a hundred and twenty needs equipment nobody has thought about. This is where client supplied arrangements actually fail.
Cover glassware per drink type
Wine, water, spirits, beer and something for a toast. Counting by guest rather than by drink type is how events run out.
Set out the service staffing
Pouring, clearing and running a bar are labour, and they sit alongside the food staffing described in staffing and service style questions clients ask.
Agree the responsible service arrangements
Refusing service, dealing with guests who have had too much, and what happens if it becomes difficult. Somebody needs to own this before the evening.
Address under age guests explicitly
Weddings and family events have children present. Checks, soft drink provision and staff instructions need agreeing rather than improvising.
Say what happens to leftover stock
Returnable on a sale or return arrangement, or the client takes home forty bottles. Both are fine and both need saying.
Tie the quantities to the numbers
Drinks quantities depend on headcount more sharply than food does, which is why the problem in catering quotes that stall without guest numbers matters here.
Coordinate with the entertainment schedule
Bar demand follows the running order, and the timings sit alongside the questions in live music and what is on questions.
Establish the drinks position at enquiry
An assistant that asks whether the venue is licensed, what drinks arrangement they want, the guest numbers and whether children will attend produces a quotation that includes the largest variable in the event. It also handles the coverage questions in answering service area questions. See pricing, run the numbers on the chatbot ROI calculator, and the sector view sits under event planners.