# Drink staging for an 8-hour party?



## llondra (Sep 29, 2004)

The first year for our Halloween party, I served Vampire punch and then had some mixers at the bar, a tub of bottled beer and ale, and soft drinks. I found that mostly the punch was the only thing that people drank, and since it's easier (and cheaper), that's what I've stuck with. I find punch style drinks that go with our theme and have at least two to offer up variety, and I also put out soft drinks that can be mixed with the few bottles of liquor, either provided by us or someone else brings. (At last year's Voodoo Hoodoo, I served a pina colada punch and swamp slime, then we had like 2 or 3 mixer liquors.)

For our first New Year's Eve party, I had an open bar as well as a champagne punch. OMG! The bar went over great - especially with the Speakeasy theme - but it was so expensive and we wound up with some ::cough:: well-inebriated guests. I think the mistake I made was leaving it to the guests to make their own drinks. Especially as the evening wore on, a "shot" was rather loosely defined. So, I've looked into hiring a bartender for the next time I do an open bar. ;-) (We went through something like 12 bottles of champagne, 8 bottles of wine, and about 10 bottles of assorted liquor - gin, rum, vodka, bourbon, etc. Considering we only had about 30 people at the party...)

As far as food, for Halloween I get really into theming the food and usually end up making way too much because there's always one more dish that I just can't make myself leave off of the menu. Since our party start time is usually around 8pm, most people have already eaten and they just don't seem to get hungry no matter how long the night lasts. So, what goes out at the beginning of the night is always more than enough to get us through without a refresh being necessary.

I think your setup sounds great, but for me, I've found that what I now strive for is no-upkeep presentation. Meaning, I want them to walk in and see it, be wowed, and then I don't have to touch it too much throughout the night. Punches are great because I have two huge punch bowls that generally only have to be filled once each, and you can always find a great punch that goes along with the theme - and people love 'em because they're yummy and accessible. The vampire punch (which was a sangria punch) and the swamp slime were particular favorites.


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## Shikkapow (Aug 23, 2005)

My wife and I have party's through out the year (themed and not) and generally we buy plenty of finger food and snacks. The group of friends we have usually have some sort of get together every other week and its normal "policy" that we BYOB. 
However at our wedding and my last birthday party I refused to let anyone bring anything, and set everything up buffet style for foor and placed all the booze on a table in the kitchen, and the beer in iced down vats in the back yard.
The bar was open the minute they walked in the door, and since I was there to have a good time as well ( the host is constantly dealing with problems anyways) I let them make their own drinks.
I want to have a good time too and not worry about serving guests, and spend my time socializing.


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## not so scary (Oct 6, 2004)

This will be our 4th Halloween Party and we've had great response in the past. The first year we provided all of the liquor- ... not anymore. We now provide a Keg (siiting in ice outside on the patio), some form of spiked punch (always a favorite!), jello shots, and an Ice Luge. We suggest on our invitations that everyone bring their favorite bottle for the Luge and nobody has a problem with that. That saves us some money and helps re-stock our bar with the leftovers. We set up the Luge outside also, under a canopy with spooky lights and tiki torches all around. We place a table between the keg and luge for cups and liquor. By keeping these right outside the door, we get less mess in the house and the Luge doesn't melt as fast. Occasoinally I'll circulate the room with the Jello shots.
We also have snacks/ appetizers throughout the night, starting with the warm food. "Baked Colon" ( a stromboli shaped into intestines with pockets of cheese/sauce oozing out). We also did the "Pumpkin Vomit" dip - carve out a pumpkin to look like he is puking, shovel in some guacamole dip with a plate underneath his mouth to catch the spillage. We start our party at 8pm, so most people don't expect much to eat.


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## drunk_buzzard (Sep 9, 2003)

My parties start at noonish and basically have two parts - one for the families and at nights just the adults. Last year I made a huge crock pot of chili b/c I could keep it warm all day. It was a huge hit!! At night I think I served some lasagna dish or something. In both cases, I could keep the food hot easily. Everything that went with the main dishes was finger food I think.

For drinks I make a punch and some jello shots along with some beer. I thin kthis year I"ll add a keg. Otherwise, people bring their own. The punches are a huge hit, one for the day time and another spiked for the night.


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## Asuryas (Aug 27, 2005)

The way it works at my Halloween parties usually has nothing to do with how I plan it. The ideal goal is to have all of the food buffet style out in the main dining room, with ice under stuff that needs to be cold and tea light warmers under the stuff that needs to be hot. I plan my menu so that I don’t have to be running back and forth from the kitchen to the table. I serve lots of finger food and it’s all ready to go when the guests get there. 

As for the bar, I provide the spirits and mixers. I let everyone know I’m not much of a beer drinker so if they want beer they need to bring their own (I figure that’s not too much to ask), the beer goes in coolers out on the back porch. The entire kitchen is turned into the wet bar, I clean off all the counters and set out the bar tools and put ice in the sink. It’s inevitable that the booze is going to get loose, so I figure I might as well have an easy room to clean. For the first half of the night I try to tend the bar, making as many cocktails as people request, but to be honest after my second Tom Collins I lose interest in being the perfect hostess, so I leave the rest of the drink mixing to the guests. However, I do leave out printed recipes for some of the more fun Halloween cocktails; I’ve had some guests really get into mixing drinks for others. Seems to work out fine – haven’t had any complaints yet.


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## great_ghoul (Aug 14, 2004)

This is a tough one for me this year. Usually I host a full on dinner party which has never been more than 22 people, and have easily kept up with the bar through wild contraptions meant to excite the guests more than enebriate them (My boyfriend and I once built a great pour through bar with copper and rubber tubing and SMALL taps...but it bled fog everywhere (design PLAN!) as you were pouring so you didn't notice how long it took to get a shot out of the thing!!!

This year - the party is going to be far out of my range to cater to. It is looking like a minimum of 60-70 people....and some I don't know...so I appreciate the feedback about not leaving the liquor out!! I have had that ordeal with my own close friends, so I am thinking that I will have a keg...some wine...two punches...one amply spiked, the other NOT...and two hot ciders on hot plates...one amply spiked....well you get the picture. Everything will be well labelled and I will be monitoring them for pranksters wanting to do the ol' switcheroo! 

Jello shooters always go over well too! And I also circle with those. Also - good costumes get appropriate rewards...for example..if someone shows up as dracula or a vampire, they get a bloody martini (raspberry jello shots, shot of vodka, and drop of grenadine!!! ewww....but yummy) then there are the brains shooters etc....but those are ONLY a prize for a costume well done!

Thanks to everyone for the recommendations. My parties have always cost WAY to much on the liquor side ~ this time, I will have to put it into more food, but it will be buffet - finger style....because it will be starting early enough that people will NEED dinner, but also...who know what the costumes will allow. Thanks to everyone for the advice!


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## SexylilDevil (Sep 29, 2005)

*My ideas if anyone needs them...*

Last year was my first Halloween party! It was awesome, We made it mandatory that everyone dress up. We did the whole costume contest, how we did it was have everyone vote on who they thought was best costume, The winner was rewarded with a 5th of Jager! We had a D.J for the night, it was awesome.. We had also got an ice luge, of coarse it was byol for the luge, we supplied 2 bottles of pucker and 5th of Jager for the luge, and Supplied the keg with a $2.00 to help cover cost of food & drinks. The cover was probably the best thing that we had done, considering that there was about 60 people there so we made some of our money back from the party. I displayed most of my food in the kitchen set inside of a coffin on the table, we did cold cuts made into a meathead (I got the idea on a yahoo search) then used other foods and displayed it all as a body. 
For decorations, This was my favorite part of the whole getting ready: We garbaged bag all of my walls! Drapped old white sheets over the furniture, We replaced our regular lightbulbs with black lightbulbs, We had red and purple lights streaming everywhere, The lighting was awesome with the effect of the fogger and strobe lights! For outside, I made my own gravestones and personalized each one for most of the people that I knew were coming. I bought styrophome at Home depot and cut them and spray painted and personalized, with funny inside jokes about each person.. Everyone got a kick out of those. I also had an old garbage can that I had found at my grandma's house itr esemblest he can that you used to see on sesame street (the one that oscar the grouch lived in) I had a tape recorder inside of the can with a person yelling "help get me out of here!" That was displayed in front when everyone arrived! Those are just a few things that I can think of off the top of my head.. Hopefully someone could get good use out of some of my ideas, Happy Halloween


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## Deb (May 25, 2005)

*Ice Luge*

For y'all that do the ice luges, how does one go about making one? Where do you get the ice (and how much is it)?


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## not so scary (Oct 6, 2004)

*ice luge*

we have always bought our Ice Luge from an ice sculpting place. We pay about $60 and they give us the drain off tray and hose also. It has two channels for side-by-side shots, also a cut out hole on the inside to keep a bottle chilled. The ice block is pretty heavy and about 30 inches tall. You could try to make one yourself if you had a mold. Not a good idea to do in your standard fridge/freezer.


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## IshWitch (May 19, 2006)

What is a luge? Does anyone have a picture?


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## IshWitch (May 19, 2006)

http://www.monzy.com/?p=153

Gotta love google! Found this to be pretty interesting.


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## Macabre1 (Jan 13, 2004)

i've never seen one of these before. they look awesome! definately going to have to try one out.


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