How to Host a Cocktail Party at Home: Menu, Kit and Timings

A cocktail party is the easiest grown-up party to host and the easiest to get wrong. Get it right and people stand up, move around and leave saying it felt like a proper night out. Get it wrong and you spend three hours shaking drinks while everyone else talks to each other.

The fix is a short menu and a bar guests can use without you. Everything below is built around that.

Honest note: we design and print our cards, badges, prints, candles and party decorations in the UK. The drinks cabinet and the cocktail machine are recommendations from elsewhere.

Build a bar that runs without you

• Self-service is the whole trick. An automatic cocktail making machine measures and mixes a drink at the push of a button, so guests serve themselves and the host isn't stuck behind a table with a jigger all night.
• Give the bar a home rather than a corner of the kitchen worktop. A drinks cabinet with doors and drawers is what turns a collection of bottles into a bar: bottles stay upright and out of the light, the tools hide in the drawers, and the top gives you a surface at the right height to build a drink on.
• Put the bar as far from the kitchen as the house allows so people spread out.
• A tray of pre-poured drinks by the door covers the first fifteen minutes.
• One printed card listing tonight's three drinks. No menu, no questions.

The three-drink menu

• One sharp and citrussy: a margarita or a whisky sour.
• One long and easy: a spritz, a highball or a gin and tonic with something interesting in it.
• One dark and short for later: a negroni or an old fashioned.
• One good no-alcohol option built like a real drink, with ice and a garnish.
• Name them after the occasion. People order by name, not ingredients.

How much to buy

• Three drinks per person for the first two hours, one an hour after that.
• A 70cl bottle gives you about 14 drinks at 50ml.
• 1kg of ice per person. Everyone underbuys ice, always.
• Twice the mixers you think you need, half the spirits.
• Two glasses per person, because people put theirs down and lose it.

Food that works standing up

• One hand only. If it needs a knife, it doesn't belong at a cocktail party.
• Something salty out from the start - olives, crisps, nuts in bowls people pass.
• Two hot things from the oven at around 9pm.
• Bread and cheese on a board that refills itself.
• Nothing that drips. Every host learns this once.

The room

• Clear one room of furniture entirely. Standing room is what makes it a party.
• Lamps and candles, big light off - Shop the range
• Bunting or a backdrop by the bar, not the middle of the floor - Shop the range
• Coats upstairs, bins visible, a spot for empty glasses near the bar.
• A framed print behind the bar gives it a focal point - Shop the range

Timings that keep it moving

• 8pm arrivals with a drink pressed into their hand.
• 9pm hot food and the music up a notch.
• 10pm switch to the short, dark drink on the menu.
• 11pm water jug out and the playlist softens.
• Midnight: last round announced. A party ends best when the host calls it.

Shop party items

How to write it so it lands

• Three drinks on the menu, no more.
• 1kg of ice per person.
• Bar away from the kitchen, always.

Where to shop next

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• All guides

Frequently asked questions

How many cocktails do you need per person?

Plan on three in the first two hours and one an hour after that. A 70cl bottle of spirit makes roughly 14 drinks at 50ml a serve, so one bottle covers about five guests for the evening.

How much ice do you need for a cocktail party?

About 1kg per person. Half of it goes on chilling and shaking rather than into glasses, which is why almost everyone runs out. Buy it on the day and keep it in a cool box, not the freezer drawer.

How do you host a cocktail party without being stuck at the bar?

Keep the menu to three drinks, pre-batch anything that doesn't need shaking, and let guests pour their own. An automatic cocktail machine does this well because it measures for them, so nobody makes a drink that's three-quarters gin.

What food goes with cocktails?

One-handed, salty and not drippy: olives, nuts, crisps, arancini, sausage rolls, cheese straws. Put something out from the start and bring two hot things out of the oven around 9pm.

Do you sell the drinks cabinet or the cocktail machine?

No. We design and print greetings cards, enamel pin badges, prints, candles and party decorations in the UK. The cabinet and the automatic cocktail maker are recommendations from elsewhere - only the things linked to our own shop are ours.