HOW MANY GLASSES DO I HIRE FOR MY WEDDING

Picture by Joseph Kinerman

So now that planning has resumed, I want to chat with you about “how many glasses you need to hire” if you are having a dry hire.

Apart from being open to abuse, a free bar will mean guests will misplace their drinks when they chat or walk away to use the facilities with no pressure to find it because they can just go and get another.

🍸 It is true that when we pay for drinks we keep hold of them!

🍸 What this means for you if you have a dry hire with a free bar you need to make sure that you have more glasses than a paid bar.

🍸I would generally say that someone will drink at least 1 drink per hour for the first 2-3 hours and then slow down to one an hour after that.

So based your quantities on the length of your event. Make sure you split that across your glasses according to what alcohol you are serving.

Shot glasses would be an addition to that total.

A Real Story 😱

I was hired as a coordinator for a tipi in a field. They hired a well-established bar supplier so we should have been well equipped, but sadly they didn’t bring enough glasses nor did they bring enough ice!

We had no access to running water, it was a hot day, so drinks were flowing and ice was melting

Thankfully the local nightclub owner happen to be one of my best friends, so I put in an SOS and before you know it I had 600 poly carbon glasses and more ice than an Eskimo would know what to do with, BUT that was shear luck and not everyone will have that luxury.

For the small costs that these items are, compared to the impact to your reception if they run out of either ice or glasses, especially when there are no washing facilities, it is better to have too many than not enough.

Now if I can just throw a little covid on this. Last year I had three small weddings. Unless you are having a small cultural wedding, it is unlikely that you will have a dry hire, but what I did find with the lack of a DJ, Dancing or any Entertainment, which may still be the case until June 21st, the only thing left to do was drink. So I would look to increase glass requirements to cater for the long day of drinking.