Drinknation Forums

[Indy]

Unfortunately for me, my party hosting experience is extremely limited, even at my late age (34). I've been wanting to host more, and moving into a new house last month robbed me of my last excuse (I moved from a tiny apartment to a nice, roomy house).

I decided to invite everyone from work to this "housewarming party". That was my first mistake. To begin with, our office has someone working 24/7, so someone was going to be left out. I thought I circumvented this problem by announcing that the party would be at 1:00PM AND 7:00PM on Saturday.

Mistake #2: I asked two non-work friends (a married couple) what weekend in October they would be attending their office Halloween party, then scheduled my get-together for the previous weekend (10/16). However, one of my supervisors told me he would be out of town that weekend, and asked me to move it to October 9. I did, and posted a small, hand-written sign in the hallway at work (mistake #3; at least two people said they didn't even know about it because they didn't see the sign).

The next day, one of the ladies said she would definitely be unable to attend. Okay, one down, and 12 people left in our department. I didn't really require RSVPs (mistake #4), so nobody else confirmed or denied that they would be coming.

I also found out on October 8th that my friend was going to be out that weekend, but that his wife MIGHT come. I wasn't counting on that. I spent most of Friday STARTING my shopping for party supplies and cleaning the sty (mistake #5), and more or less had the house equipped and in shape by 1:00PM Saturday.

I had bought:
1) A fifth of Jack Daniels
2) A fifth of Seagrams 7
3) A fifth of Captain Morgan
4) A fifth of Smirnoff Vodka
5) A big-ass bottle of Gin (about $15 worth)
6) A big-ass bottle of Triple Sec (ditto)
7) A big-ass bottle of Peppermint Schnapps (ditto)
8) A bottle of "Boone's Farm" strawberry for one guy I know likes that crap
9) A case of Bud Light

I also got chips, dip, nuts, tons of candy (including sugar-free varieties for two diabetics), a case of Coke, a case of caffeine free Diet Coke, strong paper plates, plastic cups, plastic utensils, microwaveable bratwursts, frozen burger patties, buns, assorted fruits, juices and miscellany for cocktails, a bar starter kit (shaker, strainer, ice tongs, etc), several new drink glasses, a book on cocktail-making, and even some cheap toys (soldiers, balls, coloring books and crayons) and sippy-cups in case any of my guests showed up with their kids.

I spent a hell of a lot of money without knowing for sure just how many people were going to show up for this shindig (mistake #6). The first showed up at 2:00PM, and spent most of his time scratching his ass-crack and digging the same hand into a jar of peanuts. I thought I warned everybody later about the "tainted" jar, but I forgot, and one guy nearly gagged later when I told him after the fact. It was kind of funny, though, since we were a little drunk at that point.

I had a total of six guests (out of a potential 13, including my friend's wife, who also didn't show) that day at various times; we had a pretty good time, considering. I didn't have a whole lot planned (mistake #7)other than showing everybody the new place, so we just wound up sitting around, talking & joking about work, etc, playing cards and watching Quentin Tarantino movies until about 1:00AM. As far as cocktails, I read up what I could beforehand, but I still had very little idea what I was doing, and didn't really feel like wasting alcohol by experimenting. Collectively, we wound up drinking mostly Rum & Coke, Whiskey & Coke, and a couple of screwdrivers (and the guy I bought the Boone's Farm for drank most of that).

So...for my NEXT party (yes, I'm one who likes to learn from his mistakes and try again), I shall:

1) give much more advance notice, and tell everyone personally about it, rather than leave it to chance;

2) get RSVPs from everyone I can;

3) have the house equipped and presentable 24 hours before the party is scheduled to begin;

4) learn more about making drinks so I can whip them up with little bother;

5) come up with something else to do besides drink, play cards and watch DVDs;

6) do as much research as I can to make the next party much more enjoyable.

Well, there you have it. Any tips I haven't already learned in my "trial by fire" would be greatly appreciated.

[Monkey Justice]

Thanks for the tips Indy, too bad it didn't go as you planned. Here's one thing we've learned: people don't know much about drinks. When you throw a party, you'll save yourself a lot of hassle if you pick 5 or 10 drinks that you like, and print out their names and the types of booze in them as a little "drink menu" that you leave by your bar.

People will have fun choosing drinks off the menu and comparing them, and it takes the work out of thinking about it for them. Most people end up just saying "rum and coke" or "gin and 7" or other higballs because they don't know any other drinks.

Cheers

[The Archvillain Bartender]

A good tip for a small gathering too is some sort of theme. It doesn't matter how trivial the theme is, it just makes it kind of fun to have a party with a "point". For instance, we're having a poker party soon. It's going to be mostly social, and not everyone will be playing poker, but it's still a theme. Any sort of game is good... crib, trivial pursuit, the Simpsons, whatever. MST3K movies are classic to have a get-together for.

If you have a larger party, like 10+ people, you probably don't really need a theme, but it can still be fun.

[Indy]

Yeah, I guess all of this stuff comes with experience. Good idea of setting up a "drink menu"; I had intentionally bought several items that I figured (from my studies) would make four or five types of cocktails (diff. types of booze, various fruits, veggies, spices, etc).

I'm convinced at least a couple of the guys knew other drinks to make/ask for (the more "experienced" drinkers of the bunch), but didn't, since I wasn't offering (they'd have no way of knowing that I DID have the fixings for other types of drinks).

Also, I found out this week that one of the guys didn't show up because he didn't really want to have his wife around us all in a social setting like that. You know how it is: there's often a certain behavior/attitude between co-workers, and that potentially doesn't translate well to family and/or other friends. It's the exact reason I didn't invite my drunk redneck buddy.

[invincible1300r]

These are all great ideas and actually ones I stumbled on through trial and error. The theme is important e.g. fight party, Xmas, Halloween....and so on. As far as the drinks I like having guy drinks and gal drinks like 3 or 4 of each. Limits the amount of alcohol you have to purchase and makes it easier to organize.

I like using tall plastic see through cups and a sharpie to mark the drink as to who it's been made for. I often have cups sitting around looking for the owner! Lots of ice, at least three shakers, and a variety of finger foods and maybe one or two dishes like a cheesy potato caserol or cold salad tuna or ham or you can maybe grill!

XM or other satallite music is a must. No interruptions and a great variety without having to spring for a DJ!!

Practice making your drinks to improve proficientcy! I like trying to get my wife drunk during the week!!

[dymd3z]

Don't do what I did and post a party as an event on facebook... I ended up with holes in my walls, my house (which is rather large) was packed shoulder to shoulder upstairs and on the upper floors. Luckily nothing was stolen, but it was a pain in the ass to fix the broken dry wall at 4 am while drunk. I'm 20, and half the people who showed up were around 16, 17... too young in my book.

So, 2 weeks later I had another party. No internet community shit to spread the word, and I hired an actually bouncer. Not just 1, but I actually hired 2! Instead the outside of my house got attacked, the door was almost kicked in, a kid got choked out and taken by ambulance, and my bouncers were almost arrested for "fighting minors", stories kids made up cause they didnt get in. We also charged $5 per person in case of anymore damage and to pay the bouncers, so the second party was better, but damn, the little city I live in you can't keep anything a secret. That was the end of my hosting. Can anyone top my idiocy?