Party Drink Ideas
By an Award-Winning Professional Party Planner
Easy drinks styling and presentation tips to wow your party guests
The reason all those photos of wedding and party drinks on Pinterest look so chic and stylish is because they've usually be styled by a professional party planner or catering company.
But you know what? It's dead simple to achieve the same look and feel for you own parties at home.
Just follow my simple party drinks styling and presentation tips below to give your next birthday bash or celebration all the creative flair of a professionally-catered event.
For actual drinks recipes, what to serve, and other party drink ideas, check out my Pinterest board of Party Drink Ideas.
The trend for serving cocktails and party drinks in mason jars might have reached fever pitch a few years ago—and if you browse Pintest often, you might think there's no other acceptable way to serve drinks at a wedding! But this isn't just a passing fad. The reality is party drinks just look great served this way—especially when arranged en-masse on a bar, they're easy for guests to handle, and you can personalize them for your event by adding a sticker or tag (see further down the page for ideas). You can pick up cheap mason jars here or failing that try here.
The other big advantage is that by utilizing the lids, you can batch-make a bunch of drinks in advance, such as these frozen daiquiries (below center right, see recipe here) or these fruit teas (below right, see recipe here), and keep them frozen or on ice until guests arrive.
If you prefer a more sleek and modern look, with less wedding connotations, a great alternative to mason jars is to serve party drinks in these milk bottles with straws (available here or alternatively try here).
You don't have to portion up each of these individually if you're dealing with larger numbers. Just batch make a signature drink and line the empty bottles up alongside on a bar, as per the photo below center right, for guests to pour themselves.
I particularly like these elegant Nantucket drinks dispensers, below right, as they have a classic feel. You can pick them up here. Alternatively, check out this supplier for inexpensive options.
Whether you're using mason jars or milk bottles, the trick to giving party drinks a professionally-styled look is to personalized the containers. Either tie a custom favor tag around the neck of each bottle / jar (below left, check out various designs here), add a personalized sticker (below center, check out various options here), or use these stylish transparent mason jar stickers (below right, other designs available, see here).
Another simple party drinks styling tip is to add a special drinking straw to each glass / bottle / jar. Check out the full range here. I particularly like these custom wedding straws (below center right) were the couple were drawn from a photo and then attached to each straw. Although this example is from a wedding, I think they'd be just as cute for other special occasions, such as a adult milestone birthday party. Similarly, these photo straws (below right, from a Seinfeld party) could be made using photos of the birthday boy / girl from different stages of their life. Both options are available here.
You can also personalize your party drinks with drinks stirrers. There are generic ones such as 'Cheers', 'Enjoy', or 'OMG', below left, or you can have these made for particular names.
Alternatively, there are other personalized ones available, including these fun photo ones, (available here), which would be fun for a milestone birthday as you could use old photos of the birthday boy / girl. Check out the full range here.
There are lots of things you can do with ice cubes to theme and style your party drinks, such as freezing fruits, flowers, and herbs into them or using quirky molds. There are lots of fun ice cube molds available, ranging from simple numbers for milestone birthday parties, to moustaches, grenades, shark fins, Pac Man, marijuana leaves, and even 'My Water Broke' babies in ice cubes for baby showers. Check out the full range here.
Alternatively, use these flashing LED ice cubes to light up drinks—there are lots of different colors available here.
Use these letter cookie cutters on fruit then thread them onto skewers to use as personalized drinks stirrers like the examples below by Jessy at Instructables. (remember to soak in lemon juice to stop them turning brown). You can use them to create guest's names or spell out words and phrases such as 'Cheers', 'Drink Me', or 'Jen's 40th'. You can pick up the alphabet cookie cutters here.
If you're hosting a birthday party at home, it's often the little touches and attention to detail that help turn it into a special occasion and differentiate it from any other get together you might host throughout the year. A really easy way to theme party drinks for a special occasion is to have personalized beer, wine, water, or spirits labels printed. There are lots of different designs available, many which allow you to upload a photo, and some are available as printable files so you can run off as many as you like at home. Identical bottles will look great lined up on a bar or drinks table and it's a really simple touch you can add to make everything feel a little more special. Check out the full range here.
Update: I recently came across this site which has lots of great templates for personalized wine and beer bottles, such as the ones below, that you can customize with your own photos and text. Check out the full range here.
A cute way to use personalized liquor labels, is to tie them to individual bottles of mixers, such as this Jack Daniels & Coke example below right. See here for a range of personalized liquor labels.
Another fun way to use mason jars and personalized liquor labels is to set up a DIY cocktail bar. Just put individual cans of mixers inside mason jars and tie on the liquor miniatures, then set these up in ice baths with instructions for people to empty the jar, add ice, then mix their own drink. You can pick up cheap mason jars here or failing that try here.
Another easy way to theme a 40th birthday party is with these personalized plastic party cups. They're available in a range of different designs for any age. Check them out here.
Alternatively, there's also a nice range of personalized designs, such as the ones below, available here, that work out around 80¢ each. Update: The nice gold and blue art deco style designs, pictured below left, are available here (for any age).
At a crowded party with lots going on, it's often the smaller details that people tend to remember; things they touch, handle, or interact with.
These personalized paper napkins can be a fun way to include fun facts about the birthday boy/girl. There are options available with or without photos and you can customize the text and colors Check them out here.
Alternatively, you could use custom napkins to communicate an event-specific hashtag for guests to share photos and tweets.
There are lots of different designs available here and you can change the text to whatever you want.
Similarly, you can also get personalized drinks coasters, such as the ones below, available here.
Head over to my other page of buffet table ideas for food styling and presentation tips to go with these party drink ideas.
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Many thanks
Matt
Matt James is a professional event planner and owner of event agency Left Field Productions, which has produced events for Elton John, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kevin Spacey, Stella McCartney, David LaChapelle, John Waters, and Elvis Costello & Diana Krall. Since 2004, Left Field Productions has won 30 industry awards for excellence including Production Company of the Year.
