You have a venue, a date, and several people with opinions about the party.
One wants signature cocktails. Another wants a short reception. Someone else needs a number before approving either.
Before you collect more ideas, put the bar plan on one page.
A brief gives your team something specific to approve. It gives your bartender what's needed to quote real service instead of a guess. And it gives you one document to point at when someone changes their mind in November.
You don't need every answer. Mark open items "to confirm" and name who owns each one.
Define what the event needs to do
"Company holiday party" can mean a seated dinner, a client reception, or an afternoon gathering before everyone drives home.
Describe yours in one sentence:
A reception where employees and their guests can talk before a seated dinner and a short awards presentation.
That sentence gives the bar a job. Service has to support conversation, work around dinner, and account for the presentation.
If clients will attend, say so. If employees bring guests, include it. Those two facts change the guest count, the tone, and usually the budget.
Separate guest count from drink preferences
Start with expected attendance. Then add what you know about the mix — plus-ones, families, anyone who has asked for alcohol-free options.
Here's why the split matters. Attendance drives staffing and quantity. The mix drives the menu. A room of 100 employees and a room of 60 employees with 40 spouses order differently, even at the same headcount.
One optional question on the RSVP is enough: preferred drinks, with an alcohol-free box. You'll get better information from that than from a long survey.
Put the schedule beside the service hours
Include more than the time printed on the invitation. Your brief should show:
- Vendor access time
- Guest arrival time
- Requested bar-service start and finish
- Meal timing
- Speeches, awards, or presentations
- Venue deadline for breakdown
Two notes from experience:
Vendor access is not the same as service start. A full bar setup takes sixty to ninety minutes before the first pour, and breakdown takes another forty-five to sixty. If your venue contract gives you the room at 5:00 and your invitation says 6:00, the bar is not ready at 6:00. Check the load-in path, too — a freight elevator or a long walk from parking adds time.
Presentations create the real rush. Closing the bar during remarks works, and we recommend it. But plan for the surge the moment it reopens. That five minutes is often busier than guest arrival.
Flag anything still being decided. If guests are released from a meeting in another room, include the expected release time.
Name the budget owner and the decision-maker
You may be organizing the party without controlling the approvals. Make that clear early.
Identify who approves the proposal, who signs, and who pays. Include any required steps on your end — vendor registration, insurance certificate, purchase order, W-9.
Then settle the question that decides the largest line on your budget: who buys the alcohol.
Mobile bar services operate one of two ways. Some supply the alcohol as part of the package. Others provide the staff, tools, and service while the host purchases the alcohol directly, with items like ice, mixers, and garnish added to the proposal. The second model usually costs less and gives you control over brands, but it puts the shopping list and the leftover inventory on you.
Ask your vendor which model they work under before you build the budget. The answer changes the number by thousands. We work the second way: your company purchases the alcohol, and we bring the staff, the tools, the menu planning, the setup, and the cleanup. Our guide on how BYOB mobile bartending works in Southern California walks through the handoff.
Also name who can approve changes on event day. That's often a different person from the one who picked the drinks. Both belong in the brief.
Use this one-page template
Prefer to fill it in rather than retype it? The same template is available as a fillable one-page PDF. Type directly into each field, check the boxes for open items, and date the version before you send it.
Event basics
- Company:
- Event date:
- Venue and city:
- Expected attendance:
- Event purpose (one sentence):
Guest experience
- Who is attending:
- Desired tone:
- Drink preferences:
- Alcohol-free preferences:
- Brand details or naming restrictions:
Schedule
- Vendor access:
- Guest arrival:
- Bar-service hours:
- Meal:
- Presentations:
- Breakdown deadline:
Scope and budget
- Bar budget:
- Who purchases alcohol:
- Items the venue or company supplies:
- Items to include in the proposal:
- Open decisions and their owners:
People and approvals
- Planning contact:
- Proposal approver:
- Purchasing or payment contact:
- Event-day decision-maker:
Keep the approved version in one shared place and date each revision, so your team can tell which one is current.
Send one clear version
Once the brief is agreed, send it to your bar vendor as the basis for the proposal.
You can still change a drink or move the schedule. The difference is that everyone will know what changed and who approved it.
That leaves fewer loose ends when guests arrive, and more time to host them.
Download the fillable One-Page Bar Brief if you want the template as a document your team can pass around.
Send us your brief.
Tell us your date, city, venue, and expected attendance. We'll propose bar service built around the schedule and the room.
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