Your local event plan
Build a useful bar brief.
Choose the format, explain who pays and add the details you know. Every field is optional. Review a plain-text plan to copy or download; nothing is sent, automatically saved or booked.
Use a venue name or general area. Leave out contact details, home addresses, access codes, guest names, medical information and payment details.
The planning controls become available when the local tool is ready. If they remain unavailable, use the guides below. Nothing is sent or booked.
Your plan, ready to check.
The brief contains requests for discussion. It calculates no drink quantities, alcohol allowance, staffing level or price. Your event arrangements need a written proposal.
Find the next decision
Use the focused guides below alongside your local brief. Start with the questions still open for your event, then return to your plan to record the useful details. For the main service choices, compare stocked service and dry hire and the published starting figures.
Plan the venue
Bring access, facilities and the surrounding event into the brief.
Questions to ask your venue before booking a mobile barBefore choosing drinks or the appearance of a bar, establish what your venue can accommodate and who needs to agree the arrangements. A Peterborough venue may already have its own bar provision or supplier conditions. Start with its event contact, then share the answers with the mobile bar team.Choose a bar position that fits the way guests will moveThe most attractive corner is not automatically the most useful bar position. Think about what guests will do before ordering, while they wait and after receiving their drinks. A simple event layout helps the venue and bar team discuss the actual setup without guessing dimensions or how many people it can serve.Ask the right questions about bar power, water and chillingStart with the actual drinks and service you want, then ask which facilities that arrangement needs. Power, water and chilling are separate questions. A venue may offer some facilities without providing everything required for your particular bar, and the published offer does not establish a universal utility specification or refrigeration package.Plan an outdoor bar around the actual siteAn outdoor event needs a site-specific bar discussion. The published offer includes outdoor event settings, but that does not establish that any bar setup will suit every garden, field or open-air location. Share the real site conditions and ask the venue and bar team to review the arrangement you want.Fit the bar into your marquee planA marquee bar needs to fit the particular structure and event layout being arranged. Share one plan with the marquee provider, venue contact and bar team rather than treating each supplier's area separately. The published reference to marquee settings does not establish dimensions, installation requirements or suitability for your chosen structure.
Shape the drinks
Make the menu and guest requirements useful to the bar team.
Who supplies the glasses, ice and bar equipment?A bar counter and drinks list do not settle every equipment question. Dry hire lists utensils and ice buckets, but that wording does not establish a supply of actual ice, glassware or chilling equipment. Work through those items against the menu and service model you are considering, then allocate each agreed responsibility.Give your bar supplier useful guest numbersA guest total helps start the bar discussion, but it does not describe when people arrive or which drinks they might choose. Give the best available attendance information and make uncertainty visible. The aim is a clear service brief, not a formula for drinks per person or a claim about bar capacity.Write a useful drinks menu brief for your eventA useful menu brief says what you want guests to choose from and which details matter most. The stocked-bar offer lists cocktails, craft beers, wines and spirits, with customised menus discussed. These categories are a starting point for a conversation, not a confirmed inventory or a promise that every requested brand is available.Make alcohol-free drinks part of the bar discussionGuests choosing alcohol-free drinks should be considered when you describe the event menu. Ask what the bar team can actually offer rather than assuming a particular soft-drink selection, mocktail recipe or package inclusion. Decide whether these choices need the same visibility as the rest of the agreed drinks list.
Coordinate the service
Give people, times and responsibilities one clear plan.
Plan mobile bar delivery and setup with the venueA bar opening time does not tell the supplier when it can unload or begin setup. Give delivery and preparation their own place in the event plan. The useful brief describes the actual route and available access, then asks the bar team to confirm what is needed for the proposed equipment.Set bar opening times separately from event hoursYour venue booking, party programme and bar service can have different start and finish times. Decide when guests should actually be able to order drinks, then agree that window with the bar team and venue. The published offer does not establish a standard bar duration or a minimum number of bartender hours.Coordinate the bar with your other event suppliersThe bar often shares space, access and event timings with catering, furniture, lighting and entertainment suppliers. Coordination works best when each team can see the same plan and knows which decisions belong to whom. Hiring one service does not establish that it includes or manages the other parts of your event.Agree the bar handover and collection planThe bar's final drink and its equipment collection may be different moments. Agree what happens between them, especially for dry hire or a venue that closes before collection is possible. A handover plan should identify the people, items and access involved without assuming a hire duration, overnight arrangement or cleanup service.Review bar booking changes before relying on themEvent plans can change after an initial bar discussion. The important step is to tell the team what changed and ask which parts of the agreed service need review. An updated guest list or running order in your own records does not automatically change the supplier's menu, staffing, equipment or attendance.Put the bar into your event running orderA useful running order shows the bar team's working arrangements as well as the moments guests see. Put access, setup, opening, planned changes and the finish into the same event timeline. Ask the supplier to confirm its own requirements rather than filling gaps with assumed setup times or a standard service duration.Assign the responsibilities behind your mobile bar bookingA bar booking is easier to review when every agreed task has a named owner. Use the proposed service model to identify the decisions still open between you, the venue and the supplier. The checklist should describe your actual event, rather than assuming that a stocked bar or dry hire transfers every responsibility to one party.
Compare the proposal
Understand the complete scope and spending arrangement.
Build a mobile bar budget from a defined serviceBegin your budget by choosing whether you want a stocked and staffed bar or dry hire with your own drinks. The published starting figures describe different elements of the offer. They cannot be combined into a confirmed event total without an agreed service, staff attendance, drinks provision and itemised quotation.Compare mobile bar quotations on the same basisTwo mobile bar quotations can look similar while assigning very different work to the host. Give each supplier the same event brief and compare the actual service, not just a headline price. Start by checking whether both proposals cover the same bar model and whether beverages are supplied by you or the provider.