Tag Archives: drinks

How to organise a college party

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A few years have passed since your glory days in college, but the memories make it feel like it was only yesterday! Take yourself back in time by planning a college reunion where you and your colleagues can relive those wild nights and great friendships. Getting a class together and pulling off a reunion party is no small feat, so we’ve put together a few guidelines to help get you through it. These tips (combined with your enthusiasm) will make planning the college reunion of the decade easy. Let’s start planning!

Getting Started

Before you can truly begin, you’ll need to form a group to help with all the planning. Find around 10-15 enthusiastic colleagues and start meeting at least 4-6 months in advance. Appoint one leader to oversee the planning. With your team, start locating the contact information of your class so you can go ahead and send out invitations as soon as possible. Your school should have a list with all this information and most people are on social media sites that provide contact information as well (think Facebook or LinkedIn). Send everyone a paper invitation to get the initial word out and create a Facebook page or website for your event where you can post reminders, updates, and information for your invited guests. Take this opportunity to start getting your guests excited about the reunion!

Theme & Venue

What’s a party without a theme? Since your reunion is going to be a party to remember, come up with a few theme ideas for your group to discuss. From the classic black-tie dinner, to a less formal, more festive theme such as an 80’s party, consider your guests and have fun with it! Once you’ve chosen a theme, it’s time to find the perfect venue! If possible, hosting the reunion at your college or university is ideal. But, if not, start searching for a venue big enough to accommodate everyone on your guest list. Remember to consider your theme and potential decorations as you hunt for that perfect venue. You’ll also want to take into account the seating situation to assess whether or not you may need to rent tables and chairs. Securing the venue makes planning decor that much easier, so you can begin creating your ideal atmosphere. Follow your general theme and have fun with it! Contact your classmates and request photos and keepsakes from the ‘good ole days’ to hang around the rooms or to create a nostalgia table!

Entertainment

You know the songs that just seem to recapture moments from your college experience? Have a DJ or Tribute band bring you right back to those days with the perfect party music to set the tone and liven up the party.

Keep the party going and conversation flowing with collages of old photos and videos. Everyone’s got those slightly embarrassing pictures of good friends they’d love to share. Stick with fun-inducing entertainment, give out prizes for games, or even have awards! Capture the new memories by booking a Photographer or even a photo booth!

Refreshments

From great decor and music to seeing old friends, your classmates will be having a ball! Add to the fun by providing party refreshments for your guests. If your reunion will be a more formal event, you may want to have a sit-down dinner, but for more casual atmospheres, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres will do just fine! Call local restaurants (maybe an old college favourite?) and have one cater.

Tying Up Loose Ends

Now that you’ve got most of the big stuff secured, don’t forget the last few details! Be sure to find a potential hotel to suggest for traveling guests and send out this information as soon as possible to allow everyone time to book a room. For those hard-to-reach, make a point to call around 3 months before the reunion to help get every classmate you can to the event. Lastly, remember to contact all special invitees such as teachers and headmasters/mistresses! The more the merrier! With all these tips under your belt, we’re confident you’re ready to plan the best possible college reunion your classmates could have imagined!

Have a 70’s night

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Some might argue that the ’70s were the decade for parties, and we just might agree. So break out your bell-bottoms and your best John Travolta wigs and throw the party of the century. We’ll show you the way!

Decorations and Party Favours

The ’70s were definitely a colourful decade, so feel free to have fun with your decorations. Bright colours like orange, yellow, lime green, and purple are a must! For a retro look, geometric shapes are a winner. Try concentric circles and squares, and patterns that have warped shapes and waves. Also include big, colourful daisies, peace signs, Volkswagen vans, and hearts. It’s all about the love.

For some retro party favours, try letting guests tie-dye their own T-shirts, or give away thick moustaches to add some fun. Think Burt Reynolds! Hit the lights and pass out glow necklaces and glow sticks to get the party started.

Want more “glam” than gaudy? Break out the silver and gold. Decorate with traditional silver disco balls on the ceiling and gold tablecloths. Create metallic backdrops with fabric from a local craft store, hang beaded curtains in the doorways, and feel free to go crazy with the glitter. Fill martini glasses with silver beads, or tall glass vases with mini disco balls. Pass out disco ball key chains, disco ball necklaces, or glitter sunglasses as flashy favours.

Food and Drink

Fondue is a must at your ’70s party. It was all the rage back then, and who doesn’t love to dip things in melted cheese or chocolate? Make cake balls and dust them in edible glitter to keep things sparkly. Colourful cupcakes with swirled icing will match your retro decor, and martini bars will make everyone feel like they just stepped into Studio 54. Finger foods like vegetables with dip, small sandwiches, or meatballs are always great to have, too. They never go out of style!

Costumes

This is the fun part! Charity shops are a great place to find some great throwback clothes. Guys, look for loud V-neck collared shirts, bell bottoms, vests, and platform shoes. Girls, find some tall heeled boots, short dresses with long sleeves, and wrap dresses. The main thing is bright colours and patterns, and polyester always screams “retro.” Afro wigs, headbands, and bright eye makeup can complete the look. For the glam look, stick with draped metallic shirts or dresses for women, and V-neck metallic patterned shirts for men. For guys in a bind, a simple black dress shirt will do. Throw on a gold chain, show some chest hair, and you’re in business. Black winged eyeliner and nude lips are a must for the glam girl.

Entertainment

If you really want to take your ’70s party to the next level, live entertainment is a great option. Try hiring a Karaoke DJ to help you belt out some Aretha, or just have a Mobile DJ on hand to keep the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack on repeat. If you have the space, a Funk, Soul, or Disco Band can add some soul to your event. Adding an Elvis or Elton John Impersonator could throw some unexpected fun into the mix, too!

Another great way to get your guests interacting is to set up a Photo Booth. You can hire one that can print pictures onsite, or set up your own camera and share later. Use colourful wrapping paper or hang some bright streamers for a cheap and easy backdrop!

In short, if you’re looking for a funky way to celebrate a special occasion, try a ’70s party. It’s easy, fun, and bound to leave you with some great memories from the biggest party era of our time!

Alcohol & The Event Industry

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Serving absurd amounts of alcohol at an event is not good for our Guests. Alcohol companies themselves invite you to ‘drink responsibly’

We need to erase for good the equation lots of alcohol = great event. If that was the case this post should not exist. What’s the point of giving you pointers on making events better if all that counts is getting drunk?

So what does change look like? We think we should give options to your Guests, and also think we can make a big difference with small changes.

Here are 5 ways to preserve your Guests wellbeing while giving them the choice to ‘let go’.

Low Alcohol

The line is very fine, but it can make a giant difference. If you have to proactively ask for alcohol, you will undeniably drink less than if someone constantly pours it into your glass.

Tell Your Guests

Low alcohol events translate in high communication requirements. Several Guests may in fact be disappointed by the lack of a basic pillar of so many events.

After a long day at the conference, guests feel they ‘earned’ their booze. But and experience without alcohol means they can actually talk to people, and people truly listen to what they had to say, enjoy the food, feel healthy the day after. Your experience of the event will be incredible.

The communication part is such an important piece of the puzzle. Let your Guests know what you are up to. Don’t let them get the wrong impression, tell them you want them to have fun rather than feel sick. Some won’t like it, but the majority won’t even remember this was a low alcohol event. The amount of positivity coming from a true social experience cannot be compared to a bottle of wine.

Pump Down the Volume

In a networking or social environment, loud music is the strongest ally of binge drinking. There is a correlation between high music levels and alcohol consumption.

We tend to lose control when the music levels are high. Speaking with our counterparts becomes more difficult.

Close the Bar

An open bar is never going to play nice with the objective of limiting alcohol. Opening a bar in a social environment is very similar to throwing a huge piece of cheese to hungry mice.

You can use a ticket system to allow a certain number of drinks on the house and then make Guests pay for their own drink. Money seems to be one of the strongest deterrent humans react to.

Once again communicate your plan to Guests, tell them you are not trying to be cheap but you are just looking after them. Try to discourage as much as possible the link between alcohol abundance and success of the event.

Give Them Distractions

Stimulate networking, playing, interacting among Guests. Technology is the strongest ally in your quest to take the focus away from getting drunk. Put up social media walls, have networking apps, gamify the event, give away prizes, have event entertainment performers, offer content. The options are endless.

If you only put up a sign with ‘open bar’ on it, do not expect Guests to achieve any of their networking, entertainment or education objectives.

The Ultimate Winter Blues Party

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As winter is rolling in, lots of people want to organise the Ultimate Winter Blues Party. At Red Masque we like to give some great ideas to offer in our posts. Instead of using your own home, why not rent out private rooms from restaurants because they offer an economical alternative with certain party essentials (furniture and a great kitchen) already in place.

SIGHT and TOUCH: Smoke and Mirrors

If you want to create something wonderful for the ultimate winter blues party, think ‘smoke and mirrors’.

You see mirrors create the illusion of even more energy and action – you can literally see more people throughout the room but at the same time, the combination of clear and reflective materials instantly make the room feel more open. Even more importantly, they capture the striking beauty of the first chill of winter in clean, contemporary lines. Along with the ice-like surfaces and funky blue fabrics that would bring out the swing in this modernist vision of winter, spicy, flavourful tapas, and a hot sexy Latin soundtrack would raise the pulse and temperature of the space.

Capturing the smooth, glassy surfaces of icicles, and the shimmering icy blue hues of freshly fallen snow can be a difficult illusion to pull off; you don’t want to go overboard and end up with a truly cold hard and severe look. Instead you want to create a magical “FROZEN” castle of shimmering shapes and reflective surfaces that will make your guests feel as though they are surrounded by gorgeous crystal sculptures. .

SIGHT: Top Party Decorations

Table decorations for the ultimate winter party can be very classy with diamonds spread over the table sparkling with cut glass champagne glasses, if you wanted to go really overboard you could hire some ice sculptures to really capture the spirit of the winter month.

Be as imaginative as you like, blue tablecloths, and a sprinkling of fake snow and don’t forget vodka on ice!!!

SMELL: Engage the Senses

For winter, go nuts, literally, roasted pistachios, coconut and sizzle chorizo in the kitchen to create a wonderful tangy and nutty aroma for the room. What is more sexy than a few shapely ice cubes jostling in a glass tumbler or the pristine gloss of a newly frozen lake.

TASTE: The best Party Food

You could just put out some cured meats and cheeses but for larger and more elaborate appetites and we love the sociability of tapas. Tapas, also provide a variety of flavours. As a winter party, the emphasis needs to be a little more on food to quiet the hibernating impulse we have and avoid the urge to stay home, watch Netflix and chill.

When creating your own menu, think about what would tantalise the guests, think of exciting colours and combinations of sweet and smoky spices. Serve the food every hour or so and start with simple foods while gradually adding new and more complex flavours

TASTE: The best Party Drinks

Drinks it would be a selection of Martini opportunities, why not try my Winter Blues Martini:

Winter Blues Martini
1 ounce Vodka
1/2 ounce Blue Curacao
1/2 ounce crème de cassis
a splash of fresh lime juice and blueberries for garnish.

Rim the martini glass with white sugar. Shake, strain, and pour liquid ingredients into a martini glass. Garnish with blueberry kebob.

Display bottles of frozen vodka inside decorative ice blocks: cut off the top section of an orange juice container and fill it two thirds full with distilled water and sliced lemons, limes and oranges. Insert a bottle of Citrus Vodka and put it in your freezer overnight. In the morning, remove the orange juice carton and you’ve got yourself a stunning citrus ice sculpture that doubles as a “cooler” for your vodka.

To create a surprise kick, for your Martini who not rub the rim of the glass with a slice of hot jalapeño pepper and then dip the glass in sugar?

SOUND

Think about some chill out tunes, a bit of funk and soul that will cater to most tastes.  Whatever you choose we are sure you will definitely have the Ultimate Winter Blues party!!!

Butler Facts;

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Find the best party butlers available for hire in the UK today. If you want a party that everyone will be talking about, then party butlers make the ultimate party accessory. Have the party that everyone’s talking about with some extra special service provided by professional staff. These guys are available to compliment your party, greet your guests, serve cocktails, top up your drinks and help you get your party started.

Here we have gathered some interesting facts about butlers and the private service profession for. The word butler derives from the old French bouteillier, and identified the cup-bearer or the one in charge of the bottles in large households. Bottle and the French equivalent both come from the Medieval Latin buticula, a diminutive of buttis, a cask, which is also the origin of the English word “butt”, given to large wooden container for liquid. The beer cellar in medieval times would have contained butts or wooden casks, not glass bottles.  So the buttery originally had nothing to do with butter but was the place for storing the butts. Only later was the word extended to mean somewhere that provisions in general were stored, perhaps because people mistakenly made that association

Through a complicated process that had to do with the loss of gentlemen servants and changes in social organization, the butler slowly rose to be in charge not only of the buttery, but also of the ewery (where the napkins and basins for washing and shaving were kept) and the pantry (where the bread, butter, cheese and other basic provisions were stored), and later still he took over the cellarer’s duties of looking after the wine. This eventually became one of his principal duties. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the role of the butler reached its full flowering as head of the male domestic servants, in larger households sometimes the butler was given a whole suite of rooms dedicated to his various functions.

The butler could also be taking care of the household accounting and creating household budgets, maintaining the wardrobe and clothing inventory for the gentleman, packing and preparing for the gentleman for travel, assisting with maintaining household security, staff hiring and firing and staff training. The butler is knowledgeable about wines and spirits and oversees the wine cellar and liquor inventory. Thus, the modern butler needs strong communication, organizational and management skills, and ability to multi-task.

Because of the many British TV series and movies featuring butlers, many people believe that butling is a “British thing”. This is an unfortunate myth, just like “British style butlers”. This notion comes from a rather overwhelming number of books, TV series and movies, all featuring a British butler. Due to the phenomenal success of Downton Abbey, British domestic service is yet again a trending topic.

The French invented the butler and the Americans invented the modern butler. Most butlers are employed in the USA and in the Middle East. Most successful butlers are Swiss. The best butler school in the world is located in The Netherlands. The best service in the world can be found in the Far East.

A summer garden party for all…

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If you have the space, or even if you don’t and want a small an intimate garden party then we have all the party and event entertainment you will need for a great Spring or Summer Garden party.

With the general election coming up in May you could go all Patriotic and have a themed garden party with your favourite ‘parties’ colours or you could bring in some MP lookalikes along. Go head to head with Cameron or Miliband with a little bit of Farage mixed in, all doing the hokey cokey together will be a right laugh!!

Hiring a string quartet to play some thought provoking ‘losers’ music; or some upbeat ‘jazz music’ for your ‘winning’ side.

It doesn’t have to be a serious affair – just a group of friends or neighbours around allowing everybody to get to know each other that little bit better.   

If you are having more of a corporate event and space is no object go full on with food caterers, promotional staff, cocktail waiters or a big brass band welcoming your very important guests.

Big outside garden games to hire for everyone to join in and don’t forget to hire some Marquees and sometimes the British weather is a little bit unpredictable (as we all know)

Lighting for when the sun sets is especially important for ambience it could be some romantic fairy lights or some light changing LED’s that will compliment any ‘theme’.

Walkabout artists engaging your guests or illusionists there is loads of entertainment to choose from.  There will be something for everybody and nobody could say they were bored.

So don’t just book some outside caterers for some ‘limp cucumber sandwiches’ for your next Garden Party – have fun, and look on Red Masque to see what other entertainment is on offer.

Top entertainment

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What’s the one thing you remember about a great party, above all else? As a guest, you’re there to have a good time. And if it’s a good time you want your own guests to have, then you need to put a little thought into the entertainment. Gone are the days when you had to book a one-man DJ to play 70s floor-fillers all night. Now, you can find entertainment that keeps your diverse range of wedding guests happy, making the party start with a bang…

We at Red Masque entertainment have a limitless amount of options and inspiration. But what if you don’t have the time, will power or experience to trawl through the 17,500 female solo singers that Google throws up? Well, then it’s time to turn to the professionals. And that’s where an entertainment directory can come in handy.

If you’re in the process of planning something big, using an entertainment directory can really help. We feature only the very best performers and suppliers out there, saving you the time and trouble of trying to find them for yourself. Using a directory means that everything you could possibly want for your event can be found all in one place. From your food and drink entertainment to performers and even choosing your venue, the vitally important stuff that makes a party run smoothly.

There are plenty of experienced acts out there, but it’s not easy finding the right act for your requirements. Here at Red Masque each of our act have a review section on their profiles, we believe this helps our clients find the perfect entertainment for their needs. The best musicians aren’t necessarily the best hype men, the most amazing magician won’t necessarily be the best web designer – one of the changes in entertainment since the internet has been the focus on promo material rather than word of mouth or reputation. That means the bands with the flashiest websites and the slickest videos often get more attention than their less media savvy counterparts. Consequently, there are plenty of hidden gems out there who, instead of improving their Search Engine Optimisation or video editing techniques, have focused on just being great performers. We believe our review section will help you find exactly what you’re looking for, enabling your event to run as smoothly as possible.

It just goes to show there’s only so far your own web searches will take you. If you want something a bit different, something to appeal to all the ages and tastes of your guests, something to get your party started as it means to go on, Red Masque is definitely a good way to avoid a headache. After all, it’s your party too.

Best Party Butlers

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Now girls, you know you need the ultimate party butler or butlers for your Hen party! You don’t even have to have an excuse for a party!! Just have a look to see which party butler you would like to have at your girlie get together!!

If you want a party that everyone will be talking about, then party butlers make the ultimate party accessory. Have the party that everyone’s talking about and hire some extra special eye candy for the ladies. These attractive, toned guys are available to compliment your party, greet your surprised guests, serve cocktails, top up your drinks and help you get your party started.

Whether he is topless or naked (of course an apron to cover his modesty) then these butlers will certainly liven up your event. Serving up some treats for you guests or mixing a few of your favourite cocktails, these toned butlers will be just perfect for any party or event.

To find your perfect Butler simply look on our gallery and find the one that most takes your fancy and/or ticks all your boxes. Once you have filled in an online form your Butler will be in contact direct to arrange further.

At Your Service

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Cocktail waiters are a welcoming sight to see at any event with their smooth moves with their cocktail shakers which will amuse and entertain your guests, and of course the finished result – a delicious cocktail!!

The professional entertaining side of cocktails and cocktail making, including mobile cocktail bar hire. Providing cocktail bartenders for any kind of event, from private parties to weddings and events. Add that extra sparkle to your bar by entertaining clients with amazingly talented cocktail waiters, their bottle moves and cocktail making theatre.

The Cocktail Waiter will come with all their equipment for making fabulous cocktails and wear the right attire. You may just want a waiter to serve having a bit of ‘eye candy’ at your event – there are many different ways in which a Cocktail Waiter can ‘serve’ you at your special event.

Just have a look on our gallery of Cocktail Waiters to hire and see which would be right for your event. Simply fill out a booking form and your Waiter will be in contact direct.