Tips For A Great Function

Additional Information

Absolutely fantastic, girls were super, everything was great!

Gina Hardiman - 17/4/10

Here are proven tips to ensure your next function goes off with out a hitch:

1. Water

Not everyone loves an alcoholic drink or a fizzy drink. If you don’t have water on hand you may end up with guests continually asking for it, which means you'll be in and out of the kitchen constantly. By simply having a couple of jugs of water lying around, or even buying a 5 litre cask, your guests will have plenty of options. Water is also great towards the end of a night when some of the “love a free drink” crowd may want to sober up a little before leaving your place.

2. Glass vs. Plastic Glass Hire

Plastics: costly but simple. If you buy the short stem plastic wine glasses you can use them for all drinks, plus the shorter height of the glasses also reduce the chance of them toppling over and spilling liquid everywhere.

Glassware: some companies will require you to wash all glasses on return or they charge on top of their hire fee. This makes clean up time longer so when they say FREE GLASSWARE, check on the conditions. If you opt to have your function fully catered with our wait staff then you can simply pay them extra time to do the clean up for you.

3. When should staff arrive?

We recommend our staff arrive thirty (30) minutes after your invite time. It’s a great idea to simply have a few chips, dips, nuts etc for the "on time" arrivals. Also make sure you put your oven on in advance of our arrival, so we can get straight into it and start cooking immediately.

4. How much finger food is the right amount?

Our menus offer a good guide as to how much food we recommend. The important thing to remember is that any function starting at noon, three or six P.M will typically mean that your guests will be hungrier. It’s in line with our normal meal times and people will often use this as their meal without eating prior. People love a “free feed” so it’s a good idea to increase your allowance to 12 pieces per person around these times.

5. Bar tips

Serving beer, wine or champagne may seem cheaper when you’re doing your sums. However, if you add some bottles of sprits (scotch, bourbon, vodka etc) plus mixer per 40 guests, you can halve your beer purchase and it can work out cheaper! Plus, having mixer drinks in a bar is a great way to impress guests.

6. Forget smokers at your own peril

Have a designated smoking area (undercover for all weather conditions) and make sure you leave enough ashtrays for them. If you forget the smokers you can end up with cigarette butts everywhere!

7. When should you have the cake and toast?

Best time to do this is at 10:00 P.M when all guests are there and not leaving yet. A 21st function could take up to 40 minutes. A toast is also a great time for sweets if you plan on going on for a little while. A handy hint when choosing a cake: if you choose a chocolate mud cake, you don’t need plates and forks as it cuts onto a napkin for finger service.