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A cocktail party conjures up all kinds of thoughts for different people, from the elegant, cosmopolitan group party, to the loud Hawaiian themed party and nearly everything in between. A cocktail party can be whatever you want it to be.

First decide on whether you want to have a theme or not as this will make a lot of your decisions easy. You could have a letter party where everyone has to come dressed as something that starts with a particular letter ie a P party can offer up police and punks. For this party you will need to offer up drinks such as Paisley Martinis and Pina Coladas. Another idea is a Rubik's Party (www.squidoo.com/rubiksparty) which would mean you would have to offer up drinks such as white russians and grasshoppers. The ideas are endless.

My last cocktail party did not have a theme, I just chose a selection of different cocktails, made some yummy food and invited a small group of girlfriends over. We had music playing, but we were basically sitting around talking and drinking our cocktails very civilized! This illustrates that cocktail parties can be whatever you want from the small and intimate to the large and loud.

One of the important things is to decide on what cocktails you are going to serve. Have a selection so that there is something that everyone will like. However, try not to have too large a selection as some people will always try to work their way entirely through the list. For this reason I tend to have some strong cocktails mixed with some that contain a large amount of non alcoholic beverage such as fruit juice or soda. This way when working through the list people can handle it easier.

When you have decided on your cocktails then print off some menus for people to look at. The other thing which I feel is essential is to print off a Crib sheet for the bartender. A crib sheet will list all of the cocktails, how to make them, what glass to serve them in and what garnishes to use. The bartender just has to follow the directions, this means that you can rest easy and just enjoy yourself.

Cocktail parties do not have to be expensive, I have always supplied all of the beverages at my parties and once you have had one you usually only have to stock up on a couple of things each time. However, a friend of mine was famous for his annual cocktail party. He would send out invites and on each invite there would be a bottle of alcohol ie rum/vodka and a bottle of non-alcoholic beverage ie milk/soda. His friends would all bring their allotted

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