We are always listening out for industry news and feedback and recently, we heard an anecdotal story that utterly astonished us. Imagine, if you will, that it’s your wedding day; the happiest day of your life, that you get to share with 268 of your favourite people. That’s got special memories written all over it, hasn’t it?

Well, this couple will certainly remember their day, but unfortunately for all the wrong reasons!The mobile bar hire operator in question could have really pulled out all of the stops and provided a day to remember, rather than turning the event into a scene worthy of that cinematic masterpiece, ‘The Wedding Singer’.

How many bar staff does it take to service a crowd of nearly 300 people? Well, it should be a lot more than the two people that were available for this particular event. For nearly 300 guests, there needs to be enough staff to serve at the bar without a massive queue forming. Staff should also be available to collect empty glasses and, in case of emergency, be able to go off-site without leaving the others in the lurch, which brings us to …

In an unfortunate turn of events, this bar was woefully understocked, which meant that they ran out of half of many popular drinks within 30 minutes of the bar opening. You can picture the scene, two overwhelmed bar tenders trying to keep up with demand from an increasingly thirsty 300-strong crowd (including the bride and groom) … it’s not a happy scenario, is it?

To combat this disaster of a situation, one member of staff had to leave the premises to go to the local shop to buy more stock. This meant that one person had to hold the fort, with a now-fuming crowd and only half a bar’s worth of stock, for a whopping 40 minutes. Crazy!

This is clearly an affront to the not-so-happy couple, who paid good money for an expected and agreed level of service. It also soured the whole day for the wedding party and all they will remember is how rubbish it made them feel. They will tell their friends and family about the experience, who will repeat the story .. and so on. Clients remember the way that you made them feel; unfortunately, on this occasion, nearly 300 people were feeling thirsty, disgruntled and pretty upset by the whole thing.

At Neptune Bars, we insist on meeting you before we allow you to book a mobile bar with us; some clients ask why we do that and we will regale them with an anecdote such as this one. We want to be sure that we are getting all of the information that we need to make sure that we have enough staff, we have enough booze and most importantly, that we are able to go that extra mile to make sure that we have EVERY eventuality covered.

If you want your event to go with a bang, rather than staring angrily at a damp squib, get in touch with Mat today. We care about our clients and we want to ensure that we get it right – that’s the Neptune way!