DIY Self-Serve Lemonade Bar

DIY Self-Serve Lemonade Bar

Food  and drink has the ability to provide a fun activity for your event if you are willing to be adventurous and think outside the box.  We decided to provide the guests at my daughter's wedding with this self-serve lemonade bar during the “cocktail hour" which we renamed “lemonade hour.”

HI, I’m Bethany, and I’ll be sharing with you all the details required for this DIY self-serve lemonade bar so you can recreate it for your special event. At the end of this video I’ll give you one of my favorite tips that I use for every event I host to eliminate stress.  If someone is helping you plan or host your upcoming party, send them this video so you can easily outsource the work.

Let’s start by looking at my shopping list for this lemonade bar that served 100 people…

Display supplies: 

~ 6-7 (count) 2 gallon drink dispensers (try to borrow them from someone)

~ A cooler or ice buckets with a scoop

~ Dishes & serving display items & decorations that match the party theme

~ A cute sign describing how guests make their special drinks

~ Napkins

Drink supplies: 

~ Powder lemonade, lemon juice, cocktail syrups or snow cone syrups that should fit your event decor if possible

~ Ice, chopped fruit & sliced lemons

~ Clear drink cups (optional lids & small spoons or straws with spoons on the end)

Side note…I wish I had put water with the lemonade because the water was back with the dinner food and people wanted water and didn’t know where to find it.  I wish I had put bins with designer water covered in ice.

Do a test run of your display the week leading up to your event. Photograph or video your lemonade bar so you can be confident that your are ready and “close that brain tab!

Create a sign for guests so you don’t have to hire staff. Message boards are something lots of people have already and would happily let you borrow, or look for one second hand online.  You could also just use an old picture frame and some cardstock paper and a marker to write out your lemonade instructions.  

Your fruit can be chopped and placed in the serving containers the day before the party, and you can also use frozen fruit if it’s something that doesn’t need chopped up.  The lemonade can be mixed up the morning of the party as long as the lemon juice is not sitting in the hot sun all day. Make your lemonade a little less sweet than usual so people can add the syrups for the remaining sugar content.  Be sure to slice some lemons and drop them in your lemonade dispensers for added visual interest.

The portion sizes you see displayed here would be enough for 50 people.  We had 100 people at our event and  We ran out of fruit after everyone had one drink.  I always feel like I have let my guests down if there are not tons of leftovers.

I don’t like to add ice to my large drink dispensers because it waters the drinks down so fast!  It’s also nice to force guests to add ice to their drinks because it fills their cup so they take less of your expensive drink supplies.  They can always come back for seconds, but most people overestimate the amount of sweet drink they will consume when they are going to be presented with amazing food and dessert at the event as well.  

If you want to level it up you could also serve lemon flavored candy. I also found these lemon flavored wafer cookies which added a little extra cuteness to the lemonade bar.

Make sure you have a trash can close by but not right next to your lemonade bar so it’s not ugly in the background of any pictures you take of your event.

It’s important to outsource the labor required to host an event and if you are like me you don’t have endless finances so hiring staff is not an option.  So, be sure to keep a list of the people who offered to help you with your special event and  say ‘yes’ to them!  People want to help, especially if they are already going to be at the event but don’t really know the people there or don’t really enjoy parties.  Just try not to give them a job that lasts the whole length of the party.  Break the work up into smaller chunks so your helpers still feel like guests. 

This lemonade bar was for my daughter's wedding and I was not available to set it up because I was busy being the mother of the bride, which leads me to the promised favorite tip of mine…make a quick video of the task you are asking of your helper and send it to them in the week leading up to the party.  In this video you want to answer the who, what, where, when, why and how of their upcoming task in as few words as possible. Your helper will do a much better job at their task if they are visually familiar with what they are being asked to do, and hopefully they will not even need to involve you with completing their task the day of the event.  In your video be sure to ask them if there is anything you missed when explaining their job, and I always cheerfully tell them that I trust them with this task fully and will be content with any executive decisions that need to be made the day of the event!  

Looking back 30 years from this event I will not need to remember that the lemonade bar was managed perfectly. Decide to put your trust in your helper and be satisfied with the outcome. I want to remember an amazing time that blessed many people and made them feel special, including the amazing person who offered to run my lemonade bar.

Always aim to put out enough food and drink out so guests can indulge. Don’t hide extra food, display it!  Hopefully  no one has to replenish anything the whole night.  If you know your helper will have to do some kind of refilling during the party because you didn’t have the space to display everything, be sure to include that whole process in your video to them. 

This interactive drink bar gave the opportunity for everyone to be creative, feel like a bar tender and the kids competed a bit for who could make the coolest looking concoction.  I will definitely be providing lemonade bars at future parties.

 Check out some of my videos on YouTube including "The 5 secrets to a perfect party" or see how successful our mashed potato martini bar was in my "jazz club themed party" video.

~Bethany (The B.I.R.L.)