Entertaining For Less

Alcohol-Themed Parties

To get out of having to provide enough booze for your friend who drinks like a fish try planning a party around a particular beverage. Any of these suggestions pass some of the responsibility onto your guests, guaranteeing a low-cost, but well stocked bar.

Wine and Dine

Ask guests to bring a bottle to a dinner party—specify that it should go with a particular course or dish—then make sure you serve their donated wine with the appropriate food. Wine and cheese parties are also popular.

Bring on the Brew

With the explosion of microbreweries, there is now an exciting variety of beers. Host a beer-tasting party and invite your friends to bring a six-pack of their favourite stout, pale ale, amber ale or lager. Mexican, Indian and Chinese food are all enhanced by beer, so dishes from these cuisines make a good accompaniment.

Wine Tasting

Most of us will readily admit we are not wine connoisseurs and have difficulty telling the difference between types of wine, wineries and price ranges. Why not combine a party with a bit of wine education by hosting a wine-tasting party. Limit it to one type of wine (Chablis, merlot) with everyone bringing a different product. You can assign everyone a different country or price range (split the total cost at the end). If the group’s taste is less sophisticated, everyone can simply bring a different type of either red or white. Of course, make sure there are lots of nibblies.

Make Your Own

If you don’t want to ask your friends to contribute try bottling your own wine. The establishments that provide wine making service do most of the work for you, the taste can be great, and the prices (between $3.50 and $5 per bottle) can’t be beat. Don’t worry, the labels available can look very professional, so your guests need never know.

Do the Duty-Free

Planning a party some time in advance? Don’t forget about duty-free shopping! If you have been outside Canada for at least 48 hours and are of legal age, you can bring back 1.14 litres of liquor, 1.5 litres of wine, or twenty-four 355 ml containers of beer free of duty and tax as part of your personal exemption. Keep this in mind the next time you cross the border, and ask friends who are travelling to bring something back for you. Visitors to Canada can also bring the same amounts across the border, so if you’re hosting foreign guests, ask them to pick something up. In no time you’ll have a low-priced stash for your shindigs.