Event Bar Hire Q&A

Our most frequently asked questions, answered

We are based in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire and so Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, and Northamptonshire are all easily reachable.   We are more than happy to travel further afield, please get in touch to discuss further.  

Our minimum guest number for a typical wedding or private party is 60, and we can cater for up to around 500 guests comfortably.  If you guest numbers are small please get in touch to discuss further. 

We will tailor your package to your guest number, including the menu, bar set up and bartenders, and will consult you on this throughout the booking process. 

For other large-scale events such as sporting events or festivals, we can increase our capacity and operation to suit the requirements of the event.  

The Jumping Jockey Bar can provide a range of beverage services to cater for all events including:

  • Weddings
  • Birthday celebrations
  • Anniversaries
  • Engagement parties
  • Product launches
  • Sporting event
  • Festivals
  • Fetes & Fayres
  • Charity events
  • Agricultural shows
  • Country shows
  • Christmas markets

In order for us to provide you with a truly professional bar experience, your booking will be made up of three key components:

  1. Your booking fee, which covers all essential costs like hire of a fully stocked and equipped bar, bartenders, glassware, and licensing, which starts at £375.00.
  2. Your drinks package.  As your full liquid caterer, we supply and serve all of your daytime drinks, which we can tailor to your day. This will include things like your welcome drink, table wine, toast and so on.
  3. Lastly, depending on your location there may be a travel cost. 

We are very happy to provide a custom quote for your event, so please do get in touch

Yes. With our dry hire service, you can supply all of your own drinks for your entire event.  Should you wish to only supply reception drinks or wine during the meal that is fine by us, we can arrange the glassware and staff required to serve your drinks. 

You have a choice of:

  1. Pay as you go (cash bar – guests pay), 
  2. Part-paid (tab, once it’s gone, switching to cash bar), 
  3. Fully paid (open bar), or 
  4. Tokened bar (tokens which guests can exchange for drinks)

We will discuss all of the options with you when you enquire and advise what would work best for your guest number and budget. 

We can take debit & credit card payments as long as we have access to a good Wi-Fi or 3/4G connection. If this is not available, unfortunately we can operate a cash-only bar.  Please ensure you warn your guests ahead of time that it is a cash only bar. 

Yes, we have public & employee liability insurance with cover up to £10 million, and a licensee will be present at any event we cater for.

If your venue is not licensed, we apply for the temporary events notice, on your behalf.

We wear smart black shirts and black trousers/skirts, with a Jumping Jockey Bar Charcoal apron to finish. 

If you would like us to wear something in keeping with your event theme/attire, please do let us know.

Each of our bars vary on space requirements, but our most on average we require an area approx. 4m width and 3m depth.  

Our Horsebox bar need an area at least 6m width and 4m depth, but most importantly the space needs to be easily accessible for a towing vehicle to enter, unhitch, and exit.

One thing that is vitally important is access close to the site, to unload and a flat, level floor surface as possible. If your event is to be on a field or sloping ground, please let us know this before booking.

We will also need access to a minimum of three standard 13amp plug sockets, to run our lighting and refrigeration.

We will also need power to our own washing up area, and access to running water, or access to a kitchen space for washing glasses.

Lastly, we will need 4G or Wi-Fi to run our debit/credit card machines for payments at the bar. If this is not available, unfortunately we can operate a cash-only bar.  Please ensure you warn your guests ahead of time that it is a cash only bar. 

Set up takes around 2-3 hours, and break down 1-2 hours.  Depending on your time schedules for your wedding or event we often need to set up the day before. Please talk to us to discuss further. If you have any other questions outside of those covered here, please do get in touch with us, we are very happy to help.