Last updated: March 27, 2024
What if you don’t drink alcohol? Can you still host a cocktail party?
The answer is: Yes! You can host a fantastic party without alcohol to bring people together, make new friends, and even boost your career.
Why you should trust me: I’ve hosted hundreds of parties. But the dirty little secret is that I wrote a book about how to host cocktail parties and I don’t drink alcohol! In fact, there isn’t a single drink recipe in my book.
In this article I will show you how you can host a mocktail party, or a party without any alcohol. You’ll use the same exact framework that I use in all of my famous cocktail parties. But instead of alcohol at the bar, you’ll have sodas, seltzers, juices, and other non-alcoholic beverages.
Keep reading to see how Justin and Jules used my book and my party formula to host a fun and non-alcoholic event for their neighbors and members of their church.
Meet Justin and Jules
Justin and Jules are happily married and live in Utah with their kids. They don’t drink alcohol, so they had a mocktail party!
Justin read an early copy of my party handbook years ago. He and his wife hosted some events to meet their new neighbors.
When my book launched in 2022, he used it as an excuse to host an all new event. Justin got his friends from church together to have a party without alcohol. They bought many mixers and had many types of soda and seltzers and juice for creative drink making options.
Mocktail Party Photos
Party Highlights
Justin shared a few notes and the part that his guests found interesting.
- 100% of the people who RSVP’d actually showed up. That’s amazing!
- He had 10 guests for his party. There were no kids. “Everyone got sitters. It was a good move. All of our guests have 3-5 kids each, and most of them are all under 7 or 8 years old. We wanted to give the parents a break! So it was adults only.”
- All of the couples did a great job on leaning on each other for conversation and meeting new people.
- Justin led the icebreakers which worked really well to spark new conversations.
- “I really like the no seats tip, and about how sitting down can be the kryptonite for a successful party. We saw that note from Nick at the last minute and put our chairs downstairs, to hide the chairs. It really helped keep the energy high. Definitely something I’ll do again.”
We are all in a brand new neighborhood, so everybody’s been hungry for this type of thing.
– Justin E.
7 Mocktail Party Ideas
- Have fun with straws
- Top with seltzers
- Shake don’t stir
- Splash in some bitters
- Add fruit or herbs, like mint
- Get special ice
- Use flavored syrups
Mocktail Drink Recipes
Here are a few non-alcoholic drink recipes that you can make at your mocktail party.
- The Justin: Diet Coke, coconut cream, raspberry, fresh lime
- The Julie: Dr. Pepper, vanilla, peach, a splash of cream
- The Skylar: Coke, cherry, fresh cherries, a shake of cinnamon
- The Evans Boys: Root beer, vanilla, caramel
- The Co-worker: Mountain Dew, coconut, strawberry, mango
- The Sorine: Passionfruit water, coconut, raspberry
- The Diet Day: Lime water, fresh lime, fresh lemon
- The Gangster Days: Dr. Pepper, diet coke, caramel, vanilla, cream
- Famous Amos: Diet lemonade, blackberry, SF coconut, heavy ice, water
Drink Ideas from Jules
Jules listed on a large sketch pad their fun, non-alcoholic drink options for their guests.
Their guests really enjoyed these ideas and studied the menu before making their choices. Most people then made their own concoctions from the DIY bar area.
Icebreakers
Justin and Jules said that the icebreakers were great, especially the second and third ones.
Their icebreaker questions that they used were:
- What did you eat for breakfast today?
- What’s your favorite piece of media that you’re consuming right now?
- What was your favorite candy as a kid?
Justin used those before and said they always work great for his friends. He said that the candy question was super fun and ended up being slightly controversial, but in a fun and playful way.
Warning: For your first party, please stick to my suggested icebreakers! I’ve taught over 100 people how to host their first party and the “Favorite breakfast” icebreaker, as outlined in Chapter 12 of my book, works 100% of the time.
Mocktail Party Invitation
They made their RSVP page on Luma. This event platform lets you add a photo banner and a custom question. They asked about what their guests do (for work or a hobby) and then used it for their guest bios. Genius!
Room for Improvement
Here are the few notes that Justin and Jules sent about things they want to improve for their next party:
- “Invite more people. Nick recommended at least 16 guests to make it easier to host. We were worried about the space in our home, but we could have easily doubled the number of guests. Nobody sat down the entire night, so we had a lot more space than I thought. I felt like toward the end of the night most people had already talked to everyone in the room.”
- “The party harmonica – I definitely felt the need for that harmonica to get everyone’s attention. It sounds so silly, but you’ll understand after your first party!”
Conclusion
Having a chance to connect with people definitely brought back the fire in Justin and Jules to host more events and bring their friends together. Since they don’t drink alcohol, hosting a mocktail party with non-alcohol drink recipes was a great fit for their family and friends.
This is what they said after their party:
“Normally while waiting in line at the grocery store, we wouldn’t think to talk to anybody. But after hosting our own 2-Hour Mocktail Party last night, it just felt natural to strike up a conversation. We know we can throw a good little party to bring people together and we knew we’d be adding value by inviting the person and introducing them to our friends! It was easy to keep that momentum going.”
After hosting their party, it became even easier for them to meet new people. Justin added,
“It hit me that this is what I used to be like in a pre-COVID world. I used to meet people all the time! I loved hosting this party because it reminded me that it can be SO EASY to maintain the conversation with someone new. After hosting last night, my conversational skills are better than ever. I know how to keep it interesting when I’m chatting with people in my town!”
Do you want to make more friends in your town? Or maybe you want to bring your neighbors together, or have a good excuse to see friends you haven’t seen in a while?
You should host your own 2-hour Mocktail Party! Check out my book on Amazon, or send me an email for more information.
Have you already hosted your own mocktail party? What should we add to this article? Send me an email with your best tips for a mocktail party and I’ll update this post with the best suggestions.
