Along with the menu planning, you will also need to determine what types of beverages you should offer. Selecting beverage can be tricky because is hard to please everyone. At the same time, you don’t want to buy a bunch of beverages that no one is going to drink.
To cover your basis, you should purchase plenty of cola, such as Pepsi or Coca-Cola. That will likely please the majority of your relatives. If anyone is on a diet or has diabetes, however, cola will not be a good option. Therefore, you should also include the diet version of the cola you can select.
You can get caught up in the Pepsi and Coca-Cola wars and try to purchase a bit of both types of colas, but it really isn’t necessary. While most everyone has a preference, most people are willing to drink either brand.
In addition to having sugar free options available, you should also offer some type of soda that does not have caffeine. Clear sodas such as Sprite and 7Up do not have caffeine. In addition, flavored sodas such as orange and grape soda are decaffeinated as well. Pick up some of these drinks for those that are trying to stay clear of caffeine. You will also find that kids love the fruity flavored sodas and you can often get a good price on these drinks when you purchase the store brand.
More and more people are also drinking water on a regular basis. Therefore, I would strongly encourage you to offer bottled water as well. This is particularly important if you will be having your family reunion outdoors and if you will be encouraging playing sports and other physical activities.
Whether or not you choose to include alcohol is entirely up to you. You should take your family members into consideration when making this determination. If you have family members that tend to over drink or get belligerent when they are drinking, you might want to avoid that scenario completely. In addition, if you have relatives that don’t get along, adding alcohol to the mix can be a recipe for disaster.
If you do decide to have alcohol, beer is usually plenty to offer at an outdoor event. If you are hosting the reunion in a hotel ballroom, on the other hand, you might choose to have a full bar or a half full bar available. If you make it an open bar, you can expect to have a hefty tab. So, you might want to make it a cash bar in order to save on the expenses.