<p>Ordering too few glasses is the most common mistake on glass hire orders. Guests put glasses down, pick up a fresh one, and the count adds up quickly. This guide covers quantities, glass types, and what to expect on delivery day.</p>
<p>Ordering too few glasses is the most common mistake on glass hire orders. Guests put glasses down, pick up a fresh one, and the count adds up quickly. This guide covers quantities, glass types, and what to expect on delivery day.</p>
Glass hire works best when you count how guests will actually drink, not when you guess from the bar stock. For a drinks reception lasting two hours, allow two glasses per person per drink type. For a sit-down dinner with a white and a red, allow one of each per person plus one water glass per person. Both figures assume guests put their glass down and pick up a clean one, which most do in practice. Once you accept that behaviour, the ordering maths becomes much easier.
The right glass count depends on the format of the event. A toast, a reception, a seated dinner and a mixed bar all create different patterns of use. The aim is not to hit the exact theoretical minimum. The aim is to have enough stock for service to run smoothly without over-ordering so heavily that the room ends up full of unused glassware. Start with the event type, then choose the glass type and quantity to match it.
We hire wine glasses in 9oz and 12oz. The 9oz is the standard: it pours a 175ml measure cleanly and is the size guests expect at an event. The 12oz suits occasions where guests pour their own wine or where bottles sit on the table rather than being served by the glass.
That choice usually comes down to service style rather than taste. If staff are pouring wine as part of formal service, the 9oz glass often makes the most sense. If the event is more relaxed and bottles are placed on tables for guests to manage themselves, the 12oz option can feel more natural. The key is to match the glass to how the wine will be served, not just to the drink itself.
For a drinks reception of 100 guests lasting two hours, order 200 wine glasses minimum. For a sit-down dinner of 100 with a white and a red being poured: 100 of each. Most bookers order the same quantity regardless and use them across both wines. That works in practice.
That flexibility helps because not every event needs two separate pools of glasses moving through the room. If the service style allows one glass to carry through both wines, the order can stay simpler. If the event brief or venue style calls for separate glasses, keep the counts clearer from the start.
Flutes are almost always ordered for arrival drinks or a toast. For a toast only, one per person covers it. For an arrival drinks reception lasting an hour with only champagne, order 1.5 per person and you won't run short. If you're running a champagne tower, ask us: the count for a display tower differs from service use.
The difference between a toast and a longer sparkling-wine reception matters. A toast usually runs to one clean serve per guest. A reception has more movement, more refills and more chance of glasses being set down and abandoned. That is why the count rises even if the guest number stays the same.
Highball tumblers cover the gap when serving soft drinks, cocktails or beer alongside wine. For mixed events where some guests don't drink wine, add 20–30% of your guest count in tumblers.
That is often enough to stop the bar from feeling one-dimensional. Not every guest wants wine, and many events need a practical glass for soft drinks, mixed drinks or other non-wine options. Tumblers are especially useful at standing receptions, corporate events and weddings with a varied bar where guests are moving between different drink choices.
All glassware hire includes a cleaning surcharge. We collect the glasses dirty and wash them ourselves. You don't need to rinse anything before we arrive. The cleaning fee is added at checkout and covers full commercial glasswasher cleaning after return.
That makes planning easier because you do not need to build a post-event washing operation into the venue plan. Staff can clear glasses, stack them sensibly and leave the cleaning to us. For many organisers, that convenience matters as much as the hire itself, especially after longer receptions and late-finish events.
Glasses break at events. We include a free Minor Damage Waiver on every order, which covers a reasonable level of breakage. A few glasses per hundred fall within the waiver. If you're running a very large event or an outdoor bar, order a buffer and we'll collect the unused ones.
That advice is less about pessimism and more about realism. Busy bars, outdoor setups and large receptions all create more movement and more chances for glassware to get dropped or left in awkward places. A sensible buffer protects service without forcing you into a major over-order.
Enter your delivery postcode and dates on our website and the available stock count shows in real time. The order is confirmed before you pay. No calls, no follow-up, no substitutions on delivery day.
The easiest way to get the count right is to decide what each guest is likely to drink, how long the event runs and whether glasses will be reused or replaced during service. Once those three points are clear, the order becomes much easier to build.
For current stock and pricing, see our glassware hire page.
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