Fill water balloons on the day you plan to use them, ideally within an hour or two. Latex is thin and porous, so a filled balloon starts seeping almost immediately and usually goes soft within a few hours. Left overnight, most leak, sag or burst. Unfilled balloons are the opposite and keep for a long time if you store them cool, dark and dry.

Platinum Bartenders staffs the food, the bar and the floor at the same wedding: on-site chefs, bartenders, servers and a banquet captain, booked together. Buffet dinner runs $155 to $210 per guest depending on guest count, with a 50 guest billing minimum, and bar and floor staff are billed by the hour.

Yes, you can hire a bartender for a wedding, and the process runs in five steps: settle the guest count and timeline, decide who supplies the alcohol, check insurance and certification, book the date, then brief the team. Bartenders are $70 per hour, one per 50 guests, with a 4 hour minimum and a $100 service charge per staff member.

Sixty guests is the count where the answer is genuinely close. One bartender per 50 guests is the guideline, so 60 sits just over the line, and a single bartender still copes at light consumption, one to two drinks per guest. At medium or heavy, book two. One bartender for 4 hours is $280 plus a $100 service charge: $380.

Two bartenders. At 100 guests the guideline of 1 bartender per 50 puts you at two, and two is right for most parties where guests order beer, wine and simple mixed drinks. Book three when consumption runs heavy, six or more drinks per guest, or when the menu is craft cocktails built to order. Two bartenders for 4 hours is $560 plus $200 in service charges: $760.

Breakdown of the bar is part of the booking. Staff close the bar down, pack away what they brought in, bag the bar trash and leave the bar area clear. That is the bar area, not the whole venue. Rented equipment is collected: bar and back bar pick up is included in the $1,195 rental, and glassware carries a $195 delivery charge each way, $390 round trip.

This is not a ranking of neighborhoods. Platinum Bartenders staffs events across Los Angeles and Southern California, so the question is not which part of town is best but what it costs to get staff to yours. Travel is $15, which covers the first 15 miles, then $5 for each additional 5 miles, charged per staff member.

A bartender at an LA event does far more than pour. The shift runs from load in through setup, ice, service, restocking and last call to breakdown, and all of it happens inside the hours you book. The minimum booking is 4 hours per staff member at $70 an hour for a bartender, so the shortest shift is 4 x $70 = $280 plus a $100 service charge.

Saturday evening is the busiest slot on the Los Angeles event calendar, and it is the one that fills first. No bartending company can promise a specific date is open. What can be said plainly: a date is only held once it is paid for in full, holiday dates add 50 percent to staff cost, and booking inside 48 hours adds a 20 percent rush surcharge.

The hourly rates do not move. A bartender is $70 an hour with a 4 hour minimum, a mixologist is $90, and those are the numbers on every quote. What moves is the total, and most of it sits in decisions you make before anyone quotes you: consumption tier, package or bartender only, guest count, date and location.

The wellness bar is Platinum's non-alcoholic service, priced flat per guest at $18 for Classic, $26 for Premium and $38 for Platinum Vitality. Unlike the alcohol packages it does not scale with consumption, so the price is the same whether guests have one drink or five. It can run on its own or alongside a craft cocktail bar or full bar, with the wellness price added on top.

An anniversary party is usually smaller and more often seated, so the staffing looks different from a birthday. One bartender at $70 per hour and one server at $70 per hour, both on a 4 hour minimum with a $100 service charge each, covers a party of 20 to 30: 2 x 4 x $70 = $560 plus $200 in service charges, or $760 for the staff.

Bartenders at private events in Los Angeles are paid an hourly rate, $70 per hour for a bartender with a 4 hour minimum, so a tip is optional rather than the way the staff get paid. The $100 per staff member service charge on your quote is a separate line and is not a gratuity. Catering is the exception: those menus already include gratuity.

A hired bartender needs a bar or a solid surface to work on, clear floor behind it, ice within reach, somewhere to pour off and dump, and a socket if there is lighting. The rental bar is 5ft wide, so plan for a run of wall or patio that takes 5ft of bar plus room for a person to stand and turn behind it.

Under the bartender only option you buy the alcohol and Platinum brings the person, at $70 per hour with a 4 hour minimum and a $100 service charge. Shop from a drink count rather than a bottle count. Light drinking is 1 to 2 drinks per guest, medium is 3 to 4, heavy is 6 or more. Everything on the list follows from that number.

High profile events in Los Angeles are staffed the same way as any other event, with two differences: who is allowed on the guest list side of the bar, and how much of the job is coordination. Staff are $70 per hour for a bartender, $90 for a mixologist or a banquet captain, and $85 for security, all with a 4 hour minimum and a $100 service charge per person.

A useful review names the staff who worked, says what the event actually was, and describes what happened rather than how it felt. Guest count, hours, the package and whether the bar kept up are the details the next customer needs. If something went wrong, tell the company first at 310-985-3014 and let them answer before you write.

A garden party bar in Los Angeles starts at $380 for one bartender, four hours at $70 per hour plus the $100 service charge, with you supplying the drinks. Add the bar at $1,195 and a package from $19 per guest and you have a working outdoor bar. The rest of the planning is where it stands and how you keep ice cold.

An LA drinks menu really only needs to change three or four times a year, and it changes for practical reasons: what is in season, and how hot it is outside. The craft cocktail bar is $25 per guest at light consumption, $50 at medium and $75 at heavy, and includes three craft cocktails built for your event plus a printed menu. A themed menu design is $375.

With one to two weeks before your event you can still book a bartender in Los Angeles at standard rates. The 20 percent rush surcharge only applies to bookings made inside 48 hours, so a party booked eight days out costs the same as one booked eight months out. Lock the staff count and the hours first. The drinks menu can wait.