Best alcohol for party?

Anything over $10-12 a bottle is only for parties with serious wine drinkers. You first need to know your guests. If that's not the case, then get some Sam Adams and a few bottles of Chilean or Argentine wines in the 8-12 buck range, 1/3 white to 2/3s red. Go to a wine shop, ask for suggestions and give them your price cap. Specific labels will vary from state to state, shop to shop. Skip the hard liquor. It's not a large enough group. People don't expect great wine, but they'll be very pleased (and surprised) if you serve something decent.

I work in the business.

Get two bottles each of a $10-20 red and white wine. Try Starmont Napa Valley Chardonnay and Cabernet.

Then grab a bottle of Bacardi, with some cokes, and a bottle of Gin with some limes and tonic water.

Finally, get a 12 pack of Corona with more limes.

This will cover most bases

My 2 cents:

Dinastía Vivanco, Rioja, Crianza. If you can find it a very very good spanish red wine. Not expensive, at least in Spain, 8€ at the supermarket.

Condado de Oriza, Ribera del Duero, Crianza. A very, very good and affordable red wine Ribera. Maybe 7€ at the supermarket.

White wines, two choices:

1.- Whatever "Albariño" you can find in you country. You won´t get disappointed. These wines are a bit acid but fantastic ones.

2.- If you´re on the "sweet or no acid" side, my recommendation goes to a decent "Ribeiro". Just be warned they´re very easy to drink and after of 3 to 4 glasses they go directly to your head, and everybody is loosening up.

On beers.

Right now, I´m favoring "Franziskaner" a wonderful german made beer with dense bubbles, especially the bottled ones vs the can ones.

Regards,

Daniel

+1 to Phaelon's suggestion w one caveat. I'd recommend an independently owned store (you should be able to get recommendations by googling around) and ask to speak to the manager. Don't be afraid to tell them your budget and let them make the choices; since you don't drink it, your tastes are kind of irrelevant. If you ask in advance, you may be able to arrange to return un-opened bottles, or you could use them for holiday gifts. You probably can also get a case price (10% off) even on a mixed case of wine, if that's the direction you are going to go.

FWIW, my recommendations are:
Whiskey- if you mean American there is not that much demand these days. If you mean Scotch, Dewar's is a good choice.
Bourbon- Maker's Mark or Wild Turkey or jack Daniels (not technically bourbon, but whatever).
Gin- Beefeaters or Tanquerey
Vodka- Absolut
Wine generally varies depending on what local importers and distributors carry, so go w the store's recommendations. If it's a holiday party, you might want to consider champagne. Korbel is a good California sparkling wine; and there are many good French sparkling wines that are less expensive because they do not come from the Champagne region and thus cannot be called Champagne under French law.
Beer- Sam Adams Boston Lager is a safe choice for a somewhat upscale beer and Corona or any of the Belgian style wheat ales (Blue Moon, etc) is good for those that want something a little lighter.

Sounds like you are a very considerate host. Have fun!

Thanks for the responses.