Party with very small drinking vessels in The Abbey (10)

'vessels in the abbey' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are plural nouns, I cannot see how one could define the other.

'party with very small drinking' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'party' could be 'do' (do is a kind of party) and 'do' is located in the answer.
'small' could be 'mini' (I've seen this before) and 'mini' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'cans' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?