In the past six years, I’ve attended eight bachelorette parties. And all but one were out-of-town three night celebrations, with the most recent being my sister’s in Austin, Texas.
Out of those eight, I was heavily involved in planning two and an “idea contributor” for three. It’s safe to say that I know my way around the behind-the-scenes bachelorette party planning process!
Planning an amazing party is not that difficult to be honest. It’s actually a lot of fun designing the perfect weekend for your bride-to-be, especially once the major details are squared away.
With that, here are my top eight tips to keep in mind when planning an amazing bachelorette party.
Tip #1 – First and foremost, talk to your bachelorette (well in advance) about where she wants to go, who she wants to invite, what kinds of things she would like to do (this is more about finding out what the dos/don’ts are for the weekend), etc.
Tip #2 – I know when it came to my best friend Roshni’s bachlorette party as well as Aekta’s, both brides told their respective sisters to work with a small “planning committee” to pull the plans together. And both brides told their sisters who those “committee” members were. Not only does this make the planning process so much easier, but it ensures different viewpoints and angles are covered.
Bonus tip – I was obviously heavily involved in planning both Roshni and Aekta’s parties, and something we did that was both fun and productive was hold regularly conference calls to discuss all the details.
Tip #3 – For Aekta’s party, I wanted to keep everything really transparent in terms of what were doing and all of the various costs. To help me do this, I created a Google spreadsheet with different tabs and invited all of the girls (minus the bride) to be contributors. The individual tabs I created included the following –
Logistics – Every girl notates their email address, phone number, t-shirt size, arrival/departure times, and any must do activities.
Ideas – I created columns for restaurants, bars/clubs/lounges, happy hour, dessert, activities, games, and miscellaneous and asked the girls to give input.
Restaurants – A month or so before the party, I created this tab and organized all of the ideas that were shared and my own research. I outlined which meal would work best for each restaurant, which day we would likely go, and the address, distance from the hotel, type of cuisine, and phone number.
Detailed schedule – For every day, I outlined a lunch place, day time activities, a dinner place, and evening activities. Even if we didn’t stick to the schedule, it was nice to have a plan to fall back on.
Cost – This one is pretty self-explanatory. All I did was notate each individual cost (with specific notes) and then appropriately allocate it to the people involved. Just be sure to save all of your receipts! More on a costs in a minute!
Tip #4 – When planning my sister’s party, I had a hard time balancing the line between the perfect amount of activities and too many. Based on my experience, I would say to have 2-3 planned activities (perhaps the things you have to reserve and pay a deposit for) and lots of other fun things to do in your back pocket. With that being said, be flexible and go with the flow whenever possible (it’s more fun that way!). The same tip applies to restaurants – plan a couple of fun meals and then have lots of options to fall back on.
Tip #5 – When it comes to bars/clubs/lounges, it’s best to have a “first” bar planned for every night. Based on how things go there, the group can decide if they want to move on or stay put. My sister’s friend, Priyanka, came up with this idea, and I thought it was pure genius.
Tip #6 – If possible, let one person handle and pay for all of the group expenses – hotel, meals, activities, alcohol, etc. This makes sorting out the “who owes who” dilemma much easier.
Tip #7 – The games you play over the course of the weekend make the whole experience really personal. For both Roshni and Aekta’s parties, we asked the respective grooms a bunch of questions, recorded their answers, and then asked the brides to guess how their groom answered. We also had a list of things each bride had to do that we would take out with us every night (nothing too crazy ;)). This one may sound a little cheesy, but we also played a round of “what do you love about our bride-to-be.” And finally, an all time favorite at bachelorette parties is “never have I ever”– however, play at your own risk!
Tip #8 – If you decide to make matching tees and buy other bachelorette garb/goodies, give yourself plenty of time (no last minute ordering!). For t-shirt design, I highly recommend CustomInk. And for everything else, I would search Etsy as well as visit the Party City site. There are lots of good things on both.
Well, there you have it, my top 8 tips for planning an amazing and perfect bachelorette party! If you’re playing the role of party planner, I would say to sweat the details until you arrive at your destination and then let it all go! As long as the bride has a cocktail in hand, all will be fine. 🙂
What are your top party planning tips (not just for bachelorette parties)?