A Guide to Planning the Ultimate Bachelorette Party

Get this party started! (Photo by Ibrahim Boran)

A bachelorette party is (hopefully) a once-in-a-lifetime occasion where a soon-to-be bride gets to celebrate their upcoming nuptials with their nearest and dearest. Typically, the maid of honour will be the person in charge of organising the party. But however well you know the bride, planning this momentous occasion is still a daunting task. You’ll want to give your soonlywed the best send off into married life, so it’s important to give the planning process the care and attention it deserves. Here are the first three steps you need to take when planning the ultimate bachelorette party. And be sure to always think of Bundle if you want to make a custom board game for the bride to be!

Start with the guest list

The first order of business is one of the most important – deciding who to invite. There are no hard and fast rules around how many people you should invite to a bachelorette party, but the final number will impact every other aspect of the event – from accommodation to location – so think about it carefully. Typically, anyone who is or will be a member of the bridal party for the wedding will also be invited to the bachelorette party.

Beyond that, think about anyone that’s important to the bride and they’d want to be celebrating the occasion with. You may also want to think about the groom’s family, and consider extending certain members an invitation. Ultimately, input from the bride will be particularly helpful in this area, to prevent any awkwardness at the party.

Weekends are for the girls (Photo by Fernanda Nuso)

Date and location

Just as it is when it comes to planning the wedding, nailing down a date and location early on in the process is crucial. Not only is it helpful to give the invitees as much notice as possible, but accommodation and activities could get booked up in advance in the most popular cities and locations, so this is something that should be ticked off your to-do list early on.

Generally, bachelorette parties are thrown around one to four months before the big day. This will allow the bride enough time to fully focus on the wedding afterwards, without the party feeling too far removed from the main event. When it comes to location, there are plenty of things you need to consider. Most importantly, think about the cost and convenience of any place on your shortlist. Ultimately, you could have found the most perfect spot, but if it’s inaccessible to the group, it will all be for nothing. Consider the bride’s tastes and preferences and use these as a basis for creating a shortlist of destinations.

Cheers to lifelong friendship and love! (Photo by Quan Nguyen)

Theme and activities

Once you’ve confirmed your guest list, date and location, you can start to fill up your itinerary with plans and activities. At this stage, you might also want to consider whether you’re going to apply a theme to the festivities. By no means is this a necessity, so don’t feel obliged to meticulously plan everything to align with an overriding theme. But if you do want to implement one, think about the bride’s preferences and personality to ensure she’ll be on board with your choice.

Your selection of activities will largely depend on the location you’ve chosen and what’s available. Think about whether the bride would want to be the centre of attention at the party or if they might prefer a more low-key occasion. Keep this in mind when planning your activities and you’re sure to all enjoy the weekend’s festivities.