How to Plan the Ultimate Bachelorette Party
As someone who plans bachelorette parties for a living, I’ve learned a lot about how to put together the perfect bachelorette party. This can be a daunting task for most of us given the fact it’s a huge responsibility and there is pressure to make this a special trip for the bride. The most important advice I can give is to focus on what the bride wants and keep organized. I’ve put together this free printable bachelorette checklist to keep you organized through the whole planning process. I’ve even added some extra lines at the bottom to add any additional tasks for you to keep track of.
The first step is to sit down with the bride and go over her expectations for the trip. Does she have an idea of where she wants to go, themes she wants, any must have activities or things to avoid. I would suggest starting to plan the trip at least six months in advance if possible!
Typically, bachelorettes are 2-3 months before the wedding. Once you have a time frame it’s time to decide on a location! Some factors to think about when deciding on a location are weather, how easy it is to get there, big events going on in the area and how expensive the area is! Brides are usually the ones to make the final say on location, but it is always helpful if the maid of honor helps her research each place to help answer some of the questions.
Once the location has been picked, it's time to pick the dates! Talk with the bride and VIPs to get their schedules for your time frame and pick the dates that work best for most people. Make sure there are no big events going on in the area that may make planning your trip harder (unless you’re going for a specific event).
After the location and dates have been picked it’s time to talk about the budget. Talk with the budget realistically on how much she wants people to spend and research the area to get some initial costs on lodging, transportation to the location, activities and décor. Bachelorette’s can be expensive, so it’s always good to be on the same page as the bride about how much the trip is going to cost and if most people will be able to afford it. It’s important to have a rough budget so you can let everyone know how much the trip will cost before they commit to going.
Now that you have decided the location, dates and budget it’s time to send out the invites! Typically invites can just be sent out via texts and then once you have everyone confirmed on if they can make it, you can create a group chat.
Once you have the final number of people it’s time to start looking for lodging accommodation. Depending on your group size you can either choose a hotel or a rental house. For groups over six people I would suggest going with a rental house as a hotel may seem too crowded for large groups. Airbnb.com and Vrbo.com are the best places to look for rental houses, but trip advisor and private companies in the area will also have great options. Make sure to book the lodging accommodation as far in advance as possible as most nice places book fast. A few things to consider when booking your accommodations are proximity to activities/restaurants, how safe the area is, overall budget and reviews of the property.
While this may have been one of the first things you decided on, it’s finally time to deep dive into the theme! Bachelorette themes have become a huge part of the parties. Basically, any theme you can dream up can be turned into a bachelorette theme. If you need help deciding on a theme, go on Pinterest, Instagram or Tik Tok for some inspiration. After you’ve picked a theme, you can choose to decorate yourself or hire a company. DIY is a great option if you are trying to stick to a smaller budget, but if you have some extra funds, I recommend hiring a company to take care of this. Hiring a bachelorette company saves you so much time and stress and allows you to start the trip with all your decorations taken care of and one less thing to worry about. Since planning a bachelorette is a huge task to take on, hiring someone to take care of décor aspects can really help overall. Especially if you’re flying to the destination and don’t want to have to pack all the décor in the suitcase or if you’re arriving late at night and don’t want to spend 3 hours setting up balloons and tinsel.
Along with décor is creating gift bags for the group. These gift bags typically include items related to the theme such as straws, cups, stickers, sunglasses and shirts. They are totally not required, but I nice way to remember the trip and thank everyone for taking the time to celebrate the bride to be!
Now that you have all the main details planned it’s time to get down to planning the itinerary of the trip including activities, transportation and food. For transportation most people will book their own, but if a large part of the group is traveling from the same area it is helpful to send some flight options, so the group can travel together. If you are driving to the destination, you can decide which car you will take or if you need to reserve a rental car.
Most activities should be booked 2-3 months in advance, since some of the more popular activities will book up fast! I would suggest using Pinterest, the BACH app or Instagram to find local vendors. If you need help figuring out what kind of activities to book check out my blog post of 17 bachelorette activities that don’t suck . Restaurants that require reservations typically only need to be booked about a month in advance, but if you have a group over 10 it doesn’t hurt to inquire before that to see if they have any minimums for large groups.
Once an overall idea of the trip has been put together it is time to create an itinerary. When putting this together make sure to include travel from each place and add in some extra time for photos at the house. I like to add a 30-minute cushion between activities since traveling with a large group can be difficult. Canva and Etsy have some great premade designs you can use to create a flyer to send out to the group so everyone knows what to expect for the trip. If you’re planning on having a dress-up theme night or want everyone to coordinate outfits, you can add this to the itinerary that way everyone has enough time to plan.
If you’ve made it to the point then you’re almost done planning the ultimate bachelorette party! All that’s left is putting together the small details. This can include welcome cocktails, fridge stocking, custom cookies, room assignments, hangover kits and anything to make the bachelorette extra special. Most of these items can be handled by a bachelorette planning company or you can tackle them yourself. Need more help planning a bachelorette trip? Reach out to Midwest Bachelorette for all your bachelorette needs!