One of my very close friends, Abby, is getting married this October (YAY!), so myself along with one of the other bridesmaids have been planning the bachelorette party! She decided on Traverse City, MI (all the wine!) for her “last fling before the ring.” I’ve never thrown a bachelorette party before so I was very excited to get started organizing hers. We have been planning for a few months now and I wanted to share some things I’ve learned in the process.

First off, if you are doing a weekend getaway it is best to invite only people you know to be reliable i.e. if they say they are going then they are going. We had a problem where a few people dropped out which led to us canceling our first Airbnb and paying a fee plus having to find a new spot to stay for the weekend. In the end it all worked out but for about a week we were a little stressed out over it! Another good rule of thumb is to not invite a ton of people –the more people you invite the more opinions you get and the more people you have to keep track of. Sometimes less is more and it will most likely be less stressful to please a smaller group of people than a big one.

Second, let the bride pick the place (or give a few ideas for places if she’s up for whatever) and also some things she’d like to do while there. For example, Abby picked T.C. and said she definitely wanted to do a wine tour and go to some breweries. We ended up booking a wine tour on Old Mission Peninsula and left a day open to go explore the area and check out the local breweries. We also added in a few things we knew she would love like brunch on the last day and a movie/game night in our Airbnb so that she could have a more relaxed night too.

Third, when you are going out of town (especially if you haven’t been there before) ask people who have been there for suggestions on hot spots to go/must see things in the area. We got some great information by asking around and most of the restaurants/bars we are going to are suggestions we got from other people. Trip Adviser is also a great reference for booking things like wine tours and restaurant reservations. Read the reviews; you won’t regret it!

Fourth, take care of your attendees. Since they are paying good money for a bachelorette weekend away they should be spoiled a little bit with something fun like a goody bag to say thank you for being here. Ours will include shot glasses, key chains, penis straws (obviously) and a few other fun things for the weekend. We are also providing the champagne, one breakfast and one lunch at our Airbnb which is a nice gesture since they will probably be spending decent money on dinner and drinks when we go out.

Fifth, make the hard decisions. This is your friend’s last big night out before she becomes a Mrs. which means that you need to take the responsibility of planning everything off of her shoulders. Brides can’t have fun if they are worried about the details. The other bridesmaid and I took initiative to plan this out. We set up a night to get together and go over our plan for the party. We each took responsibilities like booking the Airbnb and making the T-shirts to wear on the wine tour etc. We also planned who we would delegate what tasks to along with an itinerary for the weekend. Then after we hashed everything out I sent a semi-lengthy e-mail to all the attendees to notify them of the itinerary, costs, and what they are responsible for bringing. You are never going to please everybody but having a plan is better than getting a bunch of different opinions that may not have the bride’s best interest at heart.

Overall, it was actually a lot of fun to plan Abby’s Bachelorette Weekend in T.C. I think it helps when you really love the person and want them to have the best experience possible. It also helped having another person there planning with me to think of things I may have forgotten or to point out what’s too overboard and what’s just right. Hopefully this posts helps with any future party planning you do, whether it be a bachelorette party or a birthday getaway. Either way make sure there is champagne involved! Goodluck!

<3Ash

p.s. Try not to get the bride too drunk the first day! If she feels like crap the rest of the weekend she won’t enjoy herself as much… I may know this from experience 😉