I’ve planned two bachelorette parties now; one for my childhood best friend and one for my sister, and wanted to share everything I’ve learned from organizing both. There are a TON of logistics that go into a bachelorette party – it can be quite overwhelming to be honest!!! Hopefully this guide full of tips will be helpful and take some of the stress away!

How To Plan A Bachelorette Party

Timeline

Usually bachelorette parties occur around 2-3 months before the wedding. You should connect with the bride and get the emails for everyone she wants to invite. Send out a mass email to the list of girls with 3 weekends that work for the bride and then choose 1 weekend that works best for the majority. If you don’t want to go the mass email route – you can create a free poll at Doodle.com that tallies the responses.

Once you’ve decided on a date, send out an invite with: date, time, location, a general itinerary, and an approximate cost breakdown. 2 weeks before the party, send a follow up email with more details such as: travel specifics, a packing list (if there are certain outfits needed i.e. you want all the girls to wear black one night), gift ideas (if you’re asking everyone to wrap a piece of lingerie for a guessing game), food allergies, payment reminders etc.

Packing List

Next to each activity on the itinerary it’s always nice to give a little outfit suggestion. For example, Wine Tasting – sundress and sandals. Night out – wear all black. You can send a friendly reminder for people to bring certain things like; sunscreen, Advil, mini travel size shampoos (if you’re staying at an airbnb), cash, and heels.

Gifts

A popular game at bachelorette parties is everyone brings a wrapped piece of lingerie and the bride has to guess who brought it. Some people bring silk pjs, robes, eye masks – it doesn’t just have to be bras/underwear. Other than that, guests aren’t really required to bring a gift. In terms of being the Maid of Honor/Host of the party, it’s always nice to give all of the guests a goodie bag upon arrival. You can fill it with all of the essentials; bandaids, Advil, coconut water, flip flops, a personalized T-shirt, candy, sunglasses etc…

For my sister’s bachelorette party I wanted to go all out so I found these amazing faux leather bags for under $10 (don’t they look so much more expensive?!) that are soooo versatile and go with everything. I stuffed them with fun items like; Skyn Iceland face masks, TCHO chocolate bars, Sweet Reason CBD water, BEV canned rose, stripe straws, heart sunglasses, personalized wine glasses, Supergoop sunscreen, Kopari lipgloss, Goop bubblebath + glow kits, and Essie nail polish. My sister hand wrote notes to to go inside each bag which was such a nice touch.

Games

I mentioned the lingerie game above, another game we love to play is a Q & A for the fiancé. You can look up questions online, but I’ll share a few of my favorites that we’ve asked each groom-to-be. “What was your first date?” “What’s your biggest pet peeve of your significant other?” “What’s your favorite thing about them?” “When did you know they were the one?” “What’s their favorite food?” “What is one thing you did to impress them when you were first dating?” “What’s their biggest quirk?” “What’s your favorite body part of theirs?” “Where’s the craziest you’ve ever had sex?” “What’s something no one knows about them except for you?”

You can either email these questions or have them record a video of themselves answering for all of the girls to watch! At the bachelorette party, ask the bride-to-be these questions and have her guess the answers, then read them back to her. Another game that’s fun is with Dare Cards. The bride has to act out whatever the card says, so things like “Take a picture the bartender.” “Ask a random guy for a piggy back ride.” etc.

Activities

This will vary based on city and time of year, but I’ll share what we did in The Hamptons. We were a group of 20 girls total, so we decided to enjoy our days and late nights out and then have all of our dinners at the house we rented. I ordered HelloFresh for the 3 nights we were there – and it was PERFECT because I didn’t have to grocery shop and the meal kit was delivered right to the front door. This was WAY more cost effective than eating out, and just made more sense since it’s so hard to seat 20 people at a restaurant on a weekend. FYI you can use this link to receive $80 off your first month using HelloFresh!

Here’s a brief rundown of our itinerary for the weekend: Friday – check into Airbnb, wine tasting at Wolffer Vineyards, head home to refresh and relax, enjoy appetizers and HelloFresh dinner at house, Uber to Talkhouse (Friday night is the best night to go), Saturday – breakfast at house, Gurney’s Montauk beach club, head home to swim/hang out/refresh, enjoy appetizers and dinner at house, Uber to Surf Lodge and Ruschmeyer’s, Sunday – breakfast at house, check out, people walk around town at their leisure before heading home.

Supplies

You have to get the bride a sash! I ordered my sister this one. She can wear it on one or both of the nights out. In terms of decor – it’s totally up to you and will be different for everyone. I personally spent my time investing in the food, booze, goodie bags, and itinerary rather than a ton of decor. Some people like to do funny decor like blow up the groom-to-be’s face on cardboard cut outs, put the groom-to-be’s face on temporary tattoos, personalized streamers from Etsy with the wedding hashtag, flowers, balloons, and other typical bachelorette paraphernalia. Custom T-shirts or accessories are also popular.

For my sister, we ordered a tie dye kit and plain white bandanas off Amazon so everyone could make their own piece to take home. It was a nice activity for everyone to do by the pool, and super cost effective compared to custom T-shirts! For food/drinks you definitely want to have the house fully stocked with chips, salsa, guacamole, popcorn, yogurt, granola, bagels, frozen pizzas, straws, paper plates, napkins, booze and mixers.

Cost

It’s no secret that bachelorette parties are expensive. They’re expensive for the person hosting/planning it and the guests attending. Sometimes the bride and maid of honor will cover a lot of the costs such as accommodations/housing, meals, entrance fees, goodie bags, food/booze and more. Sometimes the bride won’t pay for anything and her guests will pick up everything down to the Ubers. I personally think it’s a really nice touch when the bride and/or maid of honor cover something like the accommodations (since flights can often be so expensive for guests), or at least the goodie bags.

I hope this bachelorette party guide provided a few helpful tips for your weekend! It’s such a special time for a bride-to-be and all of her loved ones to come together and celebrate her! I’ll be sure to update this post with even more ideas and tips after each bachelorette party I attend in the future!

If you like this post on how to plan a bachelorette party, also, check out: How To Create A Healthy Girls Spa Getaway, and An Outdoor Dinner Party At Home.