Tis the Season of Bachelor and Bachelorette Party Planning

Wedding planning. It’s a $51 billion-a-year industry.[i] From the moment someone says, “yes,” for many couples, the next several months or even years are spent planning the ultimate wedding. In fact, many women and a few men start planning their perfect weddings before they even find “the one.” A growing segment of that $51 billion is the bachelor and bachelorette party industry. These parties, often looked at as honeymoons for the bride or groom and their closest friends, have become increasingly more complex. In fact, while wedding planning is the number one priority once engaged, planning the bachelor or bachelorette parties is a close second.

If you are a bride or a groom looking at planning your last fling before the ring, one of your biggest challenges is picking the right person as your best man or maid-of-honor, since they are traditionally the people who handle stag or hen party arrangements. Be realistic about their party-planning capabilities and the amount of time they have available, and, if you don’t think they can pull off the type of party you envision, enlist other people in your bridal party to help. It is also important to share your vision with the people in charge of planning your party. Are you hoping for a wild getaway weekend or are you the type that finds the thought of getting drunk and hitting a strip club with your friends to be alarming? Make sure your best man or maid of honor knows what you have in mind.

If you have been asked to plan the big party, take a little time up-front to make sure you are on the same page as the bride-or-groom-to-be. First, ask whether they have asked anyone else to help you with the planning and if they have any objections to you enlisting help from other members of the bridal party. Second, ask them about what kind of party they want. Third, get a guest list from them and let them know that you plan on starting an email chain with the other guests ASAP, to make sure everyone is on the same page. Fourth, talk about budget expectations; lots of us have champagne tastes and beer budgets. Finally, spend some time looking at the best alternatives and have the bride or groom help you pick from them.

It may surprise you to find that destination bachelor and bachelorette parties can be very affordable. Popular destinations like South Beach, Austin, Nashville, Las Vegas, and New York City may be within road trip distance and are busy enough that you can often find discounted flights. Destinations in South America and the Caribbean are not only inexpensive once you arrive, but may have more affordable flights than domestic destinations. If a destination party still isn’t in the budget, there are a ton of great ideas that can help you make any bachelor or bachelorette party a success.

As popularity and demand for these specific party weekends soar, more websites are specializing in bachelor and bachelorette party information or planning. Yourbachparty.com is one of these websites that offers tons of information specific to these types of events, to help men and women plan a party that they will still be talking about 50 years from now. At their website, you can find in-depth articles, guides, user forums, and reviews on destination bachelor or bachelorette parties, what to do for the party, how to plan the party, bachelor party ideas for every budget, bachelorette party ideas for every budget, and tons of free or low cost bachelor and bachelorette party games.

So now that you have some good information and tips on how to plan your bachelor or bachelorette party, the next step is rounding up the troops to decide what to do.

[i] Grose, J. (2013, June 28). The $51 billion wedding industry toasts a post-DOMA bump. Retrieved April 18, 2017 from Bloomberg website: https://www.bloomberg.com/news...