Bachelorette Party Ideas

Posted by Lauren

When Megan asked me to plan her bachelorette party, (photo blog post here!!!) I was honored and scared. We all knew Megan was destined to have her bachelorette party in Las Vegas. In fact, I distinctly remember talking about it when we (AOIIs) last went to Vegas as a group:

This was… 2009? 2010? I don’t remember… darn.

Anyways, I started out with Pinterest to get the creative juices flowing. As soon as I saw the following “pin” – aka my inspiration – I knew exactly where to go with the decorations.

I loved the girly, flashy, snazzy aesthetic and silver/pink/black color scheme.

After I developed a pin board, I took my stepmom Lauretta’s advice to visit Oriental Trading Co and order decorations in bulk. Bulk is key! That same night, I bought a few more things from Bachelorette Party Superstore. Both websites are very affordable and I had zero shipping issues. For the plane, I carried on an entire suitcase full of decorations and had a small bag near my feet with clothes/makeup/shoes.

Pretend there isn’t an obvious typo plz

Everyone pitched in to decorate!

I spy….

Ok so, besides decorations, here are my Top 10 Bachelorette Party Tips:

1. Know your bride

Duh, that’s a given right? But almost all the tips following this one actually waterfall from here. Does she want it classy or raunchy? Big group or something more intimate? Speaking of intimate… intimate gifts ;) or more practical presents? Figure this out and you are golden.

We only had 2 “naughty” decorations… toilet paper for the bathroom and three uniquely shaped dishes. (Can you spy them in the above photos?)

2. Go with a theme as best as possible

Our theme was kinda funny – Italian Wedding. Think: mobsters, gangsters, 20s, mafia, black dresses… Megan and her fiancee met at a fraternity-sorority exchange called Italian Wedding, so she wanted to have the theme carry over to her bachelorette party.

I brought mobster accessories for the photo booth, gave people mobster names generated from this site, went with spaghetti for Saturday’s dinner, and we had a mad lib Italian Wedding ceremony. Probably could have stretched the theme further, but it worked!

3a. Feed people

Kali recommended we try a VONS delivery to the hotel, but by the time I filled up the online shopping cart, all Friday deliveries were unavailable. My plans for an Italian pasta dinner shifted to Saturday, but that left us without a dinner plan on Friday. Half of us called up Dominoes for an easy pizza party, and others found food on their own.

We were all so hungry that as soon as the pizza came, we scarfed it down in seconds. A food plan for all meals is a lot more crucial than you might think!

3b. In a destination bachelorette party, do a VONS delivery!

The idea of stocking the bar and fridge for 10 girls was challenging – until Kali mentioned VONS. Lots of grocery stores deliver, so just do a little bit of research where you’re at for an easy alternative. VONS waives the delivery fee if it is your first time ordering, too!

I actually ordered too much, but after a mimosa breakfast, the hummus/veggie lunch held us all over until it was spaghetti time.

3c. Be weary of food allergies!

Two of our girls are gluten-free, so I made sure to have plenty of alternatives. The spaghetti was easy to make in bulk, and it was a gf noodle! I also asked girls to bring gf-friendly snacks.

4. Have a little somethin’ for the girls to take away

While researching bachelorette party etiquette, I kept coming across gifts for the people attending. Sorry girls, some of the gifts were, like, spa days? Although that would be nice, I kept things easy and Vegas-y with a personalized deck of playing cards, a giant ring (that doubled as a shot glass), and a simple necklace with a Vegas charm. Low frills.

5. Make a photo booth!

Our bride-to-be LOVES photo-shoots, so what better way to decorate a plain wall space than create a photo booth?

I used the original pin (mentioned above) for inspiration when ordering decorations online. 2 tablecloths, 2 silver fringe curtains, a few silver/black lanterns completed the look.

Some of our photos:

Fun, right?

6. Plan only a few games

You might have a Scrabble-Yahtzee-pants at your bachelorette party, but I honestly think 3 games is all that’s needed. Ours included:

- Guess the lingerie gift giver

While most of the girls were at Encore Beach Club, Kelly and I waited for the VONS delivery, cleaned the room, and prepped for the afternoon festivities. A few weeks ago, I asked the girls to each bring lingerie or undies for the bride. We found their lingerie presents, opened them, and hung the undergarments up on heavy duty twine with office clips. When we started the game, Megan had three chances to guess the correct gift-giver before she had a penalty.

- Pin the guy on the guy

First, the bride-to-be drew a man on a large piece of pink wrapping paper. Then, each girl received a piece of foam with a sticky backing. I don’t want to attract spam to this page…. so let’s just say we cut out “shapes” and had to stick them on to Megan’s drawing of a guy.

Before pinning, we took a shot and then spun around three times. We went in alphabetical order and the man was very cocky by the end of it!

- Mad-lib Italian wedding ceremony

At the exchange we went to in college, there was a fake wedding ceremony. I wanted to some how incorporate that element into Megan’s bachelorette party, but I wasn’t sure how. Then I thought of mad-libs! I made 10 parts – a bride, a groom, an officiant, a ring bearer, 3 witnesses, a priest… and 2 others I’m blanking on. I put each fill-in-the-blank mad-lib behind the person’s mobster name tag.

We filed in the nouns, verbs, and adjectives while eating dinner and then, after our other two games, we got ready for the ceremony. We recorded it; it’s hilarious and nonsensical. Can’t wait to watch it on her real wedding day!

7. Make an agenda!

We really only had a few hours on Friday and all of Saturday to celebrate because half the group left before 9 am on Sunday.

We crammed two nightclubs, a pool party, and a Vegas show into 36 hours. From there we added in games, eating, and…. sleep? Megan had a special itinerary that wasn’t as detailed as the one that I distributed to the other girls. Chippendales had to stay hidden!

8. Signature Drink(s)

I dropped the ball a little on this one… whoops. But only a little. So, “peach” is one of Megan’s wedding motifs. Her fiancee is even brewing peach beer for hotel guests! I wanted the signature drink to incorporate peach somehow, but didn’t do enough research beforehand. Ideally, I would have found (and tested! ;) haha) a cocktail recipe, printed out cute “Peachy Ever After” recipe cards, and then included those as either a memento for all guests or maybe just the bride-to-be. That didn’t happen… but I did make a peach drink by:

1. blending 2 cut up peaches with vodka; 2. mixing 2 cups vodka/peach puree with 1 cup peach schnapps, 2? cups more vodka, 3? cups club soda…. forget it I can’t remember…. it wasn’t too bad, but I’m sure Katie could have made something wayyyy better.

I also wanted to make a super cute mimosa bar, much like this one. But that didn’t happen. Instead I mixed OJ + champagne together and gave each girl a cup/mug/glass-full whether they wanted it or not :)

9. In Vegas, sacrifice hotel location a little bit to all be together.

We stayed at The Signature MGM Grand in an adjoining Junior Suite and One Bedroom Suite. I signed up for a few hotel email rewards lists and took advantage of a 20% off coupon. Although The Signature isn’t directly on the Strip, we would have needed taxis from any other hotel, ya know? (And The Signature is actually right next to a less crowded street that runs parallel to the Strip… less traffic there = cheaper taxi fare!) Might as well stay somewhere with a fancy kitchen, plenty of space to decorate, and in a reasonable price range.

10. Wear sunscreen, drink water, have fun!

The basics, duh!

Phew, ok. Hopefully someone on the Internetz finds this useful!

Question: What is you mobster name? What do you think I gave to Megan?

Hint: hot pink satin granny panties are totally underrated.

-Lauren