Bachelorette Party Planning Guide + Free Checklist

If you are a bridesmaid or, especially, a maid of honor, there’s a good chance that bachelorette party planning is at the top of your mind. When it comes to event planning, the wedding is, of course, the star of the show. However, the bachelorette parties arguably take second place. We have so much mythology built up around planning bachelorette parties, from the movie Bridesmaids to stereotypes of penis-clad bachelorettes partying around town. Planning a great bachelorette party in this context can be intimidating.

Recently, I’ve been elbow deep in bachelorette party planning for my younger sister. I’ve learned so much from my own research. I hope my lessons learned can help you plan the perfect bachelorette party with limited stress, but lots of fun.

In this post, I’ll go over the steps for planning a bachelorette party, bachelorette party ideas, and ways to cut costs on bachelorette parties. I also provide a free downloadable bachelorette party planning checklist. For the download, scroll to the bottom of the post.

Bachelorette Party Planning Guide

Talk with the Bride

Your first step when planning a bachelorette party is to chat with the bride. You’ll want to get a sense of the bride’s interests and preferences. In particular:

• Does she want a single day or weekend getaway? Increasingly, brides are going for multi-day or even weeklong destination bachelorette parties.
• Does she want a local or destination bachelorette party?
• If she wants a destination bachelorette party, what are some options of places she would like to go?
• Are there any activities she definitely wants to include, like wine tasting, clubbing, a spa visit, etc.?
• Who does she want to be on the guest list and what is their contact information?
• When would she like to do the bachelorette party and does she have flexibility in the time frame?
• How involved does she want to be in planning? For example, does she want to see (and okay) a complete itinerary or would she rather be surprised?
• Are there any non-negotiables in terms of people, places, activities, and times? In other words, is there anything you should absolutely make sure happens even if it doesn’t work for everyone or anyone you should prioritize when scheduling?

Ideally you want to come away from this discussion with at least a few options for destinations, activities, and times. Depending on the schedules and budgets of the bridal party, you may find that some options are not feasible and so want to have backups.

Gather Feedback from the Party Guests

Next, it’s a good idea to reach out to the other members of the bridal party/people on the guest list. You’ll want to ask about days/weekends/weeks that the guests are available. Likewise, ask about their overall budget and length of time restrictions. For example, if the bride wants a multi-day event, you’ll want to know if any guests can only join for one or two nights (or less). Likewise, if anyone has a restrictive budget, you’ll ideally want to plan around that.

Depending on people’s schedules and budgets, you may be able to accommodate everyone’s restrictions. However, you may find that you can’t plan a party that aligns with what the bride wants and what everyone else wants. This is especially the case if you’re working with a large group. In that case, you should prioritize any non-negotiables the bride has. Then, either plan what works for the most people, what aligns most closely with what you think the bride would want, or what works for the bride’s closest friends.

Especially for a larger group, I recommend sending out a poll that lets you assess people’s availability and their budget preferences. You can easily create surveys with multiple kinds of questions in Google Forms or SurveyMonkey. Alternatively, you can use When Available or Doodle Polls to create a scheduling poll. However, you won’t be able to ask about budgets or other questions using When Available/Doodle.

You don’t have to use polls. However, doing so can make gathering feedback a little easier.

Research Bachelorette Party Locations

Your next step after you have everyone’s budgets and schedules is to research locations and activities. I give lots of ideas for activities below. You can skip this next section if you’re planning a local bachelorette party and go straight to activity ideas.

Planning locations and activities is more complex if you are thinking of a destination bachelorette party. For a destination bachelorette party, the price of transportation and/or lodging may winnow down a list you have. For example, my sister wanted a wine tasting bachelorette party in Washington or Oregon. After researching about 6 locations, only 3 fit everyone’s timelines and budgets.

Cost-Saving Tips for Destination Bachelorette Parties

With large groups, Vrbo and Airbnb are often go-tos. However, make sure to check the price of local hotel rooms and BNBs as well. The fees at many vacation rentals are so high that you might find a hotel is actually cheaper for your bachelorette bash.

Another cost saving tip is to do a search of any vacation rentals you are interested in. Search for the title of the listing or even do an image search of a picture of the rental. Many renters have their own websites where they rent out their homes for a lower price than they do on Airbnb or VRBO because they don’t have to pay those sites’ fees.

If you are looking at flights, Google Flights is an invaluable resource for cost comparisons. You can even set up alerts to let you know when the prices on a flight change if you have some flexibility on when you book.

If you have a AAA, Costco, or Sam’s Club membership, you can look for travel discounts through those sites. Similarly, check to see if your employer offers any discounts for travel or local activities you might take advantage of.

Finally, as you’re comparing lodging choices, assess how much time you think you’ll spend at the hotel/rental. You might want to spend a little more on a place that has hot tubs, games, and other amenities if you think you’ll want to spend time relaxing and hanging out. On the other hand, if you plan to pack your itinerary with activities, you may want to cut costs by going with simpler accommodations.

Research Bachelorette Party Activities

Once you’ve narrowed down locations (if needed), you can more easily assess available activities. Look to see whether the location(s) you picked have at least a couple of activities you’d be interested in. It might be a good restaurants and clubs, wine tasting and yoga, or hiking spots and a hot tub.

To ensure guests have a great time, you’ll likely want to plan at least a couple different activities. If the location only has good wine tasting and no other amenities, that may mean you rate it lower on the list or you consider bolstering the fun by bringing games, making an elaborate meal together, having a movie party, etc.

You might consider the following fun activities for a bachelorette party.

Alcohol/Party-Oriented Activities

• Wine tasting (or any other kind of alcohol tasting!)
• Bar hopping
• Clubbing
• Check out a drag show

Outdoorsy/Active Bachelorette Party Activities

• Rent a boat. In our area, you can rent sailboats, motor boats, and even hot tub boats!
• Go for a hike
• Try axe throwing
• Take a dance class
• Go fruit picking
• Try a sport like skiing/snowboarding, snowshoeing, sledding, surfing, kayaking/canoeing, whitewater rafting, bike riding, etc.

• Get your heart pumping with a bungee jump or sky dive!
• Book an escape room
• Go on a hot air balloon ride
• Take a pole dancing class

Relaxing/Artistic Bachelorette Party Activities

• Spa day
• Private or group yoga and/or meditation
• Paint and sip
• Hire a private chef or take a cooking class
• Take an art class such as pottery, painting, flower arranging, woodworking, book binding, etc.
• See a play, musical, or symphony
• Throw an elaborate movie party or even rent out a movie theater

Local Adventure Ideas

• Get dressed up and go to a fancy restaurant for a dinner party.
• Go for a haunted tour of your city (or a destination city)
• Go shopping at a cute town you haven’t visited before
• Plan a scavenger hunt around places that are meaningful to the bride
• Have a puppy or kitten party! Local animal shelters sometimes let parties visit and play with their adoptable animals.
• Visit a local farm
• Take a food-themed tour of your city.

You can find fun, unique activity ideas on Airbnb experiences or the travel websites of many towns and cities. Travel blogs are also great resources for fun local activities.

Price Out Your Options

At this point, you may have a few options for locations and activities. Create a rough price for each location and set of activities so you can easily compare your options. Don’t forget to include transportation to the location, taxes and fees for accommodations, and activity costs. You may also want to estimate the cost of food and decorations if people are working with restrictive budgets.

Then, create a price per person so that each person understands the cost burden of their portion. According to bachelorette party etiquette, the bride doesn’t pay for her bachelorette party. Consequently, unless you’ve decided she will be contributing, you should plan for everyone else to cover the bride’s costs.

Verify the Bachelorette Party Itinerary

Next, build out a rough overview of each option you’ve put together. You may just have one option you know the bride will love. However, when I was planning my sister’s bachelorette party, I had 3 location options. For each, I had outlined the wineries we could visit and activity options available. Each place had a pretty different price attached to it as well.

In my case, I had my sister look at the options for locations and activities and make final decisions about which she liked best. If the bride wants to be totally surprised, this is where I recommend getting feedback from the bridal party. Some of your options may be beyond people’s budgets or some people may not be comfortable with certain activities. Between the bride and/or bridal party, you should hopefully arrive at a favorite itinerary that you can run with.

Venmo, Venmo, Venmo

I also recommend asking people to Venmo you their estimated portion of the total bachelorette party as soon as possible. Assuming you’re not swimming in money, having them Venmo you first thing will enable you to book accommodations and activities as soon as you can, without having to worry about dipping into savings or relying on credit cards.

I also recommend slightly overestimating the cost per person because you will likely have to pay for additional fees, gratuities, etc. that you did not account for. Worst case scenario, you had people overpay and you can use that to pay for people’s food/drinks, decorations, or just Venmo them back later.

Book Location

Whew, you’ve gotten all the hard work done. You’ve decided on a location and activities. You’ve gotten the a-okay from the bride and/or bridal party. Now, it’s time to make it official. If relevant, book accommodations as soon as you can. It’s always disappointing to have your first-choice option get booked up. And if you’re going to a smaller town, you might not have many options available.

Book Activities

Then, start booking your key activities. If it’s too soon to book all of your important activities, put a reminder in your phone to book that wine-tasting tour or yoga class 90 days ahead (or whatever timeframe it is).

Want to go to any fancy restaurants? Put in a reservation for those too. You never know whether your event will overlap with another big party and you won’t get in to the place you planned on.

Finally, you can start planning any bachelorette party games you want to play. For some fun options, check out this post from Brides.com. I also love this thread on the Wedding Wire that has some fun ideas.

Plan a Bachelorette Party Theme and Decorations

Next, consider any decorations you might want. For a destination bachelorette party, your ability to decorate might be limited. You could consider bringing a couple packs of balloons and streamers in your bag. However, you’ll likely want to leave the elaborate stuff behind.

For parties where you can decorate, you might consider color-coordinated balloons and streamers in the wedding colors, the brides favorite colors, or colors that fit a particular theme. Decorative glasses, fun signs, twinkling lights, coordinated outfits, disco balls, and more can all be used to as fun decoration options. For more ideas you can check out this post from Stag and Hen.

Make a Shopping List

A couple of weeks before the party, make a shopping list of food, drink, decoration, and other essential items you might need. This could also include party favors if you’re deciding to include them. If you’re staying in a vacation rental with a kitchen, you might plan out a couple of meals that you make together.

For large groups, cereal, milk, eggs, fruit, sandwich fixings, chips, veggies, and dip are usually good options that give people flexibility to make what they like. A quick pasta salad (like my favorite Caprese pasta salad) or pot of soup (like my favorite white chicken chili) can also make for an easy meal option.

As I’ll discuss more below, this is also a great space to delegate and have people bring things they like to eat or divvy up the shopping list so that each person picks up a few items. For a destination shower, you can also go on a joint trip to the store. If you’ve made a shopping list beforehand, it can help keep the trip organized.

Should you delegate tasks?

You’ll notice I’ve largely assumed that you’re doing this all yourself. However, you’ll hopefully have plenty of people who are excited to help you! The best option will be different for every group. However, I feel that delegation works best for researching locations, activities, and decorations; buying food and decorations, and carpooling.

In contrast, I’ve found it easiest to have one person that compiles the itinerary options, has the final say on any big decisions, gathers the money, and makes the key reservations. Otherwise you might find yourself spending just as much time checking in on whether things or done as you do actually completing the tasks.

Consider creating Google docs to keep track of tasks and who is responsible for them. You can then have friends/family members check off responsibilities as they complete them.

Printable Bachelorette Party Checklist

The planning process for a bachelorette party can feel overwhelming. In my opinion, the best way to feel in control is to have a checklist. When we get stressed, we can feel like we have a million things we need to do. However, when we take the time to write things down, we realize there’s much less to do than we realized and we have plenty of time to do it.

To help you with planning for the big day, I’ve provided a printable checklist. You can download it and use it to keep track of all those little things you have to do to prepare.

Final Thoughts on Planning a Bachelorette Party

Planning a bachelorette party can be so much fun. It’s also a great opportunity to celebrate the bride and her relationship with you and her friends/family. However, it’s also be a lot of work. Luckily, doing a little planning can take out much of the stress. Giving yourself time to plan also lets you create something truly magical. After all, the most important thing is to create an unforgettable celebration that the bride loves.

I hope you found these tips useful for planning the ultimate bachelorette party. If you used the checklist, let me know what you think! And if you have bachelorette parties you’ve loved, let me know what you did in the comments!

Enjoyed this post? Please consider liking, subscribing, or sharing with others. Interested in related content? Check out my posts on the ultimate guide to wedding planning, money-saving tips for weddings, planning a micro wedding or elopement, wedding diet and workout plans, and hosting a bridal shower.