Reader Question: Have You Planned a Bachelorette Party on the Cheap?! Share Your Tips!
Check out this reader question from Amy:
“My sister recently asked me to be her Maid-of Honor in her wedding. As a part of my duties I am throwing her a bachelorette party. I’m wondering if you could do a post asking if there are any good fun ideas/activities that won’t break the bank account. We will be celebrating Labor day weekend in Chicago. I’m on a budget and so are most of the girls attending the party. Thanks!”
We rented a lake house for the weekend. On right on the beach and 161 a night, split between 3 girls. Not bad and we are going to be able to spend quality time together.
I’m planning one for my best friend and we’re going to go get pedicures, then go to dinner, then head back to my house for games and dessert.
Rented a First Student school bus and went on a wine tour. The bus is nearly 2/3 cheaper than a limo and we were the hit of the wineries showing up in a big yellow bus. Most wineries had free tastings too.
I had a school bus for my bachelorette wine tour too! It was a blast!! We had my bridal shower with brunch before hand. This way we had more ppl to pitch in for bus/wine tour and ppl didn’t have to take 2 days out of their lives in the summer. Then we brought all the leftovers from the shower on the bus with us. Oh and we raffled off theme gift baskets at the shower to help pay for the bus/wine tour. We brought music, coolers and games to play on the bus. We blew up beach balls and hit them around and had a great time! Then wine tour and then bar hopped after wineries closed! Long day but it was unforgettable!
I like the idea for the raffle thanks.
I planned my best friends baby shower on a budget also. We live in GA so I planned for us to have a full day of fun. We went to Helen, GA so we went tubing down the river with the bride having a special tube that was decorated just for her wedding that I asked if they could do and they agreed because they have never had anybody ask them that before, so they were excited to do it. We then went wine tasting at multiple wine shops, so that was free and we got pretty tipsy with the many different locations to go. I then got a restaurant certificate from restaurant.com for lunch, and afterwards we went downtown athens, ga for the nightlife and basically hit every bar and danced and danced and danced. I was the DD so I payed and other people payed for her drinks because we bought her little things from party City saying bride to be, so I really didn’t spend too much money on the drinks. Lol!!!! And afterwards came back to my house so all the girls and I could sleep off our fun day. It was really really cheap and so much fun. Hope this helps.
Not baby shower…. Lol!!!!!! Even though I did that too for the same girl.. Bacherloette Party….. Lollll
Another Georgian here! Those are great ideas!
I had underaged bridesmaids/sisters, so we did dinner at a cool…buffet? It was one of those places where you get your food and they cook it in front of you. Then we did Dave & Buster’s and it was actually a ton of fun. We happened to be in Providence for Fire on the Water too. All told less than $50/person, and if you didn’t have the extra $$ you didn’t have to spend as much to still have a great time.
Fire and ice? I live right near Providence 🙂
Look up “butt balloon game” on YouTube.
Seriously, best game ever to break the ice at the house pregame.
OMG — this cracked me up!
Think how great it is while drinking!
A co-worker of mine told me that at her nieces batch party they went out and they had a scavenger hunt for example get a piggy back ride etc. sounded like loads of fun!
Groupon have a lot of good deals, that’s where I went to help me plan my BFF Bachelorette party.
I was going to say this- Groupon always has fun stuff (escape room, organized city wide scavenger hunts, piano bars, winery tours, etc) so you can pick what you want, and get it cheap to start!
Prepare early! There are so many deals to be had! I couponed for my sister’s bachelorette swag bags last year and spent under $20 per bag, of which wouldve retailed over $200 :). I’ve been couponing for my bestfriend’s swag bags for her August bachelorette party lately and have been finding much better freebies (e.g. shout wipes, loofahs, cetaphil moistuizer & face wash, b&bw lotions, etc… not to mention the free Vista Print totes from Tmobile I monogramed with everyone’s initials to stuff all these freebies in). You should be able to find some goodies during Target’s 90% off Summer clx too! I scooped up $0.30 bath bombs and those vaseline lip balms during the easter clx.
We did a sign painting party! I was looking into Paint Nite and it would have been pretty expensive for 20 people to attend, and we needed it to be on a weekend because we had a few people from out of town. I bought $3 bottles of wine, and ordered pizza and I decorated my basement. My husband and I bought boards from Menards and cut them down ourselves. We nailed them together and stained them. The stain was very inexpensive because it came from the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. People could free hand or use stencils that I bought with a coupon from Hobby Lobby. I would say the project cost me $100, and I charged $5/person (minus the bride of course). I pretty much broke even, and everyone could afford a fun night for $5. Everyone had a great time and thought it was a really cool idea.
We did this but did a weekend away at a cute cabin it was perfect! Bonding time is the best for bachelorette parties
The last bachelorette party I went to, we rented a cabin, which made for pretty cheap lodging – nice cabin in the mountains. I want to say it was $40/person. We all signed up to be in charge of making one meal. The cabin had a full kitchen, and that way we didn’t have to pay to eat out. We didn’t go clubbing (not the bride’s thing at all), but had drinks and played games there. It was really low-key. Maybe not a traditional bachelorette party, but it was perfect for her.
Check out Craigslist for cheap bachelorette party gear like buttons, tiara, and sash.
I was still in college when my older sister got married and sooo broke. My sister was pregnant by the time her wedding was close enough for the party (wasn’t pregnant when she bought the dress, which made for an interesting wedding morning using pliers to get her in the dress haha). We decided to do something very laid back since she obviously couldn’t partake in the typical shenanigans. We ended up just having a fun sleepover type of night at a friend’s house. I set up my projector outside and we watched scary movies outside in the dark (so creepy and fun!), played games, had the fire pit going for smores, did facials, and makeup and hair. Was so much fun and I barely spent anything on the party. People brought their own adult beverages.
We did it at a local bar which gives you a free sampler plate with a party of ten, and make sure you really dress up the bride to be with the tira. Because everyone will be buying her drinks
For my sister I made up a scavenger hunt. I divided the girls in a couple of different teams made sure they all had a camera and the list of items or things they had to do for the scavenger hunt they had to document each thing by taking a picture. I made them do things like find a couple that has been married for at least 10 years ask them their secret for a successful marriage and then take a picture with them or find a penny with the bride-to-be birth year just things they would really have to search for. The last task was to go get all of their pictures developed for proof the girls had such a great time they talked about it for the rest of the night and the funny situations they got themselves into and everyone was going through each other’s pictures and then of course the bride has them forever so it’s kind of a great gift for her as well!
We rented a 12 passenger van and made my sisters boyfriend drive us around all night! Only cost $24 to get us all where we wanted to go for the night, dinner, drinks etc It was fun!
Always check home away! My friends and i roadtripped up to Destin, FL and were able to rent a large beach house for 250 a night. Split between 8 bridesmaids(and one bride who didn’t pay of course) it was so cheap! We went with a color theme so everyone would wear that color instead of having to go out and buy a brand new matching outfit. I personally think that the sashes and crowns are an unnecessary expense (that money could go towards something else) but everyone has their own preference. Always google “things to do in ______” (fill the blank with whichever city you plan to be in). We found lots of free local events to go to like an outdoor yoga class on the beach, an outdoor pop up farmers market, a free wine and paint class for women only and a at a rooftop lounge on the beach (they made accomodations for us at no charge when we mentioned we would be there for a bachelorette party. It doesn’t hurt to ask!). Those were some fun things to do when we weren’t out partying :). One last thing, check groupon! There were so many cute, cheap options for day cruises, escape rooms and stand up paddleboarding lessons. We couldn’t get to all of it, but they were good options :).
I mean…it depends on the ages of people. A younger crowd, bar hop…people will be buying you guys drinks all night if you wear a sash…
If they’re a little more mature (30ish) maybe a cocktail at one of the casinos and going to see a live band.
If they’re mommies, do a simple dinner out, maybe a spa day, a mimosa bar and every one is home by 9.
The .99 Cent Stores or Dollar Tree are my best friend and with he Dollar Tree you can order online and have it shipped to the store for pick up. You’d be surprised what great decorations you’d find, start there. Then for the food have a variety of salads and party wings: save money by skipping the chips and dip. Also limit the variety of drinks, buy a couple of jugs of lemonade and have ice cold water.
I love how a photo from the Bridesmaid movie is used in this post because I feel like I am in that movie right now. Going to a bachelorette trip this weekend and it’s getting more expensive by the minute. Airfare, Disneyland 2 day tickets, housing, 2 $35 and up meals planned, and $20 matching tank tops. I am just not the sorority matching kind of person so this should be super interesting weekend.
When I was in charge of a bachelorette a few years ago, we did a concert and dinner before. It was great and while the concert was not cheap, it was still much more affordable than this one I am attending this weekend.
My bacholrette many years ago was a blast!. Best ever! my best friend getting married around the same time. So 2 teams…
A photo scavenger hunt like above. 2 vans with brothers of girls driving. Coolers of cocktails in the vans. We used Polaroid cameras for the pics…each team mate had to be in every photo. Tasks like”in the back of a police car” ” in water” “rolling”
I still have those photos! Treasures!
Then back to an apartment for tales of our hunt!
The weekend away thing seems so over the top to me……more stress than fun.
I am afraid I’d be busy for the Disney trip!
I’m pretty sure it is against the law to drive around with open containers (alcoholic beverages) in the car.
If anyone is looking for really cute customized bachelorette invitations, check out Peachy Pelican on Etsy
https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThePeachyPelicanNOLA
Used them for one I planned and the girls loved it! I think it was around $10.
We got a hotel room downtown & went bar hopping. It was pretty fun. The tubing sounds really fun though!!! We made a photo booth in the hotel room with pink sequin backdrop . We also had cute swag bags, prosecco, & cupcakes. We used plastic wine glasses from dollar tree that we modpodged glitter on the bottoms. I got swag fillers like sex dice , penis lipsticks & face masks, on aliexpress & eBay cheap. Nail polish with label “to a lifetime of getting nailed” & hair ties labeled “to have and to hold your hair back” along with mini bottles of alcohol, alkaseltzer, tums, bandaids, Advil packets, etc