As the years fly by and we move into our mid-twenties, celebratory excuses turn from “I’m finally legal!” to “I bought my first condo” and “I’m engaged!”. While many of us have not reached these stages of adulthood, it’s always fun to join the ride and start planning parties for those who are. Somehow I’m lucky enough to have two groups of girlfriends, and the first gal to get hitched spent this past Labor Day weekend being surprised beyond belief for her special Bachelorette. As the first wedding in our group, we were newbies to the Staguette scene. And so, many lessons have been absorbed, the biggest of all…we may just need to drop our day jobs and go into party planning.

While surely every bride-to-be is different, I’m quite convinced that the following do’s and dont’s will make any girl happy, especially when surrounded by her very favourite women.

1. DO buy all the cliché decorations
If you intend on buying antique vases, silver cutlery and linen napkins for a lavish Bachelorette affair, please. STOP. The truth is, a Bachelorette is a raunchy celebration of single-hood, not a Pinterest party. Head to the dollar store, browse online and embrace your inner sexaholic.

2. DO find a venue
While a house party surely has it’s advantages, it’s fun to put everyone in a different setting for the special event. A hotel room offers the perfect venue for an intimate party, and allows for a girly sleepover at the end of the night. Best of all? Virtually no clean-up.

3. DO surprise the Bride-to-be
Keep the bride in the dark as much as possible. That way, she has no decisions to make, and not a care in the world. She’ll thrive on all the suspense surrounding her special night, and each activity will become that much more exciting. 

4. DON’T bring cash
Likely our smartest decision of all, we purchased a prepaid credit card for the bar hopping portion of the evening. Not only did it make things easy when the time came for dividing expenses, it also facilitated the bar tab situation. The last few dollars were spent on poutine at the crack of dawn. Perfect.

5. DO play games
What Bachelorette party is complete without a few games? Think about these ahead of time and bring all the materials you’ll need to execute easily. In our case, the maid of honour came up with a series of tricky questions. The bride would write down her answer, and two teams would do the same. If our answers matched the bride, she and the MOH would drink up, and if we were wrong, we did! Questions included: Who will be the first in this room to cry at the wedding? (answer was me) OR how long did it take the bride and groom to say “I love you”?

 6. DON’T skip the carbs
This is a general rule of thumb for any Saturday night…but some people just need that extra push to grab a bread roll and some pasta before indulging in another cocktail.

7. DO make a few phone calls
I’ll leave this one to your own discretion…but I will say that our hotel room was visited by a certain fireman, and he may have made us all feel slightly awkward, but it was hilarious and memorable, and definitely necessary for our first Bachelorette party!

8. DO make it a group effort
The MOH shouldn’t do all the work, and working as a team will allow for ultimate brainstorming and creativity. We designed and printed T-shirts, wrote poems, made a slideshow, coordinated a pot luck, booked the hotel, bought decorations, compiled a Bar To-Do list, purchased the alcohol and made playlists – all from different corners of North America. Surely not a job for one!

Honorable mention: DON’T post all the photos on Facebook.
What happens at the Bachelorette, stays at the Bachelorette (you would hope…)