Category Archives: Bachelorette Parties

Printable Bachelorette Game: Name 3

This printable bachelorette game is based on the board game Five Second Rule, so if you’ve ever played, you already know the basics. Each card asks you to name 3 of something. In this case, I’ve created a special deck with cards that have a wedding/love theme, so you’ll have to name things like three wedding destinations, three celebrity couples or three stripper costumes. If you name three in five seconds, you keep the card. If you can’t name three, you pass the card to the next person in the circle and they try to name three…but they can’t repeat any of your answers! Keep going until someone can name three in five seconds. The person who has the most cards at the end of the game wins.

To make this a drinking game, you drink if you fail to name three. If you succeed, everyone else drinks!

It may seem simple, but having such a short time limit will lead to some pretty hilarious answers as people are forced to spit out the first thing that comes to mind.

You’ll need:
This printable deck of cards – Click here to download the PDF for easy printing.
A five-second timer

A Spa Day Bachelorette + Tea Party Bridal Shower in North Carolina

The first week in August, I traveled to North Carolina for my friend Jae’s wedding. Jae got engaged in April and pulled off an amazing wedding in only four months (and on a budget too)! Now, she has specifically asked me to clarify that a four-month engagement does not mean the bride is pregnant!! Since both she and her now-husband Jason are teachers, she really wanted to get married during summer vacation when she would have a lot of time to devote to planning and could just enjoy the event. And waiting over a year just didn’t seem right for her. Planning a wedding in four months seemed impossible to me, but Jae absolutely made it look easy. I was blown away with how easily she pulled everything together. But I shouldn’t have been—Jae is like the most organized, proactive person in the universe. Her wedding was beautiful and everything came together perfectly.

But Jae’s short engagement did mean that we didn’t have time to dedicate a full weekend to bachelorette festivities…so we decided to pack everything into her wedding weekend! That meant a bachelorette on Saturday, a bridal shower on Sunday, and the wedding on Monday! (One of Jae’s pro tips for getting married on a budget: Have a Monday or Friday wedding!) At first I was nervous about trying to do so much in one weekend. Honestly, I was worried that I would be totally burned out by the wedding reception. But it turned out to be fantastic! I think the key was that each of our events had a very different energy: we had relaxing spa time, a high-energy bachelorette night, a classy tea party. All of the events were so different and I thought we had the perfect balance of relaxing, socializing and fun!

I started the weekend with a plane delay that made me about an hour late for our bachelorette spa day. I have to give credit to the amazing team at Balance Day Spa in Greensboro. I had basically missed my massage time slot, but they were able to move some of their appointments around to make sure I got a 30-minute massage. And after a rough morning of air travel, I SO needed it! The spa is lovely and relaxing, with a peaceful lounge area in the women’s locker room where we set up a mimosa bar and other refreshments. After our massages and manicures, Jae surprised us with thoughtful bridesmaid gift bags. Each bag included a monogrammed silk robe to wear on the morning of the wedding, monogrammed clutches and (my favorite) a personalized framed memento of our friendship, in which she shared some of her favorite memories with each of us. The gifts were so thoughtful—there were definitely a few tears shed!

Afterward, we headed to dinner in downtown Greensboro at Liberty Oak, then back to the hotel for a bachelorette slumber party. Jae wanted a low-key night with her girlfriends with lots of laughing. We tried to incorporate a lot of Jae’s favorite things into the weekend—for instance, Harry Potter and FRIENDS. For her bachelorette favors, I found these awesome House Bride Harry Potter themed tank tops. Not only did they look great, they were also super comfortable—and the seller even rushed the order to get them to me on time. They were perfect. We started up a marathon of FRIENDS wedding episodes (half of the wedding party can quote FRIENDS on command) and played a few bachelorette games, including the fiance quiz, a bridal mad lib and a wedding version of 5 Second Rule (stay tuned for more on that).

The next morning, we hosted a tea party shower in the lobby of the O.Henry Hotel, which was also the venue for Jae’s wedding and where we were all staying. I cannot compliment this hotel enough. The service was superb. The night before, I must have called the front desk 10 times for different things—could we have a DVD player brought up, could we have a wine opener, oh no one of us is locked out of our room, oh no we can’t figure out how to make the DVD player work! Seriously, if I had any problem, I just called the front desk…and they fixed it for me. They were so generous, thoughtful and helpful. They really made our stay perfect.

For the shower, we served an afternoon tea for Jae’s friends and relatives, and played a “how well do you know the bride” game. Each guest left with a sprinkle party favor with a handmade tag you can download here. We also asked all the guests to bring Jae a recipe on a personalized recipe card and it was so fun to see the different recipes she got. They completely matched the personalities and tastes of the senders, from quinoa salad to ice cream bar cake. (My own contribution was a spice blend I use on everything…and yes, it’s Whole30.)

Finally, I’ll share a little peek of us getting ready on wedding day in our monogrammed robes!!

Congratulations, Jae!!!

Bachelorette or Bridal Shower Game: Create a Hilarious Personalized Mad Lib

The great news about this game is that the bride already did a lot of the work for you, and she doesn’t even know it! To create a hilarious and personalized bridal shower Mad Lib game, simply head to the bride’s wedding website and click on her “About Us” or “Our Story” page. Here, most couples will have included a paragraph or two describing their relationship—how they met, some of the high points of their relationship, how they fell in love, how he proposed. This is perfect material for a Mad Lib. Simply copy and paste the bride’s words into a Word doc and then get to work choosing key words to cut out.

I’ll use my own wedding website as an example. First, go through and identify words that have potential to be replaced. I’ve highlighted some in red below.

Caitlin and Andrew met in New York City in 2010. We met on Match.com (and no, we will not be auditioning for the commercials) and immediately felt at ease with each other, finding that we shared a sense of humor and a love of literature, traveling and the outdoors. While we couldn’t find much common grounds in our music tastes, we soon found ourselves exploring NYC together and growing closer as we learned more about each other (eventually we would even find some bands we could both tolerate).

When we had been dating for only a few months, Andrew asked Caitlin if she wanted to take a trip to Iceland with him. Caitlin was surprised to be asked to go on an international vacation together so soon but (after conferring with some of her girlfriends and deciding that yes, this was crazy, but yes, it was also awesome) she decided to go for it. It turned out to be one of the most amazing trips we’ve ever been on and set the tone for our relationship: encouraging each other to try new things, supporting each other through challenges, and laughing along the way.

After three years of heavy commuting from Caitlin’s apartment on the Upper East Side to Andrew’s apartment in Brooklyn (including Caitlin hysterically calling Andrew a record 21 times in one night when she found a mouse in her apartment at 1am), we moved into our apartment in Brooklyn’s Park Slope, where we are still living today. Five years after our first whirlwind trip abroad, we’re still going on crazy adventures and loving every minute of it.

I recommend leaving a maximum of 20-30 blanks, depending on the length of the bios. Mine was really long (because, hi, I like to write) so this version has 30 blanks. I even cut a few sentences that didn’t have good Mad Lib potential because mine was just too long. You want to have at least one blank per sentence. To figure out whether it will be funny or not, just slot in sex words while you’re working on it. You want to find the words in the sentence that will have the greatest impact. For example, in the first sentence, I want to keep “Caitlin and Andrew met” because it gives me the potential for a funny explanation of how we met. Changing the year wouldn’t be very funny, so choosing the place is the best word to change in the sentence. In general, you should keep the names of the bride and groom because you want it to be about them. And don’t change so many words that their story becomes unrecognizable.

You can also choose phrases rather than single words. For example, replacing just “at ease” might result in an awkward turn of phrase because of “with each other” following it. But if we just replace that whole phrase “at ease with each other” with a feeling, we’re guaranteed to get something that works. We’ll immediately feel “sexy” or “nauseous.”

Next you need to write out a list of the types of words you need. Here’s where you need to stretch your high school English muscles. You don’t have to follow the exact format of the original. For example, with my first blank “New York City,” I could say “city” but the answer wouldn’t be very funny. It’s much better to just say “place.” Then Andrew and I can meet in a bathroom or at a sex club. You can also lead the witness a little to make the Mad Lib funnier and specifically ask for the type of words you want. For example, if you want a place, just say place. If you want a number, just say number. If you want a body party, say body part.

If your high school English skills are a little rusty, here’s a quick guide to a few of the most common parts of speech to slot in.

noun: a person, place or thing (bride, strip club, wedding ring)
proper noun: a specific person or place (Michael Jackson, Disney World)
gerund: here’s some advanced shit for you. A gerund is derived from a verb, but functions as a noun. You can identify them because they always end in -ing. In the example above, “commuting” and “traveling” are gerunds.

verb: an action word (wiggle, run, jump)
For verbs, make sure to communicate the tense you need. You will probably need past tense, present tense and verbs ending in -ing (present participles).

adjective: describes a noun (in the example above, crazy and awesome are adjectives)

adverb: describes or modifies a verb, adjective or another adverb (hint: adverbs often end in -ly, like warmly or kindly)

interjection: a word or phrase that expresses surprise or emotion (WTF! Yikes! Hooray!)

If you’re worried about how the bridal shower Mad Lib will work, try taking it on a test drive with one other person (maybe someone who won’t be attending the party). This will help you figure out if any of the blanks aren’t really working. But don’t stress over it too much. It’s a Mad Lib, it’s supposed to be a little wacky!

A Glamorous Drunk in Love Bachelorette Bash

Channeling Queen Bey, bride Tori and her squad made it their goal to be drunk in love…or just drunk for her bachelorette weekend. The ladies kicked off the drunk in love bachelorette weekend with a Beyonce concert. For their second night, they met up with photographer Katie Burnett in her Edmonton studio for a fun night of glamour and passion. The ladies got their hair and makeup done while enjoying champagne and cupcakes. After their makeovers, Tami of Pure Romance stopped by with racks of lingerie and a few other unmentionables for a “passion party.” The girls ended their session with a sassy photo shoot. Who runs the world? Girls!

Photographer: Katie Burnett Photography | Makeup: Makeup Artistry by Kaitlin Lefurgey | Venue: Nare Studios | Bakery: The Art of Cake | Lingerie: Pure Romance

Perfect Bridal Shower & Bachelorette Invites for Every Party Theme

Invitations can set the tone for a party, but sifting through all the options out there can be a little overwhelming. Especially when, let’s face it, a lot of the designs we see are pretty underwhelming. Ooooh, another bachelorette invitation that looks like a corset!? How truly revolutionary! We’ve rounded up some of our favorite standout bachelorette and bridal shower invitations. Some are bold and modern, some are feminine and girly and some are just all-around fun.

For a 90s Throwback Bridal Shower:

The perfect invitation for a 90s throwback bridal shower. Put N*SYNC on loop, get those episodes of Boy Meets World and Gilmore Girls streaming and dig out your glitter nail polish, girls!

For a Bridal Shower Brunch:

I’m kind of obsessed with the chic Southern charm of this invite. The contrast of the loopy “Bubbly” with the bold block lettering, plus the sophisticated navy and nectarine color palette, just makes this feel fresh and fun.

For a Bachelorette Beach Weekend:

The bold sunset colors of this invite immediately caught my attention. If a Miami Beach* bachelorette party is in your future, this invite perfectly channels laid-back seaside vibes. *Works for Key West, Palm Springs, the Bahamas, Costa Rica, etc., too.

For a Tea Party Bridal Shower:

I love this one so much, I maybe just bought it for a friend’s tea party shower in August. The unique “Love is Brewing” slogan sets it apart from other tea party invites while the bold brushstrokes of the floral pattern and the metallic gold lettering make this invite feel modern yet feminine.

For a Bachelorette Night Out:

I often complain about the prevelance of black and pink in bachelorette invites. This one is just the perfect shade of not-quite purple/not-quite pink that makes it feel girly, but like, cool-girly. And if there’s one bachelorette trend I can get behind, it’s a Bride Tribe. Partying with your ladies is what it’s all about!

For a Garden Bridal Shower:

This adorable succulent bridal shower invitation is my favorite for a garden party. Because let’s face it, succulents are still so it right now. We’re not growing roses in my apartment, I’ll tell you that.

For a Stock the Bar Couple Shower:

Pro tip: When you’re looking for a cute couple shower invite, don’t look in the bridal shower section. Search under general parties (birthdays, housewarming, backyard BBQs) for more gender-neutral invitations that don’t scream “bride.” I found this one under birthday and just updated the text for a couple shower!

Just Who Exactly Is Invited: Bridal Shower & Bachelorette Guest List Questions Answered

Oh, the tricky web that wedding invitations weave. I can tell you from personal experience that choosing who to invite to your wedding can feel like participating in Hunger-Games-like elimination rounds. And sending out invites to your bridal shower and bachelorette party can be just as filled with hair pulling and grief. Here, we try to simplify things for you a bit with answers to the most common questions we get on guest lists for pre-wedding parties.

Who is invited to the bridal shower?
The bride should provide the host with a guest list. Showers are generally attended by a select group of close friends and relatives, so you should not invite every woman who is attending the wedding. The guest list will usually include the bridesmaids, the bride’s close friends, her mother, grandmother and aunts (and even female cousins, if she is close with them) and the mother of the groom. Important to note: Only ladies who are invited to the wedding should be invited to the shower.

But we are having a small wedding and I wanted to celebrate with some of the friends I didn’t invite to the wedding. Can’t I invite them to my bridal shower?
No, you really can’t. This is considered very rude. Only guests who are invited to the wedding can be invited to pre-wedding parties like the bridal shower. Though you may be tempted to invite the friends who didn’t make the wedding list cut to your shower, you’d basically be saying “please get me a present, but sorry, you can’t come to the wedding.”

Can someone from the groom’s side of the family throw the bride a shower?
Traditionally, the shower is thrown by someone on the bride’s side of the family: her maid of honor, her bridesmaids, an aunt, her godmother, her sister, or even occasionally her mother. That being said, we can do what we want. If the bride is close with her fiancé’s mother or sister and they want to throw her a shower, there’s absolutely no reason they shouldn’t! Just make sure you don’t have competing showers from the bride’s and groom’s side. It’s best to combine into one event if most of the same guests would be invited.

Can men be invited to a bridal shower?
While showers have traditionally been female-only affairs, there are several cases in which inviting men is totally cool. If you want to have a co-ed affair, it’s called a couple’s shower. In this case, both the bride and groom attend the party and invite their friends and family. But what if the bride doesn’t want a couple’s shower, she just wants to invite some of her male friends? Just as wedding parties may now have “Men of Honor” or the “Best Maid,” if you have close friends of the opposite sex who your shower would be incomplete without, you should by all means invite them. As long as your fiancé’s feelings won’t be hurt that he isn’t invited, press on!

Who should be invited to my bachelorette party?
The bachelorette party usually consists of the bride’s closest girlfriends. This includes all her bridesmaids, plus other close friends. Sisters are usually invited, but other relatives usually don’t make the cut. The bachelorette is usually for women in the same generation as the bride—aka aunts and grandmas skip this one.

Should my mother be invited to my bachelorette party?
I have a follow-up question for you: Do you want to invite her or is she pressuring you to invite her? If you and your mom like to party together and you want her to be there, then yes, go ahead and invite her. But usually mothers and other older female relatives are not invited to bachelorette parties. Generally the parties are confined to the bride’s close friends. If your bachelorette party is going to be more laid-back—say, a wine and painting class or a nice dinner out—it may make sense to invite your mom. I’ve also seen brides go on trips with their mother and sister as their bachelorette getaway. Your bachelorette should be what you want it to be. If you want a weekend away with just your close girlfriends, do that! If you want your mom to be there, invite her! But if your mom is just pressuring you to include her, feel free to say “sorry, mom, this one’s just for my girlfriends—Ultimate Bridesmaid says so.”

Before I set the date of a bridal shower or bachelorette party, who do I have to clear it with?
This is so tricky. I feel your pain. It can be nearly impossible to pick a date that works for all guests and feelings can sometimes get hurt. But honestly, one of the roles of host is not to find a date that works for every single person. For the bridal shower, make sure the date works for the bride (duh) and the mother of the bride. Ask the bride to pick a few other priority guests—this may include her bridesmaids, her mother-in-law-to-be, or an aunt or cousin she is close with. For the bachelorette, try to pick a date that works for all her bridesmaids. Setting the date well in advance will help make this easier. The earlier you can pick a date, the less likely your guests are to have a conflict. At the end of the day, don’t beat yourself up if every single person can’t attend. You did your best.

Photo by Alixann Loosle Photography.

A Champagne and Donuts Bachelorette Slumber Party

Remember when slumber parties were like all you were about? Your Little Mermaid and Lisa Frank sleeping bags would be lined up in the living room with bowls of popcorn and M&Ms scattering around the room. You’d paint each other’s nails and experiment with eye shadow while dishing about your latest crush at school and alternate screaming and laughing hysterically. Why can’t we do that as adults?! Answer: We totally can! This bachelorette slumber party features plenty of champagne, jewel-box donuts for snacking and comfy-cozy robes and slippers for lounging—we just replace the sleeping bags for feather beds at a darling bed and breakfast! No replacement needed for the dishing and laughing!