Bachelorette Party Planning Ideas

Finding time to blog (or breathe) has been a challenge over the past month as I am in 4 weddings this summer. May brought the responsibility of planning 3 bachelorette parties on consecutive weekends with a grand finale of 2 weddings (in different cities) on the 28th and 30th. This past weekend I went back to Pittsburgh to serve as Maid of Honor in the 3rd wedding.

I’ve been eating, sleeping and fully functioning on wedding drama. And when I say drama, I mean everything from feuding mother-in-laws to sobbing brides, to death in the immediate bridal family to a temporarily canceled wedding. But not only have I survived each crisis, I’ve had a fabulous time doing it. Three brides are married, and I’m off to Chicago this upcoming weekend for my 4th bachelorette party of the summer. Go ahead and say it… Yes, I’ve seen the movie 27 Dresses. Yes, I’ll probably have that many by the time next wedding season is over. Isn’t that funny. Har Har Har.

With little else on my brain, I figure this would be an appropriate time to detail each of my fun ideas for anyone else out there that's planning 3 bachelorette parties for 3 very different brides. Having strippers is tasteless, overdone and expensive. So here were my alternative budget-friendly ideas:

1. Philadelphia, my roommate: we fondly call this one, “The Marathon Bachelorette Party,” because it was literally nonstop for over 24 hours. There were 2 parts to this party: her sister planned Part I, while I planned Part II.

Part I We began with a bridesmaid-catered brunch in the private upstairs room of our college town's coffee shop, The Gryphon . After brunch we went antiquing all afternoon at a “vintage kitchen” themed outdoor market in Adamstown, PA, the antique capital of the world. We each picked out a delicious dish at an arty restaurant, Judy's on Cherry, in Reading, PA.

Part II The sisters of the bride departed and we made our way into Center City to the Windsor Suites, where we made ourselves comfortable in the twice-the-size-of-our-apartment (shockingly affordable) hotel suite. After champagne, specialty cocktails, and inappropriately shaped brownies, we hit up Silk City, a 50’s style diner gone dance club, where we dropped it like it was hot. 2am came mid-dancefest, and that’s how we found ourselves at a skeezy after-hours club called Pulse. Somewhere between the middle of the night and the middle of the morning, we called it quits and made our way back to our hotel for some shut-eye. We spent the morning on the hotel's rooftop pool deck taking pictures overlooking the city.

2. Pittsburgh, my childhood friend: This bride gave me one stipulation: No Boys Allowed. As in, not a single man visible for the entire night. This meant we couldn't go anywhere in public. With Google's help, I found Oh My You're Gorgeous, a BYOB pole dancing studio in Mars, PA. We signed up for a class, brought our tallest heels and each hopped on a pole. The studio provided accessories and costumes to throw on over our clothes. Our dance instructor was fun, the music was bumping and we each learned some new moves. After our 2 hour class, we headed back to the bride's cousin's house for a dip in the jacuzzi and ended the night with some good old fashioned basement karaoke.

3. Pittsburgh, my first friend ever: This bride specified that she didn't want anything too outrageous. We met at the Cheesecake Factory, one of her favorite restaurants, for dinner. After a tasty meal, we went to Charlie Murdoch's, a dueling piano rock 'n roll bar. The crowd was diverse, the music was festive and the performers were entertaining. I'm not sure what it is about dueling piano bars, but if you stay too late, the content is bound to become unnecessarily foul and inappropriate. In an attempt to escape the inevitable, we left around 1am and landed at The Radisson in Green Tree for the rest of the night.

4. Chicago, friend from high school: this upcoming weekend. Who's to say what will happen! ;)