Tips for Planning a Bachelorette (from my MOH & me)
A list of helpful tips that my sister (my MOH) and I learned from other people and from trial + error as we planned my Bachelorette!
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Tips From My Maid of Honor & Me
So we’ve finally made it to what I think is going to be the last of my blog posts featuring my Bachelorette in St. Barts (for now haha). I really wanted this one to be a culmination of what my sister, Jacqueline (who is my Maid Of Honor), and I learned and figured out as we planned this trip over the course of many months and meetings in front of our laptops (with glasses of rosé nearby 😉).
After the Bachelorette trip was over, we were sitting in the hot tub in Long Beach Island talking about it, and I decided to jot down a list of the tips that either someone else told us (and really helped!) or that we learned ourselves and would share now with anyone else who was planning a Bachelorette.
Of course even though we asked a number of people for their advice/help as we planned the trip, and tried our absolute best to be diligent, detail-oriented, and organized in the planning process, we still made a bunch of errors haha. But I’m so thankful that we took the time to really plan it out to the best of our abilities, because once our feet hit the ground in St. Barts all bets were off and it was all we could do to follow our itinerary because we were having SO much fun to really worry about anything at all… let alone details or organizing anything 😂
My motto for a lot of things in life is to work hard to plan and be organized before an event so that you can enjoy it as much as possible in the moment, without having to scramble last minute or have any freak-outs. We’ve alll been there though.
In all, here are some Bachelorette planning tips we picked up that we found VERY helpful for making the Bach the best it could be!
- Book your reservations for transportation, dinner, and activities as far in advance as you’re able– especially if you’re going to a destination that may be popular for group trips. If you need help, definitely hire a travel planner! We worked with @pattyintheknow and absolutely would NOT have been able to figure everything out or plan it so seamlessly without her insider knowledge. Feel free to email her to get help with any trip you’re planning: Patty.Ehinger@Localforeigner.com. And if you’re planning on traveling to St. Barts (on any type of trip!) working with her is a must– I talk more about that in my St. Barts travel diary!
- Send out or share the itinerary to everyone at least a month before the Bachelorette if you can– that helps everyone plan for the trip, get really excited, and have enough time to get things together, like outfits! Jacqueline created an informative slideshow (lol) on Canva and we presented it over a Google Meet (also lol) with everyone about a month or two before the trip (again, we’re insane but actually found this to be SO helpful for us and everyone else).
- On that same note, I don’t think it’s too aggressive to share a packing list or outfit ideas for each day/activity as well. I shared a packing list via the Notes app in my phone with everyone, and they really appreciated having a detailed idea of what to bring. I think that helps everyone pack lighter too!
- If you’re going to destination that’s hard to get to (cough St. Barts cough), and you’re looking to delegate, it could be helpful to hire out things to make your life easier. Jacqueline hired a woman to create a balloon arch + installations at our villa before we even got there, so Jacq didn’t have to worry about setting that up! She thought that was definitely worth the money to her to outsource that, since we were all arriving around the same time and she didn’t want to have to build a balloon arch as soon as we got there ha.
- As for bringing/packing decor, we checked suitcases with all of it and ended up having six to my name (yeah, not good). So I had a few of my bridesmaids who weren’t checking bags put one of my checked suitcase on their plane tickets so it was less expensive for me to check them, and then I just reimbursed them for the cost of the checked bags later on. We also used this huge duffle bag for the non-breakables (like the deflated pool floats we brought!) and we then rolled up the duffle and put it into another suitcase on the way back, since we left or threw out so many of the decorations we brought. Using the mega duffle was a tip from my bridesmaid, Nicole, and it was so genius!!
- Pack boxed pasta, mac and cheese, crackers, etc. if you won’t have a readily available grocery market near where you’re staying– we did this and saved a lot of money by not buying late night snacks on the island.
- Pack printed out versions of the itineraries to have on hand for everyone to refer to during the trip– we created ours on Canva and had them printed at Staples on cardstock. I then cut the edges of each to give them a rounded look, which I think makes them even more elevated. Easy!
- Have some backup plans in case flights get delayed or luggage is lost–both of which are unfortunately so common right now. I put enough stuff in my carry-on to get me through one or two days on St. Barts, and also made sure to include all of my important items (like my contacts and medicine) in my carry-on as well. We ended up having to deplane our flight from NYC on the way there, and our travel to the island was an overall mess, so I was thankful that I at least had my carry-on with my important items in case any of our checked luggage was lost (thankfully it was not!).
- Designate a specific station as a “Hangover Bar” in the house or hotel where you’re staying, that has all of the essentials for over-indulging or any ailments… things like Advil, AG1, Aloe, bug spray, Imodium, hydration powder to add to water, etc. I shared photos of ours in this post and linked everything we bought for the Hangover Bar in this list in my Amazon storefront. Having this setup front and center right by the kitchen made it super easy for everyone to find and grab whatever they needed throughout the trip to stay as healthy and hydrated as possible. 😂
- Feel free to add in any *extra* creative/fun aspects to the weekend/trip! Things like a hair bedazzler, a “Glitter Bar” for fun body glitter, a bubble gun, pink wigs, a purse that doubles as a flask, unique themed nights… we included all of the above which just added to the chaos and hysterical time we had. Highly recommend it ALL and already thinking of how I can incorporate some of those items into our wedding…
- Our final tip (and probably my most helpful one!) is to identify someone in your group as the “CFO” 😂 of the Bachelorette (someone who is responsible, great at math, and fair!!) and have them charge everything to one credit card throughout the trip. I appointed my girlfriend Anna Catherine as our CFO and she held on to my credit card the entire time and it was incredibly helpful to not be responsible for it myself and to have her to trust to take care of our checks and payments with it. It was super convenient to have almost every payment on the same card, so we could divide everything up from there after the trip was over. Anna Catherine made an *impeccable* Excel spreadsheet to figure it all out and it really made everyone’s lives SO much easier to send one Venmo payment at the end of the trip and know exactly what it was for since she broke it all down in the Excel. Love you for that AC!!