Planning the Perfect Stag Party: 8 Tips for Every Best Man to Live By
Your best friend has made you his best man. Now comes the fun part of planning the stag party. Keep reading for a few great stag ideas.
Being the best man for your friend’s wedding comes with a lot of responsibility.
You’ve got to look after the ring, give a great wedding speech, and be there for him whenever he needs you. Oh, and you have to plan an unforgettable bachelor party as well. It sure is a lot of work, but we can try and help you with that last thing.
In this post, we’re going to give you some stag ideas so you aren’t left sitting around drinking in a room, staring at your best mate and all of his other friends. There’s an art to this, so take these 8 tips and make this stag party one for the ages.
1. Make It a Destination Weekend
Gone are the days of stag parties held in your hometown. Nobody wants to go out to the strip club with their old friends and call it the most important celebration of their life. Instead, bring in bachelor party strippers in Knoxville when booking a destination weekend somewhere that all of the most important guys can get to and let loose in a new locale.
One important thing to note: always make sure that it’s within everyone’s means before deciding on a destination. You don’t want your groom’s brother or college pals missing out on the fun because they can’t afford to get to the place you’ve chosen.
A lot of people choose destinations within a 3-5 hour’s drive from where the core group of people resides. If you live in or near North Carolina you can host something like a High Country bachelor party. It’s far enough to feel like you’re really getting away but close enough to drive home in a pinch. Any outliers may have to fly in if they live further out.
2. Have Alcohol Reserves
Make the weekend a BYOB affair, but stock up on reserves in the event that someone’s drinking estimate falls a little bit short. Having beer, booze, and wine stowed away for emergencies will make you the king of the party, especially if you’ve chosen a remote location to celebrate your best friend’s union.
How much is too much? We don’t really know, but you don’t want to find out how much is too little. As long as everyone knows that they’re responsible for their own alcohol, you shouldn’t need your stash, but you’ll be someone’s savior when they run out.
3. Plan a Mixture of Meals
When you’re gone for a weekend, meals can be a tricky thing. If you’re in a resort town, there’ll be lots of dining options, but often they’re incredibly expensive and only occasionally good. For stag parties, you should always book an Airbnb (or something like that) so that you can make use of the kitchen.
It might not sound like a very bachelor party thing to do, but cooking a great meal will save everyone a bit of money and lay a base for however much drinking you’ll all be doing. Not to mention, it allows you to consume even more alcohol before you go out drinking.
You don’t have to cook every meal for the entire weekend. Make a reservation for one of the nights at the best restaurant you can find.
4. Confirm a Solid Guest List
This is arguably the most important part of a stag party. The whole point is getting all of the people that mean the most to your friend in one spot to celebrate with him. What you do beyond that is all gravy.
Going back to the destination stag point, this is where you’ll have to do some work to confirm who can go where and when. As the best man, this is one of your biggest responsibilities and it’ll be more annoying than it sounds.
For that reason, you have to start early on this. Send out the first group emails as soon as you find out that you’re the best man. People are going to cancel, un-cancel, and completely change plans on you during this process, so try not to get frustrated.
5. Social Dynamics
Piggybacking on the last point, there are going to be some social dynamics that you’ll have to sort out when you all arrive. Chances are, there are going to be people that don’t know each other at this thing, so getting everyone acquainted will be an important part of the process.
Everyone’s an adult here, so you shouldn’t have to babysit, but try to learn everyone’s name and create a welcoming environment for everyone to have a good time in.
6. Leave Room for Spontaneity
Planning fun things to do is a crucial part of any stag party. Whether or not you take the planning phase on by yourself is up to you, but make sure that there’s always something to do. The last thing you want is everyone sitting around, getting drunk, then getting tired, then going to sleep.
That being said, don’t over-plan. Leave some room for spontaneity because someone could find inspiration in a fun drinking game, or another activity in the town. You never want a good vibe dismantled because you planned for everyone to go play a round of golf or go to the strip club.
7. Run the Big Things By the Groom
If you’ve got anything planned that you’re not positive the groom is going to like, make sure to run it by him first. If you know that the groom would enjoy strippers, feel free to hire professionals like those at Hot Gatlinburg Strippers to bring a little spice to the party. If the groom’s dad will be at the party, however, you might want to reconsider. At the end of the day, the most important thing is that he has an unforgettable time with all of his best friends. Whatever you’ve got planned for him is the cherry on top, but only if he likes cherries.
8. Don’t Make It All About Drinking
Most bachelor parties are an excuse to drink copious amounts of alcohol with old friends in celebration of the groom’s love. We can thank The Hangover for setting the bachelor party standard for the last 10 years.
Have fun, but don’t make the entire bachelor party about boozing because you’ll burn out eventually. This is especially true of the weekend getaway type of stag parties.
You’re no spring chicken anymore and your bodies will give up on you by day 3 of drinking all afternoon and night. Okay, you’ve been warned.
Get Creative With Your Stag Ideas
Coming up with truly great stag ideas can be tough, but hopefully, we’ve given you some inspiration in this post. When in doubt, you can be sure that there’s going to be a great atmosphere with all of your good friends in a cool location and a fair amount of booze.
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