Hi Friends!
Today’s post is for all of you friends and loved ones of the bride: bridesmaids & maids of honor! It seems like I turned 25, blinked, and all the weddings started happening! It’s such an exciting and amazing time for so many but at the same time can be a lot of work! After seeing some feedback on the photos and videos I shared of my best friend’s bachelorette party a few weekends ago, I knew I needed to do a post on the decor, decorating process, & give the lowdown on all things bachelorette weekend planning. This is my first time being a maid of honor and it’s for one of my oldest girlfriends! She is so special to me so I wanted to weekend to be beyond special for her. So, let’s get into all the details for the decor I ordered along with my top tips for planning a bachelorette weekend.
IMG_6075
1. Plan Ahead
This might even go without saying but being the #OCD planner that I am, I started planning about 6 months before the weekend. Some might call that crazy but it was honestly what helped to keep me super organized and on-top of it. I hate rushing that kind of stuff! 6 months before the weekend, I coordinated with the bride what she wanted to do. Her family has a lake house in Northern Michigan, so she decided she wanted to have a girl’s weekend on the lake complete with a karaoke bar night at the local (tiny) dive bar and lots of time boating. After nailing down the location and guest list, I had a big brainstorm session with the bride to hear what she was dreaming up as far as decor and ideas! I highly recommend basically “interviewing” the bride to gather her thoughts and vision so it’s really clear. 🙂
2. Keep a Spreadsheet With All The Links!
I can’t stress this one enough. Keeping a Excel spreadsheet was seriously the biggest time saver and help! After gathering the decor ideas over a period of about a month, I broke them up into sections like decorations, games, outfits, drinks, etc. After that, I sent everything to the bride so she could give me a green light on moving forward with my choices! I went back and forth with having it be a complete surprise or not but opted to always keep her in the loop. She gave me a green light and from there I got together with her Mom to continue brainstorming.
3. Utilize Pinterest & Make a “Mood Board” With The Bride!
This was the biggest help with creating a “vision” for the weekend. I’m a big fan of little details, especially when it comes to decor. On Pinterest you can create a shared board so you and the bride/ bridal party can pin ideas! Lots of the pins we saved, we actually ended up ordering from as well. I blocked off an hour of my schedule each week to search for links and coordinate decorations starting back in the spring because I wanted it all to go together and coordinate well.
4. Send Out E-Vites Early
I sent out email invitations giving all the details for the weekend along with what to bring/ wear about 3 months prior. Here is the site we used for the free invitations!
5. Group Chat It Up
Another one of the biggest helps with coordinating times along with sending reminders for what to bring and everything in-between was having a group chat with all the girls. The week and day before the party, I sent out reminders giving everyone a heads up about last minute details. This is also where we coordinated gifts for the bride, t-shirt sizing, food restrictions; the whole 9 yards!
6. Order Decor With Plenty Of Time To Spare
There is nothing worse than getting down to the wire and realizing that some things you had planned to order are out of stock. To avoid this like the plague, we tried to order everything at least 3 months beforehand. Even still, there was one damn t-shirt that didn’t arrive until the week before! Mainly everything listed/ shown in this blog post can be found on Etsy or Amazon. Amazon tended to get things shipped really fast while Etsy was a little more difficult. To avoid the shipping issue, give yourself plenty of time!
Now to the fun part, links to all the decorations! Honestly, I had so much fun picking all of the decor. I especially loved doing the hangover kits for all the girls! The morning after having a few too many cocktails was made less painful by these kits, ha.
I also saved all the behind the scenes and decor photos from the weekend over on my Instagram highlight, found here.
