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What's up bridal babes? With my April 2023 wedding right around the corner, I figured it was about time I shared a list of the top ten things I learned as a bride during my bachelorette weekend. These lessons learned are ones I want to share with you so that you can make the most of your bachelorette weekend.
1. Quality time > quantity of events
First thing's first: make the most of the limited time you have with your squad. It's easy to feel the need to fill up your bach weekend with fun and exciting events, but here's the reality... most bach parties are 2-3 nights, some of your people might have flown in to get there, and some of them may not know everyone there. There were a lot of moments over my weekend where I was grateful that we were just hanging out at the Airbnb, and didn't have anywhere to be. It gave everyone the opportunity to truly bond on a deeper level.
2. Your fiance's face needs to be printed on something (or everything lol)
Wether it be a koozie, a temporary tattoo, a sticker, or a T-shirt- you will 100% need your fiance's face printed on at least something at your bach... just trust me on this. My maid-of-honor came in clutch with stickers that we ended up putting on anything we could think of. It was so fun to keep him connected into the weekend in some way, and also see my friends reactions to Jackson's face stuck on random places and things. My phone case is covered in Jackson stickers, and I still have a few unused that will be used on incredibly special occasions moving forward, so stay tuned for that.
3. Don't do your lingerie party the night you drink the most
So, I definitely made the mistake of scheduling the lingerie party for the night after we did a 5 hour wine tasting (that started at noon if that puts things into perspective). I had fun, don't get me wrong, but my memory is a bit foggy on who actually gave me what piece of lingerie. Big #oops on my part. At least now I can help another fellow bride avoid that same mistake. Schedule your lingerie party for the chill night in, or maybe even do it before you go out on the town one night. You will thank me later.
4. Your friends love you more than you know
You may already know this, but the people you're including in this event freaking love you. If they don't, they are formally uninvited by me, aka your unofficial wedding bestie. Let them show you how much they love you. Take it in when they shower you with love and compliments. These are some of the most important people in your life, and odds are, you're one of the most important people in their lives too. Personal tip: have everyone go around the table and say their favorite thing about you. I still replay some of my friends answers in my head when I'm feeling down about myself.
5. Themes are fun, but not necessary
Hear me out: your theme idea is probably cute, but it's actually like the last thing on anyone's mind during the actual weekend. My theme was "On Cloud Wine", and yes I love our custom wine corks that have it printed on them, but other than that it was kind of just in the background of everything else. Maybe I did a poor job of incorporating it? But I truly think it's one of those things that can seem like such a big deal before the weekend, when in reality it's just not the most important thing. You will have fun regardless. Your decorations will be cute regardless. And your besties will look flawless regardless.
6. Matching outfit ideas need to be very clearly conveyed
Over my bach weekend I had two outings that I wanted my squad dressed in a specific dress code for. It was listed on the bach weekends agenda (s/o to bach app) and I had sent an amazon idea list for one of the outfits as well. Thank god I brought extra options for both days because there where 2-3 people that needed something different for each event. I don't blame my besties at all, I could have done a way better job of communicating these dress codes ahead of time. Simply? I could have gotten a confirmation that everyone understood the plan, and that was something I didn't do. So if you are wanting something really specific for your bach weekend dress codes, make sure it is clearly communicated and details are confirmed in advance.
7. Don't overthink your agenda
It may be tempting to try and fill your weekend up with things to do at every moment, but like I mentioned before: your friends love you. They are there for you, the partying that happens over the weekend? Well that's just an added bonus. I had things scheduled every night that ended up adjusting a bit here or there. One of my favorite things we did was a spur of the moment decision to watch my favorite movie after our long day of wine tasting etc. I could have never anticipated how special that was, and wouldn't have pre-scheduled that into our weekend agenda. I'm so glad it happened, and want to encourage you to stop overthinking and over-planning too.
8. It's actually all about you, soak it up
Voice your priorities and wishes for the weekend. You might be surprised with how willing your people are to do what you want to do for a few days. Personally, the only time I like being the center of attention is when I'm performing on stage or cracking some jokes in a group setting. When people start getting all mushy-gushy and making things actually about me, I get embarrassed and it's hard to accept all the love. Please let me encourage you, if you're like me, to be okay with the fact that this whole weekend will be about you. It might feel a little uncomfortable but you deserve to feel all the love and celebrations that your squad has in store for you.
9. Take all the pictures and videos (and then take some more)
I'm literally a content creator, and I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted to. I wish I would have gotten individual pictures with each person who came, but it wasn't something I communicated out loud. As the bride, I had too much on my mind to remember all of the little things like that. So here's my tip: write down a list of pictures, videos, etc. that you want from the weekend and physically give it to someone to be in charge of making sure that it happens. Make sure at least one other person (preferably not the maid of honor or the host) knows about this list, they are way more likely to remember since they're not thinking about all the logistical details that you are. You only get one shot to record the memories, make it count.
10. Invite the key people, and celebrate with the other ones later
This last one may seem obvious to some of you, but I know there are people out there that need to hear this: don't invite 15 of your closest friends to join in on your bach weekend. If you have 15 people in your bridal party, that's a different story, but I would highly recommend ONLY having members of your bridal party join you on this special weekend. It's not your average weekend, and it's honestly one of the best times for you and your squad to get on the same page before the wedding. I invited two of my cousins to join in addition to the six bridal party members I have. I am so glad I did this, and wouldn't change it for the world. I loved having a piece of my family and a piece of my friends present to bring the worlds together. There were friends of mine, that weren't in the bridal party. that I really wanted to be there. At the end of the day, I'm glad it was just the few people that were there. It gave eight of the people I love most an opportunity to meet each other and become a friend group that wouldn't have ever existed otherwise.