bachelorette party

I’ve never been accused of being old fashioned. But, when I arrived tardy to a friend’s bachelorette party at a swank San Francisco hotel and found the guest of honor on the floor with a greased-up male stripper kneeling over her and gyrating for $1 bills, I suddenly felt prudish. A classic bachelorette party evening followed: limo rides, bar hopping and enough martinis to give me the confidence to accomplish my assignment for the night—to secure for the bride-to-be a pair of men’s underwear from a random barfly. (Because I’m an overachiever, I got three pairs.)

At the end of the night we were sworn to secrecy, lest any boyfriends or a certain fiancé were to discover that indeed sometimes girls really do just want to have fun. But the bachelorette party got me thinking: What can girls like me—who want to get a little wild sans the strangers in banana hammocks—do with their friends as a last hurrah for a single woman? The answer is, skip the cliché fete and instead create a fabulous and customized bachelorette party that really suits the bride’s style and taste. Here are some ideas for alternative bachelorette parties to get you in the groove.

The Theme.
Make your bachelorette party a grown-up version of the childhood slumber party. Come up with a fun title:  Think “Hail to the Hussy.” Ask guests to bring pj’s and blow-up mattresses, if necessary, and make a night of it.

The Décor.
Bachelorette parties are a great time to go totally girly, so pick a color scheme (Who doesn’t love pink?) and play it up. Set the mood by dimming the lights and using table lamps. Conjure the naughty baby-doll look of Pamela Anderson à la that pink-fur-hat-with-the-enormous-brim by filling large cylindrical vases with a few long pink feathers. Scatter votives and tight bouquets of pink roses in low vases or float pink rose petals intermingled with white floating candles in a large shallow bowl. Drape pink mesh over a white tablecloth at the bar. Scatter big fluffy sitting pillows around the living room. Or just dig up everything pink you have around the house and get creative with it.