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I planned a bachelorette party on a budget for my best friend last year. We were fresh out of college and I wanted her to have an amazing party, but I selfishly didn’t want to spend a ton of money doing it. I think that a lot of times when you get asked to be in a wedding, expenses can start adding up REALLY fast. Fortunately, I found ways to cut back on expenses and have an awesome time.
We were originally going to have five people, plus the bride, for a total of six people at the party. We didn’t think the bride should have to pay for anything so we were going to split the total cost of the party five ways.
Well, last-minute one girl couldn’t afford a flight so we were down to four. Another girl’s child ended up in the hospital, down to three. And another girl decided she didn’t want to come if she had to pay extra since the other two backed out (how sucky).
So that left me and another bridesmaid to plan and pay for the entire party. A party that was now for only three people. I felt so terrible that all these people backed out on her. I wanted her party to be amazing, while still sticking to a fairly strict budget. Here’s what we did.
Location
We decided that the cheapest possible place to host this party was going to be at my house. Most people we know were traveling out to the cities and getting hotel rooms there. Frankly, we couldn’t afford that so we hosted a good old fashioned sleepover at my house. We blew up air mattresses in the living room and it was like a little throwback to before we were adults. Having the party at my house, saved us at least a couple hundred dollars each.
Decorations
All of our decorations we picked up at the dollar store. We decked out my living room and dining room in all pink balloons and streamers and it literally cost us less than $20. You can find so many amazing things to do with streamers and they are so cheap!
Even though it was a party for only three people at my house, having the place decorated made it feel a lot more special. I also cut out some paper letters using my Cricut to make a banner.
Activities
The other bridesmaid and I planned two different activities for the party. The bride is not a big drinking fan so we knew we wouldn’t be going out to the bars or anything like that, which saved us money in the long run.
First, we made handmade wooden signs at my house. We were going to take a class and participate in a workshop, but when everyone started backing out I didn’t have enough people to secure a reservation. If you have enough people to participate in a class like that, I think its an AWESOME idea.
The bride got to make a personalized welcome sign with her soon to be new last name. It was great just sitting around drinking wine together and crafting. I already had all the supplies we needed to do it so I literally spent $0 on this. I had all the paint, brushes, and Cricut supplies to cut stencils (I don’t like to admit this, but I hoard craft supplies when I find good sales.) My husband has a lot of scrap wood. He cut us each a board to the size we liked before he left and it worked out perfectly.
This party happened to be in October so later that night we also went out to a local haunted forest (same as a haunted house, but its a path through the forest). We chose to have the party the first weekend the forest is open. That meant it was half off if you share a photo on social media. So instead of $20 a person, it was only $10!
Once we got back to my house we drank some wine, watched some movies and had a good old fashioned sleepover, complete with girl talk.
Overall
The bride had an awesome time despite there only being two of bridesmaids there. I don’t think she even noticed that we were on a budget and had fun regardless.
Overall, we spent about $20 on decorations, $30 on the haunted forest and another $60 on dinner/snacks/wine. Since it was at my house we didn’t need to buy much else. After splitting the cost with the other bridesmaid I ended up spending around $60. I don’t think that’s bad at all for only two people paying for the entire party. It is possible to plan a bachelorette party on a budget if you get creative!
Have you found ways to make bachelorette parties more affordable?
Ms. Popelka also wanted to spare her friends the costs associated with being a bridesmaid, noting that she had spent, “easily thousands of dollars” participating in non-local weddings before.