We're all familiar with bachelor parties - the night the groom and his buddies party like single guys for the last time. However, more and more women are having their own girls' night out parties, too. Let's look at some ideas for throwing a fun bachelorette party.

Bachelorette Party Basics

Just as the best man is responsible for putting together the bachelor party, it's the maid or matron of honor's job to throw the bride a final bash, usually with the help of the rest of the bridal party. As far as when the bachelorette party should be held, these parties are often held the night before the wedding but that's usually not the best idea. If the bride has been drinking or up late, she's not going to look her best the following day when she's walking down the aisle. A better choice is to throw the bachelorette party some time during that week before the wedding.

Location is, of course, another issue. There are plenty of options available. Some parties go on the ride to places like Las Vegas where they can secure an affordable hotel suite and stay up all night partying. Other parties are more subdued. They might include having dinner and drinks at a restaurant or going to a club. Another choice is renting a party room or holding the party at a friend's house. The choice of location really depends on what you want to do during the party and how much you can afford to spend.

Finally, there's the issue of who to invite. While the bridal shower usually includes friends and family members, bachelorette parties should focus primarily on the bride and her friends. The main reason for this focus is that the bride may not feel comfortable unwinding around her mother, her in-laws, etc.

Bachelorette Party Ideas

If you want a wild bachelorette party, then there's no reason not to hire a male stripper to perform at the event. Of course, you want to make sure that the bride is going to be comfortable with the stripper idea. You want her to be embarassed - that's part of the fun, but if she's mortified by the idea then you might want to skip it.

To go along with the stripper idea, you might want to make sex a theme. You could buy a cake shaped like certain parts of the male anatomy, for example. Some adult stores sell pinatas shaped like the same parts, as well as dozens of fun party favors, such as playing cards covered with photos of naked men or mints in various sexual shapes.

Of course you don't have to go in that direction. Your bachelorette party could be more about just sharing a last fun night as friends. You could have an old-fashioned sleepover with bottles of wine, pizza, romantic movies, and gossip. Or you could all gather at your favorite restaurant for a nice dinner and reminiscing. You might even put together a collage or slide show of pictures showing some of your favorite friendship memories.

If you're looking for fun games, you might want to have all of the guests write down questions about the groom on pieces of paper. The bride has to answer each question. If she gets one wrong, she has to put a gumball in her mouth. By the end, she'll be having trouble spitting out those answers if she doesn't know him very well. Another fun game involves Mardi Gras beads or similar necklaces. Each guest gets one the moment she arrives at the party, then her objective is not only to keep hers but to steal ones from the other guests by catching them using either the bride or groom's first names. Other ideas might be to play bingo with cards made up of terms related to marriage or sex or doing word scrambles using similar words. Make sure you buy fun prizes for the winners.

Bachelorette Party Invitations

Since a bachelorette party is informal, you could invite the guests verbally or through email, but it's still a nice touch to send an invitation so they'll have a hard copy of the information, including the date and location.

You can find pre-made invitations - some naughty, some nice - at a wide variety of online vendors and at many adult stores. However, it's also easy to make your own. You can purchase card stock paper from an Internet supplier, then decorate the invites as you desire. Photographs of sexy, half-naked men, cocktails, or anything that might be funny to your guest list would be great choices. If you are having a theme at your party, make sure the invitations reflect that, too.

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