Speaking of bachelorette parties, here’s an idea for the reality TV junkie bride: Hosting a viewing party for The Bachelorette. So meta! I think this would be a really cute idea for someone who wants to have more of a fun girl’s night in than a bar crawl. There’s a cute Bachelorette Viewing Party Kit on Pinterest that has some fun food ideas around this theme, including a drink called “The Rose” and a yummy citrus almond cake.
What do you think of a TV-themed bachelorette party?
I have always loved tiaras. I’m all about the sparkles and rhinestones, so it makes sense! I plan on wearing one with my wedding dress, and I’d like to find some tiaras to match my bridesmaids’ dresses, too! So when Bachelorette Superstore reached out to me and asked if I’d like to receive their sparkly “Bachelorette” Tiara with veil for a review, it was an obvious choice! If the crown fits…
This tiara set includes two pieces: A veil attached to a plastic comb, and the tiara itself. The veil comb is cute and can be placed on your hair at the back of your head – I’ll probably keep my hair in an updo when I wear this, since combs tend to slide out of my hair otherwise. The tiara is made of metal and covered in sparkly glitter, with combs on both ends to slide into your hair. It’s very fun! It reminds me of wedding play sets that I had as a child. Keep in mind that the quality of this set is pretty typical as party supplies go. It’s meant to be more of a toy than a royal piece of lasting jewelry, since it retails for only $14.50.
This tiara is so much fun and I can’t wait to put it on for my own bachelorette party! I love props like this that are fun and girly. My only complaint is that the tiara is a little on the small side – either that, or I have a freakishly large head – and it was a bit tight and uncomfortable when I put it on. I took it off a few minutes ago and my head still feels a little uncomfortable. I’ll experiment with positioning it on my head when party time rolls around, but I imagine this will be more of a “Photo op” piece than something that I’ll keep on all night.
For more bachelorette party supplies from sashes to party invites, check out BacheloretteSuperstore.com! They have quite a mix of supplies, from fun and girly to naughty and outrageous, so you’ve been warned if you’re at work. 😉
Photo booths are a popular party trend right now – all you have to do is take a quick look at Pinterest to see how many fun and creative ideas are out there! I knew I wanted to do something like this for Jaime’s bachelorette party, so I started looking up programs that might work for this purpose, since I wanted to make the booth myself. Jai tested out a few open source photo booth programs, but we couldn’t get any of them to work reliably with my laptop, so he ended up using the software that came with a Logitech Webcam that I own.
All the setup required was my laptop and the webcam. The Logitech software that came with the webcam not only had a timer delay, so that guests would be able to click the button and have a few seconds to strike their pose before it captured the photo, but it also had a bunch of fun borders and effects to choose from – perfect for that purikura look!
After Jai’s rigorous testing, I could tell this webcam photo booth would be perfect for what I had in mind. 😉
When party time rolled around, I booted up my laptop to the Logitech program and printed out a page of directions which I set underneath the laptop, so guests would know how to use it. I also set the laptop up in front of a full-length mirror in order to make it easier to pose.
For the backdrop, I taped several pink plastic tablecloths on the wall, using a bachelorette banner, pink streamers and black balloons from House of Bachelorette as the accent. I set it up right behind a chaise lounge in order to maximize space in the party area and give guests a place to sit while posing for pics.
Here I am testing the webcam before putting the decorations up in order to figure out where to tape the backdrop. You can tell I’m in full hostess mode since I’m wearing my apron! 😉
Of course, you can’t have a photo booth without props! I set up two small tables by the chaise lounge to hold the props.
A simple printed sign let guests know what the items were for.
I loved the idea of having a frame with the occasion and party date written on it, so that keepsake photos could be created to remember the night by. I bought a sheet of Styrofoam from Dollar Tree, and cut a rather uneven square out of the middle with an X-Acto knife. 😉 I then used a Painter’s Paint marker to write “Jaime’s Bachelorette” and the party date on the bottom of the frame. I used these same markers for the bachelorette party last year, so they have come in handy for these bachelorette crafts!
I didn’t have to do anything for the rest of the props other than open my closet! Me being me, I have all kinds of flashy accessories, so I just pulled out a few pieces to take to the party. I brought several feather boas, a tiara, fancy gloves, and tattoo pattern armwarmers!
The backdrop that I set up looked really cute in all the selfies guests were taking as part of the scavenger hunt! In fact, the props got used in the scavenger hunt as well when it came time to make a veil. As for the photo booth itself? To be honest, there was so much going on and we were having so much fun that we never really got to “Officially” using it! However, the guys from the bachelor party had fun photobombing it:
Now that we’ve come to the end of our bachelorette party drinks recap for Jaime’s bachelorette, I wanted to put together one master post with links to all the recipes, to make it easy for anyone planning their bachelorette menus. As you’ll see, these drinks all share ingredients in common, which makes it easy to put together an in-home bar for your party. All but 1 of these drinks fit perfectly with a “Pink” theme, so they’re great for any girl’s night in – and you can also adjust the sweetness to your taste.
Any time I throw a party, you can be assured that the food will be plentiful. I’d much rather have too much food than not enough – I want to make sure my guests have a good time, and I welcome leftovers because I’ll just put them to use after the party! Jaime’s bachelorette party food buffet ended up being so large that several people commented, “How many guests are you expecting?!” when they saw how much there was! Since party food seems to be my specialty, I wanted to share what I did at this event to give you inspiration for your own menu.
I kept two other coolers under the buffet table: One was completely filled with ice, and the other contained things like my cocktail shaker, sweetener, limes, and mint for the cocktails. I also placed two boxes in the kitchen for trash and recycling. I always like to label these clearly at parties, so guests know where to place their empty plates and bottles.
What are your top tips for creating a memorable menu?
One of the activities I arranged for Jaime’s bachelorette party last month was a wine tasting. I think it turned out well and would be a great activity for any bachelorette, since it covers a lot of bases and can be as involved or casual as the atmosphere dictates. Here’s how I put together mine!
Compile Your Wine List
I talked about this briefly in my article on tips for selecting bachelorette wine. I asked the bride for her preferences in wines, and then asked my friends at Banfi what they would suggest based on that. This is what they recommended:
I also printed out a copy of the wine list to display on the table, so guests could easily see what was available.
Choose Your Food Pairings
With my wine list in hand, I then created a menu for the party that included food pairings for the wines:
Decorate Your Table
I printed out the tech sheets for each wine and placed them on the table underneath the corresponding bottle. These sheets told guests all about each variety of wine, so they would know where each wine was produced as well as its characteristics. The tech sheets for all Banfi Wines are all available on the wine product pages I linked to above, if you end up doing a similar wine tasting and want to know where to find them.
I also included a pretty, decorative handpainted wine glass on the table as an accent, as I talked about in an earlier post. As you may have noticed in the photos above, I put small plastic stemware on the table for the wine tasting. I actually found them at Dollar Tree – I got one package of plastic wine glasses and one package of plastic champagne flutes, for variety. I wanted a cute way to serve the wine without having to mess around with transporting and washing over a dozen wine glasses!
Prepare Wine Tasting Cards
I made up a set of custom wine tasting cards for the party and set them on the table along with a stack of pencils. This way, guests could record which wines they liked (Or didn’t!), and take a card home to remember which ones were their favorites. I wanted to share the printable I made, in case anyone would like to use it at their next party:
How Our Party Turned Out
Banfi provided me with some tips on determining how much wine I might need – click here to read those if you missed it! – which was really helpful. There was a generous amount of wine to begin with – the guests were impressed by the variety of wines I had available! – and since I was also serving other cocktails and beverages, we had wine left over for dinner the next day and for the bride to keep as a gift. It worked out great!
The most popular wine of the night seemed to the Le Rime Pinot Grigio. I actually reviewed this wine last year, if you’re interested in reading more about it!
Everyone had fun, and the combination of foods paired with the wines seemed to go over really well. I would absolutely serve this same menu again, since it seemed to be such a big hit!
Have you ever hosted a wine tasting party?
Today, I’m sharing the last of the “Pink Cocktails” that I served at Jaime’s bachelorette party. This one is a light and tasty Sparkling Raspberry Drop using Sobieski Vodka:
Ingredients
1.5 oz Sobieski Raspberry Vodka
1 oz Sobieski Black Cherry Vodka OR simple syrup (If preferred)
.5 oz lemon juice
Splash of Martinelli's Sparkling Apple-Raspberry juice
5 raspberries
1 mint sprig + 4 mint leaves
Instructions
Combine 4 raspberries and mint leaves with ice in a cocktail shaker. Pour in vodka(s) and juices, shake, and pour into glass. For garnish, stick mint sprig into your remaining raspberry to make a "Flower" and place on top of the ice in your glass.
http://www.blogmywedding.com/sparkling-raspberry-drop/
Today I want to show you how to make favor bags! This is what I did for for Jaime’s bachelorette party – they turned out cute and simple, using mostly supplies from Dollar Tree. If you’re having a hard time finding the right thing for your party, perhaps this will provide some inspiration.
The favors consisted of the simple DIY tea bag craft I showed you yesterday, along with a glowstick bracelet. I found a package of 15 for $1, and since the plan was to go ’80s dancing after the bachelorette, I thought this would fit with the theme and be a fun item to wear clubbing. We were actually having so much fun at the party that we never even left to go to the club, but it was still a fun favor! 😉
I picked up 2 packages of pink paper bags at Dollar Tree, and printed little cards commemorating the occasion and date, which I taped to the front of each bag.
I also printed out one of the couple’s engagement photos and taped it to the back of the bags to seal them shut.
I then printed out a sign reading “Favor Bags – please take one!” and arranged them on a table at the party.
If you’ve ever thrown a bachelorette party, I’d love to know what you did for favors!
When it came to assembling party favors for Jaime’s bachelorette, I opted for a fun and easy craft that any tea-lover will appreciate! All it requires is a few boxes of tea, tulle, ribbon and scissors. Here’s how I did it:
To make my craft, I utilized 3 boxes of Good Earth Tea: One 25-count box of Original Sweet & Spicy, one 18-count box of Sweetly Twisted, and one 18-count box of Cocoa Tango. Because I was making 13 favor bags, this gave me enough for 4 teabags per favor – I did 2 each of the Sweet & Spicy and 1 each of the other flavors.
Using a roll of tulle I picked up and Dollar Tree and some ribbon I had in my gift wrap box, I got to work.
Cutting a section of tulle 18″ long, place the tea bags in the middle & wrap the tulle around them.
Pinch and hold the tulle around the top in preparation of tying with the ribbon. I found that the teabags had the tendency to fall out the side, so I just had to finesse them into place before securing; a more elegant solution to this would be buying a wider roll of tulle. 😉
Tie a length of ribbon around the top of the craft.
That’s all there is to it!
Have you ever tried making your own bachelorette party crafts?
I’ve always thought that “Bride-To-Be” sashes were a really cute prop for bachelorette parties. Last year, I made a DIY bride-to-be sash for a bachelorette party I hosted, and I knew I wanted to make or buy some sort of sash for Jaime’s party this summer. So when I was offered my choice of product from Rhinestone Sash, I knew it would be perfect for the party!
As you may have gathered from the name, this company sells very glam sashes for all occasions that are emblazoned with rhinestones. I’m such a rhinestone girl, so these bride-to-be sashes totally appealed to my aesthetic sense! After reviewing the colors available, I opted for black, since that went with the party colors and would go with pretty much any outfit that the bride might wear, since black is a good neutral color. The sash was packaged in a pretty little bag with a card, which made for a very pretty presentation.
This was cute, lighthearted little touch for the party. In this picture, the bride is wearing her sash while checking an item off the scavenger hunt cards I made by creating a makeshift veil from a feather boa and tiara!
Rhinestone Sash offers bride-to-be sashes in black, pink, and several other colors for $15.99 – click here to visit their website for more info & to order!
