Good Bachelor Party Ideas
So, the man you thought was your best friend has really stitched you up. There you were, out for a quiet drink, taking it easy, relaxing, and then he pops the question. He wants you to be his best man! What can you do? You can hardly say no, but you know that there's a lot more to the job than just getting a few guys drunk and into a few strip joints. Believe me, I know all about it. I've been Best Man at three weddings. Not least of all, you've got the speech to make! But lets not worry about that just yet - we don't want to get an ulcer this early in the proceedings.
By the way, if you really ARE worried about the speech, take a look at Wedding Speech 4U. It might be the best coupld of dollars you spend!
Let's run through a few things you can do when organising the Bachelor Party/Stag Night/Bucks Party, to make sure it's a great night out!
The Urban Myth is that every guy who gets married ends his stag night naked, either a) handcuffed to a lamp post, or b) on an express train to somewhere Far, Far Away. Now, as well as being Best Man three times, I've been the Groom twice too, and none of these things has happened to my friends or me. Maybe we're just too dull. However, although your best friend might not stay that way if you pull a stunt like that, it's your duty to arrange a few embarrassing moments for the groom.
Now, you might want to hire a stripper, but tread carefully. Do you really know your best friend? Some guys think it's great. Some guys don't, and they'll run off and hide in the toilet until it's all over. Some of them might cry. You don't want that - it would spoil the evening. One good idea is to give the Best Man a set of tasks to do. You know, things like: wear his trousers back to front; obtain an item of female underwear; have his photo taken wearing a fast-food employee's silly hat; walk backwards between each bar; run on the spot while ordering the drinks.
The most important thing to think about is the venue for your event. Don't just hope you can leave a bar at 1pm and get into a nightclub - most doormen take a dim view of large, staggering groups of young men trying to get into their club. Play it smart - get there early, and go in in twos and threes. Oh, and if you're in the USA, make sure everyone has their ID! As an alternative to just going to a bar, why not think about a Comedy Club - you can usually eat there too, and if the stand-up is good, then everyone will be in the party mood. Some of them have music too, so you should be in for a good night out!
A lot of people these days organise a stag week-end away somewhere. This can be a great idea, but takes even more planning. Whether your in the US, and heading for Vegas or New Orleans, or you're in the UK and flying off to Amsterdam or Prague, you'll be amazed how hard it is to get a group of five or more guys to arrive at the right place, at the right time, with the right clothes, some cash, and their tickets. So, treat them like first-graders and give them all a check list. If you need to, and if the budget allows, hire a mini-bus and actually drive round and collect them - that way you can check they've got everything before they leave home.
A word of warning, especially if you're in Europe, although this still happens in some US states. Beware of Clip Joints, where you get offered apparently free drinks, and often female company. When you try to leave, you get presented with a bar bill for sometimes hundreds of Pounds or Euros, and if you don't pay, big guys will appear and threaten you with criminal charges, or sometimes violence. Groups of young men in an unfamiliar city are easy prey for these establishments.
Make sure you take a camera with you. Now, you probably don't want to take your $1000 Digital SLR on this sort of event, but you could always buy a couple of disposable cameras that you can buy in Wal-Mart or online for a few bucks each. You can probably get a whole load of them, and keep some for the wedding itself. At the end of the evening, make sure you gather all the cameras together, because once people take them home they'll get lost somewhere, and you'll never see them again. Of course, most mobile phones have cameras these days, but don't rely on that. Sure, some of the guys might take a few photos on their phones, but you'll have a difficult time getting copies of all of them into one place.
Good luck! Zander