Tip #6: Hiring a Stripper

Last time I said that this time I’d cover both how to hire a stripper and what to do once he arrives, but I’ve decided to split it up into two parts, making this a sort of series on strippers. I’m sure that sounds more exciting than it really is.

First things first, reasons why you may not want to hire a stripper:

-If you know the bachelorette won’t like it

-If you know that a guest will make having a stripper awkward. For example, if the bride’s mother or future sister-in-law is there, or if several guests are opposed to a stripper for other reasons.

-You have an especially large group. Strippers work best at smaller bachelorette parties of around a dozen women or less. You can hire one with a larger group, too, but I’ve found that the experience just isn’t the same, because the stripper becomes less of the focus with that many girls around.

-You can’t afford it. This one should be fairly obvious, but one of my girlfriends once hired a stripper for a party without asking what the cost was ahead of time. When they told her, she didn’t want to back out, so she paid them even though it way overexceeded her party’s budget.

To solve that last problem, I highly recommend that you split the cost between all the guests (but don’t make the bachelorette pay). Hiring a private stripper, even for just an hour, can get pretty expensive. But if you’re splitting it between ten or twelve girls, it’s not so bad.

Now, if there’s nothing stopping you from hiring a stripper, how do you go about doing it? Well, the hardest part is finding one. Your first thought might be to look one up on the internet. I’d advise against that. The internet is full of spam sites, and even if you do find a legitimate business’s website, chances are they’re not in your area. Your best bet is to go old-fashioned and look through the yellow pages. Strippers could be listed under many things, such as “Entertainment – Adult” or “Escort Service”, so don’t be discouraged just because there’s no “Strippers” section. If you live in or near a major city, chances are you’ll be able to find a stripper in the area. If you live in a small city or rural area, though, it may be more difficult. Ask around and see if anyone you know has hired a male stripper for a party and ask them where they found him.

Once you’ve found an agency that will suit your needs, there are some questions you should ask them over the phone. You’ll want to find out if there’s a website where you can see pictures of the man you’ll be hiring. Whether they have a website or not, you probably want to get a picture of the stripper somehow, as I mentioned in my last post, so you know you’ll be happy with the purchase. You also want to find out up front the hourly rate and when you’ll be billed, so you don’t make the same mistake my girlfriend did. It’s also good to find out what the stripper will do, whether or not they can wear a special outfit or costume, and what (if anything) you might need to provide, like music.

Last but not least, try to get a written agreement faxed or mailed to you so there will be no confusion if the stripper doesn’t show up or if something else went wrong. I think that’s all I have to say about hiring the stripper, next time I’ll talk a little about proper conduct once he arrives.

See you next time,

Carly

Tip #5: Strippers vs. Strip Clubs

Bachelor parties have always been known for involving strippers. Bachelorette parties, on the other hand, have never really been known for hiring male strippers or going out to the strip club. But lately, I’ve noticed it happening more and more. I’ve thrown several parties of both kinds, hiring a stripper to come to the house and going out to the strip club. I’m sure a lot of girls out there who might be considering doing one of these things probably have a lot of questions. First of all, which is better, hiring a stripper or going to the strip club? So that’s what I’m going to cover today. The best format for this is probably a list of pros and cons.

Going to a strip club:

Pros:

They can accommodate bigger groups.

There are lots of men to choose from there instead of just one.

If you enjoy people watching, you can watch the other patrons.

Cons:

There aren’t that many around, even in big cities.

Drinks there are expensive.

You’ll need a designated driver or get a cab if you’re planning on drinking.

There are other people there, so your bride-to-be might not get all the attention she wants.

If you’re unlucky, you might get stuck at a table far away from all the action.

Hiring a stripper:

Pros:

They come to you, so it’s a lot more convenient.

You don’t have to worry about driving back home drunk.

Since you’re the only customers, they focus on the bride-to-be.

It’s a lot cheaper to buy your own drinks.

They’re a little easier to find, especially in big cities.

Cons:

There aren’t several men to choose from, you get what you get.

They’re probably going to be a little more expensive.

You might have to wait a while for them to show up.

There’s pros and cons for both, but my recommendation would be that you hire a stripper to come to you. In the past, the parties where I’ve hired a stripper have all worked a lot better. One time we wanted to go to a club but couldn’t find one, another time the strippers completely ignored the bride. They’re too unreliable. There are ways around the disadvantages to hiring a stripper, too. You can request a picture of the stripper ahead of time, so you know whether you’re going to like who’s coming or not. If you’ve got a fairly long guest list, you can split up the cost to make the price of hiring a stripper more reasonable. As for the wait, you can minimize this by making sure the guy has good directions to the house and by keeping the agency’s number on hand so you can find out where he is if he’s late. I would also recommend paying with a credit card, so you can get your fee refunded if he never shows up.

So, in conclusion, from my experience hiring a personal stripper works a lot better than going to a strip club. Next time, I’ll give some more advice on how to hire a stripper and how to behave once he arrives.

See you next time,

Carly

Tip #4: Party Kits

In my day, I planned all different types of bachelorette parties. Parties for good girls, parties for bad girls, parties indoors, parties outdoors, themed parties, “themed” parties (where the theme I was told to work with was something along the lines of “pink” or “marriage”). I’ve seen it all. And I know that when you’re planning a party with specific ideas in mind, it can be hard to find everything you need that fits your requirements. That’s why I recommend looking for a premade bachelorette party kit on the internet. It won’t have everything you need, but it will cover a lot of bases with items already selected because they go well together. Here are some examples of kits one store provides:

The Bar Crawl: Includes several games to play at the bar and accessories to identify your party while you’re out.

The Drunken Night In: Includes various decorations for the house and tools for making your own drinks, as well as a couple games to play at home.The Pizza Party: Mostly cups, plates, napkins, and things like that to serve food on, but some decorations too.The “Next Best Thing to a Stripper”: A lot of stuff that looks like penises and naked men.The Good Girl: An outfit to dress up a good-girl bride-to-be with absolutely no penises in it.The Bad Girl: An assortment of gifts for the not-so-good-girl bride-to-be.

There’s a lot more out there, but you get the idea. If you’re looking for items for a specific theme that you think is relatively common, do some searching, and you’ll probably find something pretty close to what you’re looking for.

See you next time,

Carly

Tip #3: Drinking Games

Last time I posted about good drinks to make for a bachelorette party. But what fun would drinks be without drinking games? You’ve probably all played some sort of drinking game at some point in your lives. I played plenty back when I was in college. And while any of those same old games like beer pong or quarters will work, the best drinking games to play at a bachelorette party are the ones that were designed specifically for bachelorette parties. A lot of the best drinking games I’ve played have involved going out to the bar or somewhere similar, so if that’s what you’re planning on doing, these will work great for you.

Game #1: The magic name game. Before going out to the bar, decide on a fairly common guy’s name. This is the magic name for the night. When you get there, the goal is to get as many signatures from a guy with that name as you can. If you manage to get one, everyone else has to take a drink. At the end of the night, the girl who got the most signatures is the winner.

Game #2: The phone number game. This one’s pretty simple. Whenever you get a guy’s phone number, everyone else has to take a drink. At the end of the night, the girl who got the most numbers is the winner.

Game #3: The “proud of my penis” game. Have someone bring the silliest and weirdest penis-shaped item they can find to the party. If nobody has anything that fits the bill, you should get something crazy like a dick through the head headband or giant inflatable penis. A dildo or vibrator will work too. Now, when you go out to the bar, everybody’s going to try to convince as many guys as they can to hold or wear the penis-shaped object. If you get a picture of a man with the penis, everyone else has to drink. At the end of the night, the girl with the most pictures is the winner. There could be a special prize for the girl with the craziest individual picture, too.

Game #4: The loose lips game. This is one you can play at home, or at the bar, or pretty much anywhere. At the beginning of the night, make a list of five or ten words. It works best if they’re words related to the theme of the party, like “bride”, “groom”, marriage”, you get the drift. Whenever someone says one of the words on the list, they have to drink. Warning: Don’t do this with shots! Girls will be drinking a LOT with this game!

All of these games are relatively simple, but they’re loads of fun and I’ll vouch for every one of them. There’s a lot of room to work in house rules if you can think of variations that would make them even more fun, but keep it simple. The best drinking games usually are pretty simple, after all, it’s hard to remember a lot of complicated rules when everyone’s a little ways past tipsy.

Another suggestion, give the winner of each game you play a prize. Not that they’ll need any extra incentive to play a drinking game, but it’s something to remember the night by. Something like these award ribbons or a pecker whistle works great.

See you next time,

Carly