Over the weekend, I hosted Megan’s bachelorette party with all of her incredibly sweet friends, and we had the BEST time! These days, weddings and the associated parties can get so out of hand and outrageous, and it was important to her that we keep things casual. In order to do that, it was very DIY and required some planning, but it turned out to be such a great time where we focused on spending time together and showering the bride-to-be.

(Yes, I did theme every itinerary item with Bridesmaids quotes…)

How to Host a Causal Bachelorette Party

1. Keep it local.

The best thing for everyone is host your bachelorette party locally! Travel, whether it be by car or airplane, can get really pricey for people, not to mention exhausting. Though it might be impossible, try to at least find a central location. If you can find an Airbnb in your city, this will be the best way to host a party and have everyone in the same place! We stayed in a home near downtown Houston that slept all 10 of us, so splitting it was much more cost effective than a hotel.

2. Keep it short.

If you are willing, a one day or night affair is the easiest way to keep things from getting out of hand price-wise, but if many people are coming in from out of town, it might make most sense to make it a weekend affair. By no means should it be longer!

In our case, we started the party at 6:00 PM on a Friday and ended at 11:00 AM on Sunday. All of the activities on Friday night were causal and held at the Airbnb so that people could trickle in as they were available without missing anything major.

3. Eat (and drink) in.

Speaking of spending time at the house, plan to eat some of your meals in to give people time to relax and save some money on not eating out. Even catering or ordering food to go can be incredibly stress free, plus you can save money on drinks by getting wine at the grocery store and not having to tip. We did this for a Friday night pasta and wine dinner and for a Sunday bagel breakfast.

4. Make your own fun.

While going to a BYOB painting and wine class is a ton of fun, it also costs close to $50 per person by the time you are done. Instead, buy stemless wine glasses and enamel paint for less than $5 a person and pull up decorating ideas on Pinterest.

Everyone loves a good cocktail, so whip up some Aperol Spritz’s for everyone at home before dinner to limit the spending when you go out.

People also love to play bridal games at the house to get to know each other better and celebrate the bride! Here is a list of some of the games we played and loved.

Lingerie Menu – Everyone buys the bride some lingerie and comes up with a food associated with it. The host then presents all of the gifts to the bride as a menu of food and she has to guess who gave her each item. After the wedding, the menu is given to the groom to pick items!

The Newlywed Game – Come up with a list of questions to ask the groom about the couple’s relationship, their “first” experiences, and about the bride. Ask him to answer the questions before the party and then read the list to the bride and see if they have the same answers!

Memory Lane – Everyone writes down their favorite experiences and stories with the bride on note cards and then she has to guess who each of the memories were shared with.

Weenie in a Bottle – Tie hot dogs to the end of the string that is tied around each girl’s waist. Try to maneuver your weenie into emptied wine bottles, no hands allowed! We did relay races with small teams who had to run a small distance or spin around before trying to complete the task – SO FUNNY!

Pass the Love Story – Each guest helps to exaggerate how the couple met. The bride starts it off by writing a line at the top of the piece of paper about how the couple met.  She then passes the piece of paper to the next player, who writes a line to follow that one. Once that player writes their line, their job is to fold the paper over so only their sentence is revealed to the next player. After everyone has contributed, the guest of honor should read the final piece aloud to the group. We did this at dinner and it was a great way to pass the time.

I, You, Both, Neither – Prepare a long list of “never have I ever” type things and then read them out and each person had to say “I have, you have, we both have, or neither of us has” regarding the action and whether you think the other people have done it or not. After everyone has answered, the bride says whether she’s done it or not, and then everyone who got it wrong has to drink.

Who Knows the Bride Best – Create a quiz with a bunch of questions about the bride and each person writes down their answers. Then the bride gives the correct answer.

5. Plan fun activities at a low cost.

While we spent all of Friday and Sunday at the house, Saturday was filled with activities that didn’t break the bank! We played laser tag for about $15 a person and it was by far one of our favorite memories, and it was great to get some exercise. Another activity we did was to get nails done. This allowed people to relax, but also choose how much they wanted to spend. Our Saturday night was spent at karaoke. We grabbed a private room for 2 hours and only spent $5 a person!

6. Make simple decorations.

For a big impact at a low cost, balloons are the way to go! 16″ Gold Mylar balloons can actually be reused and look great in photos to spell out your bachelorette theme. Stringing together a bunch of cheap, latex balloons to make a garland is also incredibly cute and fills a big space. I used about 30 balloons to create a cloud to go over the sofa by blowing up dark blue, light blue and white balloons in various sizes, sewing a needle through the tied ends, and then tying it to the curtain rods.

Something that is totally hilarious and fun for the entire weekend: cutouts of the groom’s face! It seemed silly at first, but we loved bringing him along on activities and wearing them in photos. Crop a high quality photo of the groom and enlarge it in a Word document. Print them out, tape a popsicle stick to the back, and add a layer of card-stock to the backside to add stability.

I also put together little gift boxes for each lady with their tank top, the itinerary, and a cute straw for drinks. If low cost matching shirts are your dream, check out Etsy! People are usually very flexible about what sorts of fonts and phrases they can print. We got ours for about $12 each at this Etsy shop and Cara was so great to work with.