Who should you be inviting to your stag party, and who else may you invite?
However, the list of invitees is totally at the groom’s discretion. Generally, there is no formal invitation for bachelor parties and typically only includes men.
Who Gets Invited to the Bachelorette Party?
As times have changed, so have the traditional ways of celebrating events. These days, it is also quite common to see female guests at bachelor parties and if the groom likes it, then why not? Before you can launch into preparations and executing your plan, the best idea is to have the groom prepare the list of people he’d like to invite and also their contact information.
Once you know exactly who is and isn’t coming, you’d have a better idea of how to plan and what to include in the bachelor bash. If you’re a groom who is clueless about who to invite and who to leave out of your bachelor party, here is a helpful guide for you.
Guests You Absolutely Must Invite
Let’s start by listing down the essential attendees for your bachelor bash.
1. Best Man
After all, he is the one planning the party isn’t he? He deserves the place of honor on your invitation list. If the best man is planning the entire bash, it is only right to place his name right at the top of the list. Grooms already have too much to handle when organizing their wedding and taking the burden of a bachelor bash off his hands is the best thing a best man does.
Along with your best man’s name, also include the mutual friends he recommends for your guest list.
2. Your Friends
Now many grooms often incorrectly believe that they can only invite those friend to their bachelor bash who will also be attending the wedding but that’s not true. For starters, if you’re going the typical traditional route then it’s likely your bride and her family are hosting the reception.
Secondly, even if they’re not and you and your wife to be have decided to sponsor, you may have planned an intimate affair with only close ones in attendance. So you can feel free to invite whoever you wish to, close friends, distant friends, coworkers etc. to your bachelor.
In fact this is a splendid way to make up to those who want to participate in some way in your wedding but due to limited capacity, you cannot invite too many for the main day.
3. Groomsmen
No, we didn’t deliberately place them third in priority but it goes without saying that groomsmen are a concrete part of bachelor parties. After all, they will be chipping right in with your best man and will the party rolling too.
Presumably, your groomsmen are some of your other best friends and they’ll be bringing their own good stuff to the table for the party. Be sure to include each of your groomsman’s name on your guest list.
4. The ‘Extras’ You Want
Remember how we told you grooms are at liberty to choose to invite anyone they wish to? Yes, you can invite your female friends, cousins, acquaintances, colleagues or employees, your boss, or the partners of all the men coming to your party etc.
The ball is in your hands and you can roll it anyway you like because this party is mainly in your honor. You can choose to invite whoever and as many as you wish to because it’s your prerogative for the night.
You do not have to abide by any traditional restrictions when compiling the invitation list for your bachelor bash. All you have to do is ensure your best man picks a venue that is comfortably large enough to accommodate your number of guests.
The extras can also be your siblings, siblings-in-law, cousins, relatives of your age and those from the bride’s side of the family too.
Who should not be a Part of Your Bachelor Party’s Guest List
There are no iron-rod rules for this part of your invitation list. There are only two points of consideration for deciding who does not deserve to make it to your list of invites, regardless of how they are related to you. Those are:
Since this celebration is all about you, the groom, you must make sure not to invite anyone that makes you feel uncomfortable. Is there anyone who hasn’t been on good terms with you? Is there a relative, cousin, friend etc. who was nasty to you and you haven’t been exactly close? The point is to not include anyone who could potentially ruin the fun for you. If it’s anyone you have a certain kind of tension with, like perhaps a buddy, your father-in-law or others, you might want to leave that entire category out of the invitation list.
Now we did tell you that you can invite even those who won’t be a part of the wedding day yet if you feel it may create an awkward situation, then you can leave those out too. If you feel uncomfortable of not being able to invite some for the wedding then you are under no pressure to invite them to the bachelor party too.
Some Helpful Tips
If in case you have to invite your dad and your father-in-law to be to your bachelor party, then a great tip is to have a sober, cultured, and harmless evening till dinner and dessert. Once you have seen them off after dessert, you can launch into the night of debauchery and wild fun you had originally planned.
Secondly, no matter what you do, ask your best man not to organize the bachelor party a night before your wedding. You cannot expect us to believe that you vow to not get foxed and wake up with a mighty hangover the next day. Hey, we’re not judging you and we encourage the idea of fulfilling your heart’s desires on your night of freedom before the wedding.
But you don’t want to mar the beauty of the big day with a giant headache and ruin all the beautiful moments. Besides, the night before typically includes the rehearsal dinner which has its own charm. If all your guests can fly in a week before, the best time to hold the bachelor party is at least a week prior to the big day.
However, if that isn’t possible then you may have the bachelor party a night before the rehearsal dinner but no later than that.
Final Thoughts
A bachelor party is solely in honor of the groom. Therefore, it is only right to let the groom compose the entire invitation list of all those whom he wishes to have at his wild bash. From friends, siblings to groomsmen, there are certain people who absolutely must feature in the top invitees.
