Being asked by your mate to be his best man at the wedding is a huge honour indeed, but it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. There are many responsibilities to be shouldered and to a person with no experience, it may even seem daunting at first.
Despite the many responsibilities involved, being a groom’s best man can be a lot of fun too. The biggest responsibility that you need to tackle as a best man is to make the groom have the time of his life by planning an epic stag night for him.
Following are some tips that you need to remember when planning the stag party activity day:
Control the Numbers
‘The more the merrier’ may sound like a good concept on paper, but it isn’t what you must try to do on a stag night. Inviting many bachelors can complicate everything from restaurant bookings to accommodation.
You must keep a close eye on the number of people who are being invited and anybody who isn’t part of the groom’s immediate social circle must be left out. Besides the fact that it makes it difficult for you to organise the stag night, having too many individuals over at a party is a sure-fire way to create cliques.
The group must not be very small in size, but it also shouldn’t exceed the count of 12. If you are worried about offending people, you can throw a secondary stag night at a local club where you can invite the in-laws, cousins and other friends.
Serve Notice
Needless to say, any person who has to attend a stag party needs to apply for a leave from their job or make necessary arrangements so that business affairs are attended to in their absence. Stag parties are also expensive and if the party is going to be lavish, you may have to give the invitees sufficient time to arrange for their contribution. Therefore, you must give at least three months’ notice to your group.
Also, you should create a schedule which leaves scope for modifying dates, especially if you are planning a party in the summer season, which is a time when accommodation can be difficult to arrange especially at major tourist destinations. The stag-do must be scheduled for a date which is several weeks before the wedding to allow for recovery.
If there are any extreme adventure activities involved, you should organise the stag party at least six to seven weeks before the wedding so that even if the groom suffers any kind of injury, he can recover in time to be present at his own wedding.
Pay Attention to Budgeting
The event must be planned in a way that all those who are close to the groom can attend it. For this you may have to think of ways to bring the party within the financial reach of each of those whom you have invited. For example, choosing an out-of-country destination can increase the overall expenses of the stag party.
It is advised that you should ask for others’ opinions before finalising your plans. This way you can even learn what is the maximum budget that you can allot for the stag party. During the stag weekend, you need to keep a tab on how much others are spending. You must also stop the wealthier members of the group from spending too much as it will drive up the costs for everyone else.
Pick Your Destination
Once you have figured out when you can host the stag do and how much you can collectively spend, you can then proceed to selecting other important aspects of the stag weekend such as the destination and accommodation. If you reside in the UK, the most popular cities outside London which you can consider for stag party are Leicestershire, Bristol, Bournemouth, Nottingham, and Brighton.
If you wish to take your lads across borders for the groom’s last night of freedom, the Eastern part of Europe offers good value for money and you can consider countries such as Bratislava, Tallinn, Riga and Ljubljana.
Be careful when selecting an overseas destination for the stag party as it can make you walk on a tight rope financially in other aspects of the stag party such as accommodation and activity, if you are already operating on a low budget.
Accommodation Should Be Simple
A clean and simple hotel with basic amenities is all that you really need. As most of the time your group will be out of the hotel, it doesn’t make much sense to spend too much on accommodation. You should think of your hotel as just a place where you crash after a wild night.
Also, make it a point to plan the party well in advance and make the bookings as early as possible to get the best rates. Take charge of booking the accommodation and don’t delegate this task to anybody else in the group as procrastination can make you pay more. Delaying the booking of hotels can also force you to change your destination if there is no accommodation available.
You can also check out accommodation options on applications like Airbnb as they have good properties to offer at reasonable prices. Try to organise the party at a location which is close to your hotel so that you can reach the place even if you have difficulty finding local transport.
Include Activities
A stag do is incomplete without fun activities lined up for the day. Also, taking part in activities will make the stag do a memorable event. Activities such as paintballing are perfect for big groups. By throwing in a bit of competition it is almost certain that you will have a great time. You can even try including other activities such as off road driving if the groom-to-be has an adventurous streak.
There are many activity centres which provide stag do packages which combines the best of activities and accommodation so that you do not have to compromise on fun, comfort or convenience.