01
Three ways in
Most people arrive with one of three things settled and the other two open. Pick the settled one; the rest follows from it.
You know the city
Forty-seven cities costed per head the same way, with the neighborhoods, the bookings and the hour by hour.
Browse cities02You know the theme
Twelve themes scored on compliance and cost rather than on how good they sound. Five worth doing, two we would talk you out of.
Browse themes03You know neither
Twenty-four steps arranged along the sixteen weeks, so the question is never what to read. It is what to do next.
Start planning
MIAMI
The board / per head, two nights, nine going
Departures
02
What nobody tells the maid of honor
Nine hundred words on the two decisions that actually decide whether the weekend works, why the guest list has to be settled before the destination, and what to do when somebody cannot afford to come.
The person who ends up organizing a bachelorette weekend is almost never the person who wanted the job, and almost always the person who will be blamed if it goes wrong. Nothing written about this acknowledges that, which is why most of it is useless: it is written for somebody browsing, and you are not browsing.
The guest list is the budget
A rental house costs what it costs. Divided by four people it is the largest line on everybody's bill; divided by twelve it is barely the third largest. Flights, food and Saturday night do not divide at all. So the number of people coming sets the price of the weekend far more than the city does, and the guest list has to be settled before anything else is.
The practical consequence is that a group of eleven in an ordinary city will almost always beat a group of five in a cheap one. If the cost matters, the lever is the list, not the destination.
The conversation about money
In a group of eleven, roughly two people are quietly worried about what this will cost. They will not say so in a group chat. Ask privately, ask early, and quote a whole number per head rather than the price of the house.
Do this and there is almost no money friction. Skip it and the scene is always the same: four days before the trip, somebody works out the real total, and there is no longer a version of the weekend they can quietly step out of.
The two hours on Saturday
Between dinner and the second bar, a group of eleven either stays together or quietly becomes three groups of four. It happens on the sidewalk, in the dark, with everybody looking at their phone, and it is entirely preventable.
Decide the next stop at the table, before anybody stands up, and name one person who knows where it is. That is the entire trick. Groups that do it stay together; groups that do not spend forty minutes deciding and then split anyway.
What actually needs booking
Four things: the house, the Saturday dinner, one anchor activity and the airport transfer if the group is larger than eight. Everything else can be decided on the day and should be. Groups that book nine slots do four of them badly and argue about the rest.
Leave Sunday empty on purpose. A Sunday activity is the booking most likely to be canceled.
The bride is not the client. The person paying the most is.
The thing nobody writes downShe should get the weekend she wants. But the decisions that break a group are made by whoever is quietly stretching to be there, and that person almost never speaks up in a chat with eleven people in it. Ask privately, early, once.
03
Bachelorette, shower, hen do
Three events people use interchangeably and should not. The differences are not stylistic; they change who pays and who is invited.
| Bachelorette party | Bridal shower | Hen do | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who hosts | Maid of honor, usually with the bridesmaids | Traditionally not close family, in practice often the mother or a sister | The same, under a British name |
| Who comes | Friends, a weekend-sized group of eight to twelve | Family, family friends and older guests, about eighteen | Friends, often larger and often one night |
| When | Two to four months before the wedding | Six to eight weeks before | Two to four months before |
| Who pays | Each guest pays their own way; the group usually covers the bride | The host pays for everything | Each guest pays their own way |
| Gifts | No gift expected | One gift, usually from the registry | No gift expected |
| Typical cost | $1,100 a head, all in | $340 to the host, for eighteen | The same as a bachelorette |
The planning mistake to avoid is merging the first two. The guest lists are different, so the result is a party that is slightly too formal for the friends and slightly too loud for everybody else. The shower side of the site is here.
04
Questions people actually send us
Answered in full rather than in a line, because a one-line answer to any of these is how people end up planning the wrong weekend.
How much does a bachelorette party cost per person?
Between about $740 and $1,690 a head for a two-night domestic weekend on this site's estimates, and the median across this site's cities is $1,060. The spread is mostly nights, flights and how many activities got added after the number was agreed, not the city.
How big can the group be?
This site's estimates are built on about nine. A larger group needs a bigger house, a restaurant that takes a large party and more planning, so check group limits for each booking. Cities with large rental homes and pools can suit a big group.
Is a party bus worth it?
Rarely, and almost never in a walkable downtown. The bus usually transports a group between two places nine minutes apart on foot, for two hundred dollars an hour. The exception is when the vehicle is itself the activity.
Who pays for the bride?
Usually the group. The problem is never the custom; it is that it goes unsaid, so half the group budgets for it and half does not. At nine guests it adds roughly a hundred and thirty dollars a head.
How far ahead do we need to book?
Sixteen weeks for the house, six for the Saturday dinner, eight for the one anchor activity. Nothing sells out at sixteen weeks; the runway is there because the guest list, the budget and the dates take about six weeks to settle in a group of eleven.
05
Everything on this site
Nothing here is a stub. Every page is costed the same way and dated in its header.
Planning
What a bachelorette party isGames that workThe countdownWho pays for whatScavenger huntGifts for the brideSix real weekendsHiring a plannerThe playlistThe quiet versionTools that help06
How this page was made
Every number on this site has a method behind it, and a date in the header.
What the figures are
Every cost on this page is a Revelwick editorial estimate: bachelorette figures for a group of about nine over two nights, bridal shower figures for about eighteen guests. It is a starting point for a budget conversation rather than a quote, and prices move, so check the current price before you book anything.
The method
Every city is costed the same way: nine people, two nights, and four lines per head, each shown on the city page.
What we refuse
No affiliate link inside a cost figure, no sponsored placement, and no page presented as the record of a real party.