Congrats! You have the honor of planning a bachelorette party in Nashville. At least, that’s how you should be feeling, but we know how stressful it can be to put one of these parties together. Here’s a step-by-step guide to planning the ultimate Nashville bachelorette party, along with lots of options for how you can make the process easier for yourself:
Guest List The first step is to figure out who will be attending, or at least how many people are able to make it, so that you know what to look for when booking your stay and activities. This can get a little dicey when it comes to asking people to commit to a date several months out, but stand your ground!
Accommodations You’ll want to book your accommodations at least four months out, if not more, especially if the party is happening in the spring or summer and in a popular city (like Nashville). We always recommend a short-term rental rather than a hotel because you’ll all be able to sleep in the same house, and you’ll have access to a kitchen for breakfasts and late-night snacking. If you are coming to Nashville, check out the amazing properties from some of our partners LuxuryNash Rentals, iTrip West Nashville, and Stay Local Nashville!
Are you flying or driving in? The earlier you book flights, the cheaper they’ll probably be, but this isn’t as urgent because not everyone will know their work schedule so far in advance. Usually each member of the group is responsible for their own arrangements here. Some important considerations to keep in mind: If you’re driving, what’s the parking situation at your accommodations? What time will you be able to check in? If you arrive much earlier than check-in, what will you do with your luggage while you wait? We can help with this too, and our partner She’s Got Baggage will give you a discount on luggage pickup and storage for booking through us!
Transportation from the airport/while in town If you won’t have access to cars while you’re in Nashville, you’ll need to figure out how everyone’s getting around. The bigger your group, the more challenging it can be to find enough ride share cars to pick you all up at the same time. Pro tip: scheduling ahead as much as possible will make your life a lot easier! If you do have cars in town, it’s probably for the best that you leave them at the rental property because parking downtown will cost you an arm and a leg (unless you book a Trove Itinerary and ask us about our secret parking spots, we keep those cards very close to the chest)! If you don’t want to deal with any of this hassle, we have several shuttle and transportation companies that we work with, and Earth Rides and The Nashville Shuttle will both give you discounts for booking through Trove.
Meals Now for the fun part, or so you thought. Have you ever typed “best restaurants in Nashville” into Google? There are literally hundreds, and new ones are opening every month. We’d like to say you can’t go wrong, but sometimes the spots you’ve seen all over social media aren’t necessarily the best choice for your particular group. Some don’t take reservations, some have awesome happy hours but only on certain nights, and some are better than others in terms of proximity to your late-night plans…you don’t have time to do all that research, do you? Oh, and by the way, one girl in the group has a severe gluten allergy and another is vegan. Do yourself a favor and ask us about our Guidebooks, which include recommendations for restaurants, bars, activities, and more that are local-tested and approved! Or give your bachelorette group a truly unique experience by booking a private chef to come and cook for you (more information on that in this blog post).
Activities The next step is figuring out what you’re going to do in between all those amazing meals you just booked. Party bus? Boat day? Brunch and bowling? You’ll need to book most of these at least two months in advance and the majority require a deposit to book. Our second-biggest piece of advice when it comes to bachelorette activities in Nashville, especially those that involve day drinking, is to leave plenty of time for recovery after each one so that you don’t miss out on dinner reservations! Our second biggest piece of advice? Save yourself the headache and score some great discounts by letting us book your activities as part of a customized bachelorette itinerary.
Theme Something we’ve been seeing a lot of recently are themed bachelorette parties, and this isn’t crucial to the trip itinerary but will be important for the next few items on the checklist. This is pretty much up to you and the bride, but a few popular ones are Space Cowgirl, Final Fiesta, and Last Rodeo. If you are going with a theme for your Nashville Bachelorette party, make sure you give all your attendees plenty of time to buy outfits and accessories!
Packing List/Dress Code/Outfit Recommendations This really depends on what the bachelorette wants – some like to have color coordination or a dress theme for each day and night, and some don’t care at all. Make sure to keep the whole group updated so they have time to buy anything they might not already have and keep an eye on the weather forecast for Nashville in the weeks leading up to the trip. Generally, it’s always humid here, but there can be unpredictable temperature fluctuations and thunderstorms. It’s okay, we always over pack for trips too.
Decorations and Party Favors No Nashville bachelorette party would be complete without decorations! Some must-haves: cute bridal suite to make the bachelorette feel special, a fun backdrop for taking all your photos, and of course all your bachelorette party supplies like cups, flash tats, scrunchies, and cowboy hats (it is Nashville, after all). Make sure you leave room in your suitcase for all the supplies, and bring tape, scissors, and string to set everything up. Also be mindful of your accommodations because the wrong tape can do a lot of damage to walls and door frames. If you take nothing else away from this guide, remember this: pop confetti balloons INSIDE a trash bag or you will leave confetti absolutely everywhere and probably get charged a higher cleaning fee. If you’d rather not deal with any of those issues, shoot us an email. You can ship us your decorations and favors ahead of time and have us set everything up for you, or you can just give us a budget and color scheme and we’ll do all the buying and setup. We also have some great add-ons like a mimosa bar, DIY facial kits, and hangover kits!
Groceries/Alcohol Shopping When you arrive in Nashville, we know you’ll be ready and excited to get the bachelorette party started. Unfortunately, the first two stops most groups have to make are the grocery store and the liquor store. These are all over Nashville so they’re not difficult to find but lugging twenty bags of groceries back in a ride share can be a huge pain. Not to mention the fact that there’s always one person in the group who will convince you to buy a whole bunch of items nobody will ever need. Try sending us your full list ahead of time and we’ll make sure everything is in the house before you arrive! That means cold drinks in the fridge, chips and snacks within arm’s reach, and the bar fully stocked to your specifications.
Payment Finally, for the least fun part: collecting payment from all the girls. You’re probably three days’ worth of hung over, having to go back to work, you lost the grocery receipt somewhere on Broadway and you’re not at all in the mood to dig back through your emails for each individual activity invoice. An app like Splitwise can go a long way in calculating what everyone owes everyone else, so make a note to have everyone download it at the beginning of the trip and log payments as you go! If you booked a customized itinerary with Trove, you’ll be thanking yourself extra at this moment, because we’ve taken care of all the deposits and payments and we compile everything onto one invoice so that you’ll have easy oversight of everything you need to split up!
We’ve planned plenty of Nashville bachelorette parties with varying degrees of involvement, and if you’re not convinced yet that our help will be a game changer in your planning process, check out our reviews on Google. If you’re still thinking of tackling everything yourself, we wish you the best of luck and hope this guide will help you keep track of all the items to check off! Remember, we’re just an email away if you end up changing your mind.