Bachelorette Party Idea: Beauty Product Test Party

Not every bride-to-be wants to get crazy in a wild night on the town prior to tying the knot. For the mellow bride, a girls’ night in can make for the perfect bachelorette party—and if that mellow bride happens to love glaming it up with the latest makeup and beauty products, then start planning a product testing party!

The concept is simple: each guest brings a new beauty product to the party so that everyone can try it out. In some parties, the bride-to-be gets to keep all the products at the end of the night, but you could also arrange to that everyone gets to pick their favorite item.

If you need some ideas, here are great ideas which are sure to be crowd pleasers:

• Nail Polish Go for a fun shade that you normally wouldn’t buy. Metallics and bright colors are always a fun choice! With one of the best applicator brushes around, we’re big fans of OPI but Sally Hansen ‘s new Salon Manicure line is equally as amazing. 
• Hair Stylers Any hair styler is sure to be a good time at a girls night in because let’s face it, playing with your hair can be fun at any age! Wave irons are relatively new on the market, so consider trying one like this for Conair. 
• Eye Shadow Sets These are fun because you can get sets to highlight different eye colors or opt for the always-popular smoky eye kit. Practice applying the makeup during the bachelorette party and who knows, maybe you can DIY when it comes to wedding day make up! For starters, check out the variety offered on Sephora. 

At the end of the night, not only will you have been able to try out some new products, but will have had the perfect girls night in with the bride-to-be and her favorite ladies!

 

Fondue Before the I-“due”

If you’re trying to plan the perfect bachelorette party for a mellow bride-to-be, and strip clubs, drinking games, and wild nights aren’t quite up her alley, we’ve got a deliciously fun idea for you—throw a fondue party! What could be better for a low-key girl’s night then sitting around chatting and dipping your favorite foods in cheese and melting chocolate?

Fondue restaurants like The Melting Pot are always an option but can be on the expensive side, and aren’t nearly as personal as cooking and serving at home. If no one in the bridal party already owns a fondue set, split the cost and purchase one as a bachelorette party/early wedding gift for the bride-to-be. A decent set comes with a heating pot and fondue forks and ranges between $30 and $70–Cuisinart has tons of options to choose from, like THIS electric fondue set or THIS cast iron set with an adjustable burner. If you don’t want to purchase a fondue set, you can always just heat a pot on the stove or portable burner, just make sure to keep the cheese or chocolate continually heating.

For the main meal, you’ll be dipping your favorite foods in melted cheese—and there are TONS of recipes to choose from! If you want to go traditional, try THIS Swiss-based cheese dip from Simply Recipes. If you’re feeling adventurous, try THIS cream cheese and crabmeat fondue—it’s delicious!

For desert time—which, when having a fondue party, really should be called MEAL time—delicious melted chocolate takes center stage. We’re turning to Rachel Ray for THIS amazing chocolate fondue recipe, but browse around recipe books and the internet (The Food Network is a great place to start) until you find the chocolate brew that makes the bride-to-be’s mouth water.

The possibilities for what to dip in the melted cheese and chocolate are endless, but here are a few tried and true winners:

• Bread (French is a great option, but incorporate your personal favorites!)
• Apple slices
• Strawberries
• Banana slices
• Pretzels
• Pineapple
• Chopped raw veggies
• Cooked meat

My personal favorite thing to dip? Banana slices topped with a bit of peanut butter in a pot of chocolate—YUM! Share your favorites with us, how do you fondue?

Bachelorette Party Spotlight: Where to Dine in Boston

Organizing a large group for dinner can be difficult—especially when there’s the added stress of wanting to throw the perfect bachelorette party dinner for the bride-to-be. For those of you in the Boston area, we’ve narrowed down the hundreds of amazing restaurants to few top-notch eateries. All accommodate larger parties, many even offering the option for private group dining in a separate or secluded room of the restaurant. Whether dinner is the first part of a long night of debauchery or a low-key bride wants to keep the bachelorette party to a mellow dinner with girlfriends, you can’t go wrong with these!

• 28 Degrees (South End) Offering American cuisine, 28 Degrees has a lounge-like atmosphere with both traditional tables as well as sofa/coffee table seating. For private groups they use curtains to create a private area.
• Artu (North End/Waterfront and Beacon Hill) You practically can’t go wrong with Italian food in the North End even if you tried, but Artu’s small private dining area makes it a great option for hosting a bachelorette party dinner.
• Avenue One(Theater District) Located at the Hyatt Regency Boston, Avenue One offers a variety of rooms for private dining groups of all sizes.
• Beehive (South End) In the perfect mix of fusion cuisine and comfort food, this casual dining restaurant also features live music in a unique atmosphere. 
• Cuchi Cuchi(Cambridge) This international cuisine comes in smaller plates making it perfect for “pairing and sharing.” The restaurant itself is designed after the old world beauty and glamour of early Hollywood, making Cuchi Cuchi the perfect place to take your leading lady! If you can’t decide on what to eat, try the highly-recommended fried artichoke hearts or the cucumber gazpacho.
• Dali (Somerville) This restaurant and tapas bar is worth the trip to Somerville! And we hear that they even have a special bachelorette routine—we don’t want to ruin the surprise, but it involves kissing a frog!
• Jerry Remy’s(Back Bay) In arguably one of the best sports towns in America, how could we not include a sports bar option? “The Grandstand” and the “Dug Out” are two areas of the restaurant perfect for private parties so be sure to ask about them!
• The Milky Way (Jamaica Plain) Although there’s still a Milky Way-sized hole in our Hyde Square hearts, we’ve got nothing but love for this neighborhood star. Bella Luna and The Milk Way remain a favorite for delicious pizza, eclectic dance nights, and fancy drinks (or Brick Red on tap, hooray!).  Their spacious new digs in the Brewery complex are ideal for larger parties. Extensive schedule, menu, and event planning info are available on their website.
• Tangierino (Charlestown) This Moroccan chophouse and tapas bar is a perfect destination for private dining parties! With several private rooms to choose from like “The Sultan Room,” which is made up of private tents, or the “Marrakech Room,” which has it’s own private wine bar, this Charlestown eatery can accommodate your bachelorette party no matter what the size!

With all the amazing restaurants in Boston, we’re sure there are several more options to fit your bachelorette party needs, so let us know where you chose to eat for the bride-to-be’s last hoorah as a single girl!

 

Bachelorette Party Spotlight: Forget Hiring Dancers, Learn to Pole Dance Yourself!

What better way to guarantee a bachelorette party full of gut-busting laughs than to get the girls together for a group pole-dancing lesson? Once reserved for gentlemen’s clubs and Las Vegas, pole-dancing has become an increasingly mainstreamed fitness activity. Many dance studios now offer not only exercise classes centered around the pole, but pole-dancing parties for bachelorette groups, birthdays, and girls’ nights out. In fact, the growing popularity of spinnin’, twirlin’, and workin’ around the pole has led to the start of a petition to get pole-dancing made into an official Olympic event—yes, you read that correctly! And with the first annual American Pole Fitness Championships being held October 23,2010 (that’s today!), what better way to celebrate than with a group pole-dancing lesson bachelorette party!

Gyms and dance studios hosting such private party lessons can be found in major cities throughout the country, and there are two perfect options right here in Beantown! For $40/person, Gypsy Rose Dancing, located in Boston’s Back Bay, accommodates parties up to 24 participants and allows you to pick an hour and a half time slot anywhere from noon to midnight in order to accommodate both the tame bride-to-be, and the bachelorette who’s looking to take her newfound skill with her for a night on the town afterwards. Your party will learn “the supermodel strut,” along with a floor routine, three pole swings, and other exotic skills. Although the dance studio will provide you with the “proper” attire (short shorts and platform shoes are a must, ladies!), you can also opt to bring your own gear, which could be a fun opportunity for you and the girls to coordinate your most outlandish outfits for the occasion. At the end of the night, the bride-to-be will receive an official certificate stating that she is now an “Official Exotic Dancer”—a title that we’re sure her fiancé will support!

Depending on your location, SuperShag Dance Studios in Charlestown is another Boston outlet for a group pole dancing party. If you’re on a budget and have a large number of ladies attending the bachelorette party, this is a great option. They offer a flat rate of $250 or $300 (depending on the day), so the more ladies, the lower the cost per person! And it will be well worth it to see your favorite girls try their hand at working the pole—we’re willing to bet there are some hidden talents in the group waiting to be revealed! (And if not, you’re in for double the laughs—it’s a win-win for all.)

As if further convincing were even needed, it was recently reported by M&C News that former super model and icon Cindy Crawford says that one of her secrets to keeping her marriage “red hot” is by taking pole-dancing classes. So what better way to send off your favorite girl into the married life than with some new exotic dance skills?

Bachelorette Party Spotlight: Living it Up Like the Ladies of Sex and the City

Whether you’re a “Carrie” or a “Samantha,” you’ll be sure to be thanks by your bride-to-be with this bachelorette party idea! It can be a lot of pressure as a maid of honor to come up with the perfect bachelorette party for your leading lady’s last hoorah before tying the knot, but if she’s a Sex and the City fan, look no further—an excursion to NYC could be just the thing.

On Location Tours offers Sex and the City tours where you can shop where the fabulous four shopped, eat where they ate, grab a Cosmo where they drank, and see several of the actual locations from the series and movie. But just because you’ll be living large like Carrie and the girls, doesn’t mean you’ll have to be spending like them. The best part about this bachelorette party idea is that there are a variety of tour options to fit every budget and every soon-to-be-bride.

You can opt for a walking tour for $44/person or chose from one of four private limo tours. The private packages range from the $140/person “Charlotte” package to the always-extravagant “Samantha” for $210/person, which includes the Sex and the City Hotspots limo tour with private tour guide, a three-course dinner at a location used on the show, a “Pleasure Chest Kit” for the group (would you expect anything less from Samantha?), and admission to a lounge used on the show with complimentary glass of celebratory champagne. For full details and bookings, visit On Location Tours.

Feeling creative? Skip the tour guide and make your own Sex and the City tour! Put together a list of some of the places from the show you’d like to visit, plan ahead by consulting a map and marking out a route, and—voila!—you and your girls have a customized day in the life of Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha. Here are some helpful lists of Sex and the City hotspots:

• Restaurants & Bars in this guide, iVillage provides you with a list of restaurants as well as some menu suggestions.  They have everything from hotdog stands to fine dining on the list, so there’s something for everyone!
• OpenTable’s Restaurant Blog many of the restaurants listed here are rather pricey, but check out Centrico for reasonably priced Mexican/Southwestern cuisine.
• Shopping & Attractions as well as listing bars and restaurants, get a feel for some of the attractions featured in Sex and the City—from Bryant Park to the art gallery Charlotte used to work in.

Big said it best when talking to Carrie’s best friends: “you’re the loves of her life and a guy’s just lucky to come in fourth.” So make your girl’s bachelorette party an event to remember!