Stag Night Ideas > How To Plan a Stag Party > Before the Event

Create a Great Stag Party Plan

Stag Night Preparation

Great stag nights don't just happen. You need to be the man with the plan!

Long before the groom is standing at the front of the church, looking to both vicar and Best Man for support/wisdom/an escape plan, the stag weekend plot needs hatching. We would recommend planning at least 3 months prior, especially if you want a corker. There are many things to be decided, with the lion's share of early input ideally coming from both the Best Man and Groom. After all, if he's contributed to the planning then he can't have any complaints at a later date about where you've chosen, what you're doing and who he's rooming with!

Did you know: Last Night of Freedom can help you arrange your stag night?

Stag Party Checklist

How Big!

Firstly, you need to decide HOW MANY cast members there'll be. We recommend around 10-12, but this will largely be determined by how many good mates the groom has, who gets on with who (don't pretend that it's just the women who have this problem) and if there's an activity or event that he particularly wants to include, e.g. there's no point taking 25+ guests if he wants Quad Racing and White Water Rafting as his daytime entertainment, there's likely to be too much waiting around (though Paintballing and Karting would be ideal!) Other major factors in the final group size will be the choice of destination and, most influential of all, how many complete bottlers wimp out at the first disparaging remark from their partner. Their loss!

When To Go

Group size sorted, a decision must be reached as to WHEN the whole shebang will take place. Ideally, a two week gap between the stag night and wedding is required, allowing the groom to either grow his eyebrows back, change the name on his tattoo or thumb his way back from Calais.. Also, once a date has been chosen, stick to it!

The Budget

The most usual restraint hereafter is BUDGET. In other words, how much can everyone afford to blow on a weekend of mass carnage that they probably won't remember beyond the Sunday night anyway? Everyone's financial position must be taken into account for this bit and some sort of compromise reached - or last-minute pull outs can be expected. Again, if organised early enough then this can be budgeted for and even paid off week to week, perhaps into a central account specifically set up for the stag weekend. Who said that blokes can't be organised? (Your wives and girlfriends, that's who!)

Treasurer

This brings us nicely to our next issue, MONEY. As quickly as possible, the most financially responsible member of the group should be assigned as treasurer. By "most financially responsible", we realise that this may end up being the one amongst you who merely qualifies because he has less outstanding parking fines than the rest of you when you sit to ponder the role in the pub, and it might also be defined by others as simply "he who is tightest in the round-buying stakes", but, whatever your criteria is, make sure this role is assigned ASAP...

It should be the newly-crowned Treasurer's job to collect all of the stag night funds from the rest of the group and to pay all expenses promptly. It would seem logical that if there was an accountant in the group to delegate this task to him - though it goes without saying that you need to pick someone well known to everyone, lest the money end up in a Swiss bank account quicker than you can say "Nick Leeson". In our experience, it might also be an idea to set up an individual bank account for the explicit purpose of the stag getaway. (We would also advise you do this with a central e-mail account, set up especially for stag-related correspondence between the guests and Primary weekend co-ordinators. Too many stories of plate-throwing, email-reading, Stripper-phobic girlfriends to ignore here!)

Details, Details, Details

With the money issue behind us, we can get to the fun bit: deciding exactly WHERE, and just WHAT to include. These are big issues, which is why we've devoted a large area of the site to them, namely location and activities.

Locations

We could literally fill Wembley stadium with the amount of people we've sent on stag weekends. Here's a list of our top ten locations:

See all of our Stag Weekend Locations

You might also like to crank things up a notch by introducing a stag night THEME to the evening, though as with every additional you need to take the original budget into account. With this in mind, check out some of the wonderfully wacky and tacky offerings in our ONLINE SHOP section, especially the Costumes, T-shirts and Novelties.