Brides are bringing back the one-night-only bachelorette party
Come on. Go hard. Go home.
That pretty much sums up how Talia Mayden approached her one-night-only bachelorette party. New York-based designer and writer in June published online She describes hosting a less than 24-hour party with her closest friends: pre-dinner drinks at a bar on the Lower East Side, a $1,100 private dinner for 25 at a Chinatown restaurant, and an hour-long party bus rental that ended with a night of screaming and singing at a nearby bar.
At 2 a.m., Mayden said he and his friends called Ubers to get them back to bed. “We were able to leave it all on the dance floor without looking down the barrel of a multi-day itinerary.” he writes. “It was perfect.”
Mayden’s night out is a departure from what many think of today’s bachelorette parties: multi-day destination getaways complete with coordinated outfits, planned activities, multiple nights out, and a running tab that makes many women cringe (and perhaps send a few complaining side texts) when they see the final Venmo request that foots the bill. The average bachelorette party goer in 2025 will be approximately $1,300 per lotThat’s nearly double the 2019 average, according to wedding planning site Joy.
Beth Montemurro, a sociology professor at Penn State Abington who has researched bridal and bachelorette parties in America, says a crowded girls’ night out is more akin to how today’s bachelorette party emerged in the late 1980s and ’90s.
The boom in bachelorette parties over the last three decades mirrors what’s happening with weddings in general. royal wedding Montemurro says Prince Charles and Princess Diana grew along with the rise of individualism. Businesses have followed the trend, with clubs and day spas marketing group packages for bachelorette parties and cities like Nashville and Austin branding themselves as bachelorette party hotspots.
More groups are now choosing target parties. In 2019, 40% of these events took place in the bride’s hometown. Now that figure is less than 25 percent.
But in recent years, as conversations about extravagant wedding spending have gained more attention, some cost-conscious brides may be aiming for something simpler that “pushes back the expectation of spending too much,” Montemurro says.
With countless recent headlines condemning rapidly increasing costs And friendship fallout Thanks to the bachelorette party machine that flies like a balloon, some brides can avoid the hassle and return to a ’90s girls’ night out striking a better balance between finances, time constraints, and personalities without sacrificing fun.
‘Choose your own adventure’ bachelorette party in Chicago
In 2022, the year Olivia Sullivan got married, she attended nine more weddings and attended three or four bachelorette parties. Most parties require travel, he says, and he typically spends about $1,500 per weekend bachelorette trip; This amount is considered today’s norm.
Of previous trips he’s taken, “some were good, some were really bad, some were very expensive,” Sullivan, 34, tells CNBC Make It.
When it came time to plan her own party in April 2022, she took a different tack: She told 20 of her closest friends, family members and loved ones to join her for a day filled with her favorite activities in Chicago, where she lives.
Olivia Sullivan kicked off her bachelorette party with a morning spin class, followed by afternoon tea, a private dinner, and bar-hopping at her favorite spots in Chicago.
Courtesy of the topic
About 10 of them started the morning with a spin class (which Sullivan says costs $25), then grabbed coffee and pastries and headed to a hotel in downtown Chicago that the bride had booked for herself and an out-of-town friend. That afternoon, a dozen or so women joined him for tea at the Langham Hotel (about $100 per person) before everyone gathered for a private dinner (another $100 per person) and hitting the bars at Sullivan’s favorite hangouts.
Sullivan, who thinks wedding culture is completely out of control, says one-day events are happening much faster for her. It also brought a number of benefits: the “choose your own adventure” program meant women could hop in and out of events.
This also meant that he could invite more of his friends to join him. “I didn’t want to have to make a decision about: Which 10 friends do I want to bring to the destination bachelorette party?” he says. Guests can “spend as much money as they want and spend as much time as they want.”
Montemurro says party expenses have been a major source of bachelorette drama for decades. When he interviews women for himself 2006 book In “Something Old, Something Bold: Bridal Showers and Bachelorette Parties,” some partygoers expressed frustration at having to rent limousines or pay for the bride’s nightly drinks. Those costs, he says, don’t compare to the “weekends or trips to Nashville or Vegas” we’re considering now.
A crew of Will Ferrell characters in Newport, Rhode Island
Sullivan says the No. 1 benefit of having a micro-bachelor is getting everyone on the same page for a night of raucous fun instead of partying hard over a long weekend.
This was the biggest goal of Mackenzie Newcomb, who was planning a surprise bachelorette party for her little sister Kate in May.
On the agenda for Kate Newcomb’s one-night bachelorette in Newport was dressing up as different Will Ferrell characters to hit the local bar scene.
Courtesy of the topic
According to Newcomb, an overnight sleepover at her cousin’s house in Newport, Rhode Island, was the perfect plan: Many of Kate’s Boston-area friends could easily get there, lodging was free, and attendees could mingle with top party personalities.
“We will do our best for our bride, we will not leave the dance floor, we will not look at our phones, we will not complain about anything,” says Newcomb.
The evening began with a hibachi dinner at home (about $1,100 was split among the 12 women, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It). Women then used Kate’s celebrity crush, Will Ferrell, as inspiration to dress as Kate’s most iconic characters. The team of costumed Ron Burgundys and Ricky Bobbys spent the night shutting down the town’s bar scene.
“Everybody’s drinking, everybody’s dancing, nobody’s hungover,” says Newcomb. “Come, have a great night and go.”
Mackenzie Newcomb helped organize a surprise one-day bachelorette party for her younger sister Kate in May.
Courtesy of the topic
Newcomb, 33, says low cost was a big factor in making the party work for her sister. The increasing financial commitment of attending large wedding events has been a main topic of discussion among groups of friends for years.
Thirty-eight percent of Gen Z and Millennial wedding guests say: taken on debt According to a survey by Credit Karma in 2025, the event will join the marathon.
According to Montemurro, some participants these days are at a stage in life where their appetite for expensive bachelorette trips has been exhausted. American women getting married later in lifemany may have already taken a number of bachelorette getaways, have friends with childcare responsibilities, or have the discretionary income to plan friend vacations without tying them down to a wedding engagement.
Montemurro suggests that these women may feel less obligated to go on a bachelorette trip on their own.
Come, have a great night and go.
Newcomb, who plans multi-day reading retreats to liveShe says a one-night bachelorette is the perfect compromise for an “anxious bride.”
“This allows you to enjoy this classic cultural experience while not taxing your friends as much as they would for a full-on bachelorette weekend,” he says. Plus, for those worried about mixing up their friend group or navigating dating policies, “they can and will definitely suck it up for one night.”
A pajama party in New York
Despite the debate about the time, money and message spent on bachelorette party planning, Montemurro says the one thing that has remained the same over the decades is why women plan and attend bachelorette parties: to show that they care about their friendship with the bride.
Alyssa Simmons, who lives in Washington, D.C., says she hopes planning a one-day bachelorette party will take the opportunity to “get back to focusing on what’s really important” — spending quality time with close friends as she moves on to a new chapter in her life.
Alyssa Simmons, third from left, is planning a one-day bachelorette party with friends in New York City, where they spent their early 20s together.
Courtesy of the topic
Simmons, 30, who grew up in New Jersey, says he plans to gather about five or six friends for a day of activities and an overnight stay in New York City, where many of them spent their teenage years and early 20s. The itinerary for her spring 2027 party includes brunching in Harlem, where she and her fiancée met, putting on a vaudeville show and splurging on a nice dinner out.
Simmons says he’s previously spent up to $2,500 on a four-day bachelorette trip, which he’s happy to put aside to celebrate a good friend, and is even considering taking another trip to the Dominican Republic soon. But for an only child who claims to have limited social clout, a one-night party strikes the perfect balance: celebrating without spending too much time, money or energy.
“Some people get carried away with their wedding events,” she says, “I like it for them, but it’s not possible for me.”
Simmons, who is planning her wedding for Labor Day 2027, says she’s opting to shake things up a bit and do things a little differently for herself and her friends.
“I thought it was a really nice compromise, and I haven’t had that slumber party vibe with my girls in a long time, especially in New York,” she says. “I thought it would be a lot of fun to do it this way.”
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