How to throw a 50 shades of grey bachelorette party

A few weeks ago I got to throw my BFF Kimmy a bachelorette party! I decided to make a 50 Shades of Grey bachelorette party, since she’s obsessed with the books. (Side note: When your boss asks what you’re doing this weekend, don’t say throwing your BFF a 50 Shades of Grey themed bachelorette party. You may enter into an awkward conversation where your boss proceeds to ask what 50 Shades of Grey is.) As soon as I started Googling and Pinteresting, I found that 50 Shades is a pretty popular theme for parties, especially bachelorettes. And rightly so; the sexy vibe just lends itself so well to a fun girls night. I gathered tons of ideas online, threw in some of my own, and the result was an awesome bachelorette party that Kim and the rest of the girls loved. If you’re looking to throw a 50 Shades party yourself, here are some fun party ideas!

These days a formal printed invitation really isn’t necessary for a bachelorette party, but an evite is so easy to make, and adds to the anticipation for the party. If you’re graphic design-inclined, you could make your own, or sites like punchbowl, evite, and Paperless Post do the designing and inviting for you. I found this handcuff evite on Paperless Post, and added in that Christian Grey was inviting the ladies, and requested them to wear their LBDs.

I put together 50 Shades themed party favors for all the girls that included nail polish with fun names like “Temptation Carnation,” handcuff bracelets, light up rings, and necklaces and keychains with 50 Shades charms. Etsy was my best friend here, and you can find the Etsy shops  where I found these little trinkets in the links below.

I cut up some ties from construction paper to use as name tags for the favors.

The 50 Shades keychains are c/o BookwormCharms on Etsy. The handcuff bracelets are c/o VictorianLove on Etsy.

The 50 Shades charm necklaces are c/o allstrungout1 on Etsy.

China Glaze colors from left to right: Go Crazy Red, Long Kiss, Naked, Caribbean Temptation, Temptation Carnation

 

I made a playlist on Spotify full of girly and fun songs for the preparty portion of the night at my apartment. Lots of Britney, Christina, Destiny’s Child, and perfect bachelorette classics like “It’s Raining Men,” kept us dancing and laughing. You can get some bachelorette music inspiration here or just play the whole list!

In keeping with the sexy theme, the wine that was served was Menage a Trois, Flirt, and Allure. I’ve gotta say, it’s pretty fun going to Safeway and roaming their wine aisles looking only for labels with sexy names. But it is a little awkward to explain when a Safeway employee asks if you need help finding anything.

For food, we served Hum-ASS, Hot Balls, Arti-CHOKE dip, Soft (limit) Sugar Cookies, and Vanilla Chocolate Sex.

For decor, we went to a thrift shop and bought a bunch of grey ties to have strewn about. And of course there is the lovely added touch of penis straws in a mason jar. #keepingitclassy

I love setting up a photo booth for parties (you can see a NYE one I did here and a Christmas one here) because they’re cheap and easy and provide hours of entertainment. And you’ll have awesome photos to look back at years later. For this photo booth, I bought a couple packs of silver metallic streamer wall decorations from Party City, and a few tissue pom-poms to hang from the ceiling. The props are a mix of Party City and Etsy.

We set up a camera with a flash on a tripod and had a blast. Since Nicole is a photographer we were able to use her professional equipment, but any decent camera with a good flash (preferably an external flash if you’re using a DSLR) will do. A remote would also be helpful, but the self-timer mode works as well.

The silver Venetian mask with the blue feather is c/o BridalBijou on Etsy.

The red and black lace mask is c/o 1274PeriwinkleLane on Etsy.

We also took Before and After shots from before we went out and after a night of partying. We died laughing over the results…

Gotta have games at a bachelorette party! The first game was a list of bachelorette party “challenges” where each challenge was assigned a point value. The person at the end of the night with the most points won a goodie bag full of beauty products. We got a guy to serenade the bachelorette, girls were doing cartwheels in the street, and a veil may or may not have been made out of toilet paper and worn  at the bar.