Honestly, there are very few things that girls love more than a boozy bachelorette brunch. In typical me/bridesmaid fashion, I decided to plan a mini bachelorette brunch at my apartment to kick off my friend Karly’s wedding month. I love a good challenge, so obviously I thought making this a surprise party would be the cherry on top to this bachelorette brunch idea. My friends are THOSE girls who group chat all day probably because I met them at terrachat online, so keeping this a secret was NOT an easy task for any of us. But of course, her tears of joy and countless “are you guys serious?” was well worth the hard work.

For our boozy bachelorette brunch, I wanted to have a good variety of hearty protein, fruits and sweets on the menu to make sure no one got TOO tipsy from the mimosas. I made these super easy and delicious sausage egg and cheese frittata muffins (and btw, the leftovers heat up so well!), candied bacon, and mini greek yogurt blackberry parfaits with vanilla granola. I also grabbed some fresh mini donuts from our local Mini Donut Factory because they’re just straight up adorable. The groom was sweet enough to sponsor the  champagne for the mimosa bar, which I completed with grapefruit juice, tropical orange juice, and raspberry lemonade with cut up strawberries and whole raspberries. There are so many yummy brunch party recipes out there, it was hard to pick a menu. Make sure to check out the Pinterest board at the bottom of this post for more ideas!

I got the majority of the decorations on Etsy (plates, confetti, she said yaaas banner), with the exception of the cake stand from the dollar section at Target and the napkins, juice containers, tablecloth and ice bucket from HomeGoods. We also got matching shirts with Beyonce lyrics for our post-brunch bar crawl from Etsy! The biggest win is that I got a six pack of glass champagne flutes from Ikea for like $4!!

Planning Your Own Boozy Bach Brunch (or any party!)

As with any party or get together, there is definitely a planning process that many people might not think about that allows the day to run smoothly. Planning is my jam, so none of my friends objected to letting me run with it this time. If you’re planning a bachelorette, birthday, engagement, or just-for-the-hell-of-it party, let me let you in on a few of my secrets.

1. Start with Pinterest for ideas. Make a secret board (especially if this is for a surprise party) and save random ideas to it while you brainstorm. You can start by pinning this article! This is how I originally decided I wanted to do a brunch and bar crawl theme rather than an evening on the town. Then, take to Etsy and Amazon and start checking out decorations, and pin them to your board to save the links!
2. Lists are your bff. Once you’ve got your theme/concept down, grab a piece of paper and make some lists. These should include a guest list, a menu list (including drinks) and a decorations list. Once you’ve got these categories covered, make a to-do list with a timeline. If you’re ordering from websites, this is super important – especially with Etsy – make sure you take note of shipping time. Some stuff might take over a week to come in, so you want to be sure to stay on top of dates and make sure you have everything on time for your big partay!
3. Extend the invites. I usually try to do this ASAP to check with everyone and make sure the majority of people are available for the date/time. If you’re matter of fact about it, people usually won’t object unless there’s a major conflict. I texted each of my friends individually and said “I’m planning this event on this date, will you be able to make it??”
4. Stick to your timeline. Order everything ahead of time, go to the grocery store the day before, and take note of how long each recipe you’re making will take. The more you plan it out, the less hectic the hours before the party will be! Another random tip – I always get ready (I do my hair and makeup, and pick out my outfit) before I start prepping. Time easily gets away and you don’t want your guests to show up while you’re still not even showered yet!
5. Go with the flow. Once the party starts, enjoy it!
6. Don’t forget to grab a bag of ice while you are out getting your groceries… Unless you have a really awesome friend to go grab it from the local gas station.

Getting Karly to my apartment was not easy, but we somehow still managed to surprise her even after changing plans like 8 times. Our friend Melissa asked Karly if she wanted to get brunch, and said she’d pick her up at 10:30. I put Karly’s bar crawl shirt in a cute gift bag with a note from me that said “Change of plans, put this on with some shorts and let’s celebrate!” for Melissa to give to her when she went to pick her up, that way she would have her shirt on with shorts and be ready to go (because with our luck, she’d show up to my apartment in a maxi dress or something and nothing to change in to so she could wear her shirt). Even on the way to my house, Karly still didn’t know what was really going on. I can only explain the look on her face when she walked through my door as complete disbelief! If you can pull off a surprise, I promise it’s worth it to see the reaction!

Be sure to check out my Bachelorette Brunch board and follow me on Pinterest! It’ll get you started with ideas, plus the recipes I used! You can also download the free printables by subscribing below!

xx