How to Plan a Stag Do

Choose the Guest List

This is a tricky one, but make sure to think long and hard about who to invite. Would the stag really want his future Father-in-Law and Will from Accounts sharing his last night of freedom? Better to find out first than have a really awkward weekend. The best way to do this is to head to the pub (any excuse) and go through everyone that stag knows with the stag himself. Once you come up with a definitive list, then comes the next step.

An illustration of three men on the stag do guestlist

Communicate with the Group

Once the guests have been chosen, it’s down to you to get the ball rolling. Make the most of group chats on Facebook, e-mail and WhatsApp, so that you’re not swamped in confusing phone calls and texts from individual group members. This is a great way to break the ice between group members who may not know each other, but also chat about important information like dates people can make, what to pack, food allergies, disabilities etc.

Set a Budget

Budget is massively important when planning a stag do. Openly discussing exactly how much each person is willing to spend on the trip will avoid last minute drop outs and will help you choose a realistic destination i.e. you’re not getting to Vegas on fifty quid. Here are some things to consider when it comes to budget:

Location – would you rather spend a little more to save money on food and drink, or save on travel but have to spend a little more when you’re there? If you're a bit of a baller on a budget, you should probably check out our cheapest stag do locations, with tips on where to get pints for less than a quid. If you want to see which airlines fly to which destinations and how much it's going to cost, see our Flight Finder.
Length of trip – are you doing one night away, or a week long session? The best thing to do is to try agree on a daily amount, then times it by how many days you’re staying for. For example, if you budget for £100 a day and you’re there for three days, then budget for £300 for the trip.
What others can afford – you have to understand that it isn’t just you going away, there could be upwards of 20 other members of the group going on the stag do and they may not have the same amount of disposable cash to allow them to go to far-flung parts of the world
Activities – what would the stag like to do? Would it cost the earth to make his ultimate fantasy for his stag come to fruition? All serious things to consider when it comes to planning the ultimate pre-wedding celebrations. To see our top stag do activities, just select your location of choice to see what we have on offer.
Surprises for the stag – do you want the stag to be dressed up in a dangerously short skirt or something similarly embarrassing? All things to consider when it comes to budgeting. When you book with us, you'll get a spacial discount code for money off our stag do costumes and accessories.
Spending money – probably the most important when it comes to planning the budget, simply put, don’t go and blow all the money on planning and have nothing for refreshments during the whole weekend. Factor in the amount of days you’re going and if you and the group members are heavy drinkers, or if you will end up in the casino at the end of the night and will fancy a flutter? You never know, you could win big and not have to worry the rest of the weekend

It’s also common for the group members to club together to pay for the stag, so remember to factor this extra cost in when planning. If you’re booking through a company, make sure they’re ABTA protected, so that you’re covered if anything goes wrong.

Though one of the biggest dramas when it comes to planning a stag do is the issue of collecting cash from each member of the group, and keeping track of who owes what. However, we at Last Night of Freedom have you covered with our easy online payments. When you book up we ask for names of group members and set up an account which lets you to see who owes what and allows each member pay their money directly to us. That means you can focus your efforts on other more pressing matters, such as which embarrassing costume to dress the stag in.

An illustration of a piggy bank with coins going into it

Personalise the Stag Do to the Stag Himself

It sounds simple, but it’s important to have the stag’s interests at the front of your mind when planning. For example, if he prefers blow-the-budget all-nighters in mega-clubs, don’t take him on a real ale pub crawl, or if he can’t swim, don’t take him white water rafting. You’ll also need to sort your personalised stag do T-shirts or stag do costume to unite the pack – it’s a stag do rite of passage.

An illustration of some personalised stag do T-shirts

Have a Stag Do Itinerary for the Weekend

Before setting off on your ventures - whether you’re jetting off to a far flung abroad location, or staying within the UK – make sure you’ve got an itinerary of activities plotted out. You might be deemed ‘the boring one’, but they’ll thank you when everything goes like clockwork. When booking with Last Night of Freedom, we put together a travel pack telling you exactly where you be and at what time, for your activities, meals, bar crawls etc. When booking with Last Night of Freedom, we send you a travel pack, making sure you know exactly where to be and when.

Make a Checklist of What to Pack

Just as important as the itinerary, make sure you have a simple checklist of everything you need to pack for your weekend. For instance, if you’re going abroad, your tick list should include passports, boarding details, visas if necessary, currency, insurance details, sun cream and EHIC cards. The good thing about making a list like this is that you can use it as a checklist when you’re packing up to come home, making sure you don’t leave anything in the hotel room.

Organise Some Drinking Games

Have a few stag do drinking games up your sleeve – it’ll break the ice between group members once you get there and get that booze flowing. Dare cards, beer pong and fuzzy duck are stag do standards. However there are a few games we seriously do recommend playing such as he “assume the position” game which is when each member of the group gets their very own army soldier and whenever someone shouts the phrase “ASSUME THE POSITION” you must drop what you’re doing and recreate the same pose as your toy soldier. A little tip: wait until the Casanova of the group is chatting up someone at the bar and make him look like a right idiot.

Take a look at what we stock when it comes to stag games.

An illustration of a stag do drinking game, beer pong

Plan a Few Surprises

Withhold certain information about the trip from the stag - like embarrassing fancy dress, booking strippers and planning pranks – to give him the ultimate surprise when they do happen. You could even get him fake arrested or get him to mud wrestle a roly poly stripper… As well as hilarious memories, it’ll give you some ammo for your Best Man speech. Bonus.

An illustration of a person's hands in handcuffs

Prep for the Morning After

Don’t just spend the morning after wallowing in self-pity, trying to piece together events of the night before. Organise a greasy fry up and an adrenaline-pumping activity like paintballing or karting, to blow away those cobwebs from the night before. Or simply locate the nearest Wetherspoon’s for a nice greasy fry-up. Make sure they all get something in them before your planned daily antics. The lads will SERIOUSLY thank you.

An illustration of a full English breakfast and some paracetamol, as a hangover cure

Make a Stag Do Pact

After a memorable weekend there will no doubt be some embarrassing stories that others may not want others to know. Even some things are too serious to be mentioned in the best-man’s speech. So get the lads together and agree on a pact that what happens on the stag do, stag on the stag do…unless it makes great content for the speech.