Who Should Organise the Stag Party?

Stag weekends have changed over the last few years becoming holidays instead of one night on the town. This now puts a lot of pressure on the organiser of the stag party as expectations and responsibilities have increased dramatically.

A stag night use to be going out around your local town the night before the wedding, BUT not anymore. Stag nights have turned into anything from long stag weekends in big cities to week long escapades to stag do destinations such as Las Vegas. With this being the case, who should take on the pressure of organising such an expectation filled stag do party? It would be simple to argue that the best man should take this responsibility on by himself and then surprise the stag on the weekend. This does sound like the ideal solution however, with the amount of work involved in making this a stag do not to forget (for all the right reasons!); their own day to day obligations need to be factored in as well.


Duties that the organiser will have to undertake to organise the stag weekend:

• He has to speak to all the guys the stag knows, who could be all over the UK and potentially throughout the world



• find out their availability
  


• work to a budget everybody can afford



• coordinate where they want to go



• find out what activities they would like to do & which ones they definitely don’t or can’t do



• put a full package together



• find accommodation that will take stag groups



• have to pay a security deposit to reserve the accommodation (this comes out of his own pocket)



• cost the package up for the whole group
  


• start to collect the deposit off all the lads (which is easier said than done!)



• keep in contact with everyone and ensure that everyone can still attend the weekend



• finalise the exact group numbers



• collect the remaining money from everyone (this is the really hard part!)



• put together an itinerary of the weekend for everyone



• send everyone a map and directions to the accommodation & activities



• think of some stag pranks to do on the weekend and put them into action



• decide and buy stag party accessories



• ensure the whole weekend runs smoothly whilst also trying to have a good time.

Does the above sound daunting? Even the best organiser would find this hard to arrange on their own, so wouldn’t it make more sense for the stag to get involved? He knows all the lads attending his stag weekend, he also knows what they like/ dislike and what they can afford plus he can easily remind people to pay their monies on time as no one wants to disappoint the stag. This then gives more time for the best man to arrange stag do pranks on the weekend, which will hopefully make it a more memorable stag party.


Alternatively the argument for the best man is that he has been handpicked by the groom to look after this part of the wedding plans. This then gives time to the groom to help plan and organise the main wedding day and honeymoon.... if the bride to be lets him!
The best man can spend the time speaking to the other guys who are going on the stag weekend so that on the actual stag do everyone feels comfortable and relaxed.


In conclusion there are positives and negatives for both sides, so which one is right? This is a personal choice for the groomsman to decide, at the end of the day it’s his stag weekend and can he trust the best man to get it right!