Michelle loves to give her clients the best possible salon experience in her own salons, and she is here today to give brides a few tips for planning a bachelorette party that centers around relaxation and pampering.

Who doesn’t want to be pampered for the evening in a relaxing setting with just friends. I hope you enjoy these ideas for a spa night bachelorette party as much as I did. This would even be fun if your not getting married. Get a few friends together for your own spa night mini retreat. Relax and have a great time!

Girls Night Pampering for Bachelorette Parties
From Michelle Lo Conte

If a male revue, a red-eye to Vegas or a crazy bar isn’t the type of Bachelorette party you dreamt us – sit back, relax and enjoy the utmost in pampering with these ideas for your Bachelorette Beauty Party!

Stay In:

Pick a spot to host a party, whether it be your home or a fancy hotel room(you’ll save money by not renting a limo, paying a bar tab, etc so why not splurge?) and hire outside spa vendors to come in.

There are massage therapists, nail technicians and make-up artists that make “house calls” – they will bring the spa or salon to you. Spend the night getting a variety of services done and have the party catered – just don’t forget the champagne!

Spa weekend:

If you want to plan a weekend getaway but want to relax check out places that are a driving distance away. Figure out how far you want to travel from home and go from there.

There are many types of places that offer these services. There are Bed and Breakfasts, Resorts, hotels – everything from Basic to Deluxe, it is all what your budget can handle. Be creative. There is something out there for you!

Start your night at a spa or salon:

You can also go to a spa or salon, get pampered and head out to paint the town red! Why not arrange to have a limo pick you up at the spa or salon after you are done getting all dolled up?

Research spas and salons in your area that offer what you want in a price point that works for you. Do you want to do mani’s and pedi’s? Makeovers? Hairstyles with make-up? The options are endless. Take a poll from your girls to get a feel on what they would want to do and take it from there.

Make dinner reservations after you are done at the spa or salon then continue the fun looking like a million bucks!

At my salon, we offer several packages. We will serve the ladies pink champagne and get it catered from a restaurant. There are a few different options we offer, and these can always be tweaked to suit your needs. Here are some of the combinations we offer to our clients

• Pink Daisy Package includes our Basic Mani and Eyebrow Design
• Pink Tulip Package includes our Basic Manicure, our Perfect Pink Pedicure and Eyebrow Design
• Pink Rose Package includes our Basic Manicure, our Perfect Pink Pedicure and Blow Out
• Pink Lily Package includes our Basic Manicure, our Perfect Pink Pedicure, Eyebrow Design and Blow Out

I want to thank Michelle for sharing her ideas here today. You can learn more about Michelle Lo Conte and setting up your own girls night pampering party at her website Pink Comb.

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Image: Sofitel Miami

So, what are you waiting for?

“Wedding of a Lifetime” Luxury Bridal Showcase

When: Sunday, August 30, 2009 1-5pm

Entrance Fee: $10

Monte Carlo Ballroom & Paris Ballroom Sofitel Miami invites you to experience a one-of -a-kind Luxury Bridal Showcase Featuring Miami’s top wedding retailers

Enter to win our Last Bride Standing Competition.

One lucky Bride can win a $5000 Bridal Shower at the Sofitel Miami.

RSVP/Lisa McDowell/305-264-4888 ext 337 lisa.mcdowell@sofitel.com

Think of what you can do with a $5,000 bridal shower?

Elegant bridal shower invitation – check

Yummy gourmet food – check

Overflowing supply of champagne – check (no el cheapo champers in the box for you and your girlfriends!)

Top of the line bridal shower favors – check

Gorgeous venue – check (Sofitel Miami, of course)

A couple of hours of great company, fun and relaxation – double check!

Good luck!

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So now you have an idea on the date, venue, theme and the budget. Now let’s talk about the other things you need to consider when planning a bridal shower:

Image: Shop.com

The Invitation

After deciding on the date and the venue, this is the next thing you need to do. You have 3 options here.

• You can buy the off-the-rack bridal shower invitations from your local bookstore or at Target, K Mart and the like
• If you’re crafty, you can create the bridal shower invitations yourself
• If you’re web-savvy, you can create a digital invitation and print it at your local printer or you can also choose to email to your guests rather than get them printed.

For bridal shower wordings, you can hop online and check these sites out: Card Shoppe and Colors by Design.

The Guests

If you don’t know all of the bride-to-be’s friends, the best source for the invitees will of course be the guest of honor. If it’s a surprise, best to ask her fiance and her family for who else you can invite to the shower. You need to consider the size of the party venue though. You may be restricted on the number of people you can invite if the size is prohibitive.

The Menu

The menu will depend on the time of the party. I like holding bridal showers at night time so you don’t feel dorky about serving alcohol. Cocktail is best served. To save, hold the party after dinner or late afternoon. There’s nothing stopping you from holding the party for at any time you want, ie brunch, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner.

The last one I organized is for my sister’s bridal shower and we held it after dinner at a local, upmarket videoke bar because most of the guests likee to sing the night away. If you’re hosting the party at home and to save on food costs, you can ask the guests to “bring a plate” so they contribute to the party food. It will not be unheard of if you assign people on what to bring…some can bring the food, some the drinks, the other cutleries and flatware (paper plates if you’re not keen to do any dishwashing!).

The Decorations

You can buy run-of-the-mill decorations from Target or K Mart. Usual decorations include a personalized bridal shower banner, table cloth, napkins and the like but they’re not necessary. Balloons are always a nice touch to any party.

The Games

Bridal shower games are always nice to have but not a must-have especially if you prefer to spend the night eating, drinking and gabbing

The Favors
What’s a party without favors? You can buy bits and pieces to put together as favors or you can order/buy them pre-packaged. There are tons of ideas for bridal shower favors.

**STICKY: Have you joined Our One Heart’s latest giveaways: Win 6 Gurkha Cigars! Perfect gift for your groomsmen!

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Image: shop.com

Among my friends and family, I am always the one assigned to organize bridal showers, baby showers, birthday parties and the like. If you have just been asked or you’ve volunteered yourself to organize a girlfriend’s bridal shower without thinking about it then you’ve come to Our One Heart at the right time.

Today I will talk about what you need to know in organizing bridal showers based from my ‘extensive’ experience (woot woot!):

The Date

Before creating a planning worksheet for all the things you do, you should lock the date first. There’s no point in going to all the trouble of planning if the guest of honor (the bride-to-be) can’t make it. Some organize the party 6 months before the wedding (I find that a tad scary though. With 6 months to go till the big day, anything can happen. The engaged couple may have a major argument and break off the wedding. Best to have the party a month before the wedding. It’s safe to say that with a month to go, it reduces the chances of the wedding getting cancelled or postponed. Also with a month to go, the bride may not as frazzled and would be able to enjoy a day off from wedding planning.

The Budget

Whether you’re hosting this at home or at a restaurant, you still need to consider the budget. The host normally pays for the shower but if you are organizing this with other friends, you can spread the cost with them. You need to budget for food, drinks, decoration, invitation (if you’re buying them), bridal shower favors, prizes for the games and accessories for the games.

The Theme

Having a theme for the bridal shower is not a must-have but it’s nice to have a theme. The theme could be based on the bride-to-be’s hobby or current obsession like Twilight or bath and bubbles. It could also be a theme based on what the bride-to-be would need in her marriage. Themes like kitchen theme or lingerie or honeymoon theme are good ones to consider.

The Venue

You should consider the party venue to be somewhere central from where your guests live. If you host it at the northern part of the city and most of your guests are coming from the south and it might take them an hour’s commute or drive, they might not be as keen to come. If you host it somewhere central then it increases chances of people attending the bridal shower. To save on costs, it also best to hold this either at your house (if you’re centrally located) or a friend who’s also invited to the wedding. As mentioned, the key is location. One other thing you need to consider is the size of the venue. If you are inviting 15 guests and your living room can only accommodate 5 people standing then best to consider holding the party somewhere else. Remember, you are also holding games so best to have a good-sized living room or space for this.

Part 2 of the Bridal Shower basics coming up!

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Image: Photoxpress

I don’t want to miss any of the action at a wedding or a bachelorette party I go to so I do keep my drinking in check. However, if there are times you can’t help getting drunk then you would need some hangover cures!

Here are my top 10 hangover cures for the weary you:

10) Cucumbers – No doubt the eyes need some major TLC to de-puff…

9) Ice pack – Applying a cold compress works wonders on a throbbing head.

Tomato Juice – If you can’t stomach the “hair of the dog” with a Bloody Mary, then tomato juice contains sugar to help break down the alcohol in your stomach.

7) Coffee with Lemon – Lemon juice alleviates nausea and the caffeine helps shrink blood vessels that cause that pounding headache…

6) Crackers with honey – This naturally flushes the system to rid your body of alcohol fast!

5) Peppermints – Kills two birds with one stone by freshening breath and helps stop a churning stomach …

4) Gatorade – Dehydration is a major cause of a hangover; give your system a hydrating boost and replenish electrolytes with your fav flavor…

3) Bananas or better yet, banana milkshake – Bananas helps calm the stomach and the milk soothes the stomach and re-hydrates your system.

2) Bacon, Egg and Cheese Sandwich – The greasier, the better to soak up all those celebratory tequila shots and eggs help re-hydrate…

1) Advil – make it Extra Strength – no explanation needed…

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Miniature Chair Placecard Holder and Favor Box Bridal Shower Wedding Favor

If you don’t need bridal shower favors, you can also use these as placecard holders for the wedding itself. You can put surprise treats inside like M&Ms that they can eat while waiting for the reception program to start OR you can put petals in it that guests can shower you with as you enter the reception area.

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Some of the most populat bridal shower party food include:

Image: Photoxpress

1. cupcakes — instead of having one large cake for the shower, why don’t you consider a small tower of cupcakes?

Image: mrsgooding

2. Chocolate fountain – I served this at the last bridal shower I hosted and boy, it was a hit! You can use any fruit, pretzels, marshmallows for your dipping food!

3. chicken nibbles are always popular too.

4. Vegetarian kebabs – if you’ve got guests who are vegetarian, you can also opt to serve vege kebabs with bell pepper, mushrooms, zucchini and the like.

Have you got any other ideas for bridal shower party food?

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TheGourmet Co does a great job with these oh so elegant bridal shower boxes and the cupcakes in it are meant to be divine!

You can choose for four cupcake mix favors to go inside their favor box with your choice of custom label. Do note that the ribbon is not included. The four cupcake mix favors are:

• vanilla
• chocolate
• champagne
• red velvet

This is what the cupcake looks like when baked:

Image: Gourmet Co

Each mix is made from the finest ingredients available including Nielsen-Massey pure Madagascar bourbon vanilla. They are all natural with no artificial
flavors or preservatives.

Post from: Our One Heart

But even so, if I was her, I’d still want a hen’s night. Just for the fun to be with my girls. I had 5 bachelorette parties hosted by various groups of friends and a more conservative bridal shower hosted by the female members of my family.

Image: Flickr

The former Playmate has no plans for a raucous female-only bash before her wedding and instead plans to celebrate jointly with her American football star fiance Hank Baskett.

She explained: “I don’t need it. We don’t need the last night of freedom thing. If we are apart, we are going to be on our cell phones like, ‘What the f**k are you doing? Is there any a*s in your face?’ “

What about you? Did you have a bridal shower, hen’s night or bachelorette party? What did you do?

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Image - Flickr

1. Day Spa – you can arrange for everyone go to the spa for a day or relaxation and massage! You don’t have to be over 21 to get into a spa

2. Rock climbing – my daughter and I have been going with a group of fab ladies to a local climbing centre and it’s so much fun! If you and the guests are into adventurous stuff then I’m sure they’d enjoy a rock climbing session. It’ll even be cooler if you’re wearing bridal veils while climbing!

3. High Teas – If you want a more subdued affair, hire a room at your local hotel and organize a high tea for you the ladies. Mimick the Queen’s English accent while you sip your tea and wear what my Hubby would call ‘librarian’ (READ: conservative!) suits to complete the effect!

Image: Flickr – Ari Blackthorne

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