My Bachelorette

I said that my goal was to more or less wrap this blog up at the end of October and clearly I’ve missed that goal because I’ve yet to write about one of the highlights of this whole wedding experience: My stagette. So let’s get to it.

My stagette was held the Saturday night before my wedding. While this timing might not work for everyone, I liked having it then. Plus, it was the only Saturday that worked for my sister, who lives in New York, and since she was organizing the whole thing, she kind of had to be there.

Before I get any further I need to give a big “Thanks” to my sister for putting together a great night. While I did give her some ideas, she really organized the bulk of it.

She also put a lot of money into it. While my guests were to give her $25 each to cover the expenses of the night, I know that she paid far more than her $25 share (I guess this is where it pays, to have a big bridal party).

We started the night at my condo. In total, I think I had about 13 guests and they started trickling in about 5:30 pm (yeah, we started early, more on that in a second). In order to cut down a bit on costs, we did ask people to bring food and that worked out really well (in fact, we had leftovers).


Alcohol was provided by me and my sister and it was served by two professional bartenders who were also part of the evening’s entertainment. While my sister actually only hired one guy from BartenderOne, we end up with two and together they taught us how to make five different drinks that I’d picked out and showed us a few bar tricks as well.

Both guys were a lot of fun and it was really nice to have someone make drinks for us. And considering we got two guys for just over $200 the price is good (they bring all their own mixing equipment but unless you want to pay extra, you provide the alcohol, pop, glasses, etc.). The one annoying thing is that because of provincial law, you have to book these guys for a minimum of six hours. Of course, you don’t actually need to have them at your event for all eight hours but since you’re paying for their time… … and that’s why my stagette started at 5:30 pm.

In addition to the bartenders, we also had a professional makeup on hand. Her name is Jessica Jean Myers and she actually wrote a little blog entry about my stagette here. She taught us all some makeup tricks and tips, using me as her model. She first did a daytime look on me (which I loved), and then a night time look (which looked amazing though it was a bit on the dramatic side). This was great for many reasons, one of them being that I didn’t have to worry about my makeup that night.

After my looks were done, she sat down with some of my friends and did their makeup. While my sister originally booked her for four hours, she ended up staying for five which was great of her and also made her price, $300, a little easier to slow (she did bring all her own stuff in case you’re wondering).

At around 11 pm we headed out via taxi to the Mod Club to go dancing. I  picked it for a few reasons: 1) If you’re on guestlist, cover’s only $5 and the bride gets in free, 2) they play music that appeals to me and most of my friends and 3) it’s a pretty relaxed and fun place. The fact that my stagette fell on the Saturday night of Caribana made all of these points extra important.

As we expected, the Mod Club wasn’t super-busy and they played the right mix of Brit-pop, newer indie/alternative stuff and the occasional dance track. While I know this isn’t what many brides are looking for at their stagette, it was fine for me and I know I had a great time.

I feel I should offer a bunch of general stagette tips but seeing that this post is already enormous, I think I’ll save those for another day.