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Bachelorette Party Decorations: A Room-by-Room Plan for the Rental, and What to Buy, Make or Print

What bachelorette decorations you actually need, room by room (entrance, living room, photo spot, the bride's room), which to buy, make or print, how to decorate a rental without damage, and how to carry a theme.

Updated

Illustration: a corner of a bright room with a blank pastel pennant garland, blush and gold balloons, a gold fringe curtain, white flowers and a basket of cushions.

Decorate a bachelorette rental in four places and stop there: the entrance (a welcome sign or balloons), the main room (a banner over the wall everyone faces), one photo spot (a backdrop with good light) and the bride's room (a small surprise on her bed). Add table touches for meals. Everything else is optional. Below is what goes in each spot, what is worth buying versus making or printing, and how to carry a theme.

The plan, room by room

Spot What goes there Buy, make or print
Entrance Welcome sign with her name on an easel or the door; a balloon cluster by the step Print the sign; buy balloons
Main room One banner on the wall people face from the sofa; a balloon garland or streamers above it Print the banner; buy or make the garland
Photo spot A fringe curtain or fabric backdrop by a window, with a few props on a stool Buy the curtain; make props
Table and kitchen Flowers in jars, cups, napkins and straws in your colors, a drinks station Buy flowers and tableware
The bride's room A sash or robe on the bed, a card from the group, a few balloons Buy the robe; write the card
Bathroom A small basket: hair ties, pain relievers, makeup wipes, mints Buy

Do the entrance and the main room first. If time or money runs out, those two still make the place look like a party when the bride walks in.

Buy, make or print

Buy what is hard to make well: balloons and balloon garland kits, a fringe or sequin backdrop, flowers, tableware. The shopping list below gives example prices.

Make what is cheap and personal: flower jars, a photo-prop stool, a balloon cluster you blow up yourself, a playlist. Party on Butler suggests DIY for signs, banners, confetti and tablescapes but leaving complex balloon installs to professionals.

Print what needs her name or the theme words: the welcome sign, the banner, cup tags, game sheets. Printing lets you match colors and fonts across every piece and costs little more than paper and ink.

A shopping list for one rental

Buy these in your one or two colors. Example prices come from two published roundups and will have moved since; use them to judge whether a listing is reasonable, not as quotes.

Where to shop: party and craft stores and big-box stores for balloons and tableware; Etsy for personalized banners and signs; Amazon for themed balloons and backdrops. The two roundups above link Etsy, Michaels, Amazon, Walmart and Target among others.

Simple, cheap and classy, without clutter

  • Pick one or two colors plus white. Party on Butler recommends one theme and sticking to one to three colors; it makes inexpensive pieces look planned.
  • Spend on one big piece. A backdrop or a balloon garland does more than many small props.
  • Flowers make it look grown-up. Grocery-store bunches split into jars look classy.
  • Light matters. String lights and battery candles change a rental living room at night more than anything on the walls.

How to decorate an Airbnb or rental without trouble

Read the listing's house rules before you buy anything. Airbnb's community disturbance policy bans open-invite parties, disruptive gatherings and community disturbances during a reservation, so keep the party to your group and the noise down. That policy page does not cover decorations, so ask the host directly about anything you plan to stick to walls.

  • Use removable hooks, string and freestanding pieces (easels, stands) instead of tape on paint. Party on Butler tells hotel-room decorators to bring Command hooks, tape, scissors and string so nothing is damaged.
  • Leave loose confetti and glitter at home; WeddingWire advises you to check it's okay with your venue before using confetti.
  • Pack a takedown kit: trash bags, scissors, a box for anything you want to keep.
  • Put takedown on the itinerary for the morning of check-out, not after it.

Carrying a theme

A theme is three things repeated everywhere: colors, a few props and the words on your banner and sign.

Last rodeo or cowgirl. Colors: pink, white and denim or tan. Props: cowboy hats, bandanas, boot-shaped balloons, a disco ball. Words: "LAST RODEO" or "BRIDE'S LAST RIDE" on the banner. The Knot's last-rodeo supply list gathers banners, boot balloons, backdrops and welcome-bag accessories for this theme.

Beach or nautical. Colors: navy and white, or the softer pink-and-white mix that Sprinkled With Pink suggests instead of only blue and white. Props: shells in jars, a striped tablecloth, rope, shell balloons. Words: "SHIP SHAPE" style puns, or simply her name and "BRIDE".

Y2K. Colors: hot pink, baby blue and silver. Props: butterfly clips, inflatable furniture, a disposable camera station, tinsel. Words: something she said a lot in school, in all caps.

Use the same words on the banner, the sign and the cups, and the theme reads from across the room.

A printable banner for her name or theme words

For the main-room wall, the Bride to Be Banner with Any Name gives you ready-made BRIDE TO BE pennants (11 pennants, numbered in order) and a full set of 44 pennants, one of each from A–Z, 0–9 and a few symbols, so you can spell her name or theme words. Its personalise.html, an offline page, prints only the pennants your words need, in order and numbered. Each pennant is 4.9 × 7.4 in with a 2.75 in cap height. You print it yourself on cardstock, then cut, punch and hang it on string; nothing is printed or shipped.

For the entrance, the Welcome Sign for the Shower or the Weekend puts her name, the party and the date on an 8 × 10 in sign, or on 16 × 20 in and 18 × 24 in signs printed as tiles.

For the rest of the weekend, see how to plan a bachelorette party, bachelorette party activities and the bachelorette weekend itinerary.

Questions and answers

What decorations do you need for a bachelorette party?

Five things cover most rentals: something at the door (a sign or balloons), a banner over the main wall, one photo backdrop, a few table touches (flowers, cups, napkins) and a small surprise in the bride's room.

What are some cheap or DIY bachelorette decorations?

A printed banner and welcome sign, grocery-store flowers in jars, a balloon cluster you blow up yourself, a fringe curtain as a backdrop, and paper straws and napkins in the theme colors.

How do you decorate an Airbnb for a bachelorette party?

Read the listing's house rules first and ask the host about anything stuck to walls. Use removable hooks, string and freestanding pieces, skip loose confetti and glitter, and leave time to take it all down before check-out.

What stores sell bachelorette party decorations?

Party and craft stores, big-box stores and online marketplaces. WeddingWire's roundup points readers to Etsy and Michaels among others; The Knot's last-rodeo list links Amazon, Etsy, Walmart and Target.

What are some classy bachelorette decorations?

Keep to one or two colors plus white, use real or good faux flowers, candles in holders (battery ones in a rental), a simple script welcome sign and one backdrop rather than many small props.

Printables that go with this guide

Sources