25 people on the intial invite list.

First request has been for just £22 to get the digs for the night booked – the rest I can sort, but we need a bed for the night. Eight have paid. One I’ve found out second hand isn’t coming.

The (now seemingly cloud cuckoo) plan was karting, an retro arcade (stag is a big gamer), beers, curry, possibly a decent club.

I’m rapidly giving up on that.

How to keep my head before the day?

Centre Parks instead?

😀

Rules for arranging a stag rule

1. The only person you cater to is the stag, don’t try to accommodate anyone else or you’ll go mad, for every person who you cater for it will stop someone else going.
2. Give dead lines 3 weeks earlier than the actual deadline.
3. They don’t pay by actual deadline they don’t go. I had 25 yes’ when I was best man and 16 actually went.expect this.
4. Quote the price 10-20% higher than it is, something will crop up such as a person dropping out and the cost will increase for a room.
5. Take screen shots of everyone’s passports and boarding passes, someone always looses theirs.
6. Don’t overplan he night out, after a few drinks these plans always go out the window.

Have a good time.

Yep, all of the above.

I’d actually advocate working out roughly what you expect all accommodation, activities, food, etc to cost, add the 10-20% and ask for that to confirm places. What you have left over you can to pay for the earlier rounds of drinks.

It weeds out the flakey ones early, you won’t get whingers who pay for accommodation then are shocked later at what activities cost, it gives you flexibility when your planned accommodation for 25 becomes 15, and the inevitable last-minute dropouts won’t leave you out of pocket.

I’m going on one in April (I’m also taking my bike as I’ll pass 3/7 stanes on the journey). It’s already£100 a head pre food and drink and there are impossible expectations. They’re mainly city lads and no matter how many times I say that they’ll need to pre book a taxi for our group for both journey to and from eat/pub they think it won’t be a problem. Anyway I’m taking my bike and a bottle of malt.

You’ll probably have a better time with 8 than 25 to be fair, especially if it’s the 8 that want to go.

A stag do of 20 odd isn’t going to be welcome in most accommodation or decent night clubs for a start.

It’s always boils down to the cash. I’ve done a few stags and biking trips before. Some people are just shit at paying and I’ve now taken the view that if they don’t pay up early they’re off the list as there’s only one person who ends up out of pocket!

Wrightyson spot on. Give them a deadline of say, net Monday, make it clear if they don’t pay they ain’t coming.

Pay someone else to organise it.

[video]https://youtu.be/WBvCDz-Y45g[/video]

Been on both sides of this a fair few times.

When best man organizing – I had a few people ducking out last minute, questioning the cost of some ferret racing in rural Ireland (!!). Come on lads we get a free pint of Guinness after!! And those who despite answering the usual round robin emails, drop silent when you send anything stag related.

Flip side, when we had just moved house, with zilch disposable income, no holiday for a couple of years, I had a request for a £450 all in trip to Scotland. Felt it wasn’t fair on the other half..

Turns out it was at Drummuir Castle, Diagios home in speyside, all the rare malt you could drink all weekend. I shouldn’t have moaned and I certainly got my money’s worth :-). Not open to the public, but last week they opened a few nights out. £1500 for two days!!

Maybe not quite what you want but use one of the companies available that do stag does as their business, that way each individual has to stump up the money and pay online for themselves and no-one else has to foot the bill if they dont turn up/drop out etc. This worked well for the last stag do I went on.

Budget for above-average hookers. Crack whores are a false economy imo.

I’ve used these before…
http://www.partyhouses.co.uk/

We had Toft Hall….. it was fantastic fun….there was a games room and we did some
shooting,coke ,hookers etc etc… 😉

I’d echo a few things said above. 8 is much easier to manage and run than 20+ so I’d not see that as a bad thing, as long as the core group are in.

Re. Money. Set a hard deadline to receive it and let people know that if they don’t send you the money by then they will not be getting a place to stay. That £22 figure would be rounded to £25 to be safe as well. Tell everyone today that you’re booking on Friday so if you’ve not got the cash in your account by 9am Friday they won’t be in. Don’t be afriad of using the stag to give people a nudge if needed either.

Re. Activities, same approach with the money as the above, tell them when you’re booking, add 10% to the cost and no money, no go. Also, don’t try and squeeze too much in, the one’s I’ve been to work best when there was 1 activity per day planned, normally starting early afternoon. Then have a table booked for food a little earlier than you’d normally do so people have time to aim for, then ideally have entry to a club organised too. Make sure you have a few bars in mind as you can never guarantee you’ll get into the first one.

Personally, I’d never use one of the companies above but then I do manage people for a living so find this sort of thing reasonably stress free.

I think stage dos fall down when it goes outside close friends and a couple of colleagues / relatives.

I’ve rarely been on a sag do that exceeded 10 folk – mine was about 8 or so, in Glencoe / Clachaig. Others have been similarly local to the area and school friends. As above, the further the connection, the more likely is they duck out..

Just threaten them with Blackpool if not enough cash is forthcoming.

http://www.dougiewallace.com/blackpool/

Is it pirate themed?

Use it as a test run for Hora’s stag do,Blackpool will be fine.

Hora’s already married. The stag do was great. I have photos.

Didn’t used to be a problem c 1993 pre interweb. Honestly can’t remember what we did – probably sent out letters with a price and meeting point. Cheques came in, people arrived

I think…..

Shameless plug (is that allowed?) but http://www.thestagcompany.com

We specialize in this kind of thing. Has certain advantages in that you can book the maximum group size you think you need and we can manage collecting the money from people directly and any dropouts. All you need to do is login and invite people. we have a good selection of stuff in most locations

Pat, ygm. Via your (cracking) site.

I suspect my budget may limit us though

ahh let me know the ref and i’ll ensure it gets to the best person

this thread has prompted me to at least reply to the best mans email about a stag do in March.

none* of it appeals to me.
*literally none. to the point i wonder how we are even friends.

Hi pat, it’s S665098

Relax, one I went on the best man decided Northampton was a good location, you cant possibly do worse than that.

Great website pat – apart from the hoaching typo on the banner ! Good old classic greengrocer’s apostrophe.

Does nobody proofread anything any more ?

(you mean “dos”, no “do’s”)

na we don’t need to, theres always someone on the internet who will point these things out for us.

erm thanks though 😉