Show. Go hard. Leave home.
That pretty much sums up how Talia Mayden went to her one-night-only bachelorette party. In June, the New York designer and writer posted online about having a less-than-24-hour bash with her closest friends: pre-dinner drinks at a Lower East Side bar, a $1,100 private dinner at a 25-seat Chinatown restaurant, and an hour-long party bus rental that culminates in a night of screaming at a local bar.
By 2 a.m., Mayden says he and his friends were calling Uber to get back to their beds. “Without looking at the barrel of a multi-day trip, we were able to leave it all on the dance floor,” he wrote. “It was perfect.”
Maiden’s night is a departure from what many think of bachelorette parties today: multi-day retreats complete with coordinating outfits, planned activities, multiple nights out and a running tab many women melt down (and maybe send a few side texts complaining about) once they see the last Venmo request racking up the bill. In 2025, the average bachelorette partygoer spent about $1,300 per party, nearly double the 2019 average, according to wedding planning site Joy.
A packed girls’ night out is very similar to how the modern bachelorette party evolved in the late 1980s and ’90s, said Beth Montemurro, a sociology professor at Penn State Abington who has studied American bridal showers and bachelorette parties.
The explosion of bachelorette parties in the three decades since has reflected trends in weddings in general, influenced by the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and the rise of individualism, Montemurro said. Businesses are chasing the trend, with clubs and spas marketing group packages to bachelorettes, and cities like Nashville and Austin are calling themselves party hot spots.
More groups are now choosing local parties. Back in 2019, 40% of these events took place in the bride’s hometown. Now that number is less than 25%.
But in recent years, as the conversation about high-spending weddings has drawn more attention, some cost-conscious brides may aim to do something simple that “pushes back against the expectation of spending a lot,” Montemurro says.
With countless recent headlines decrying the rising costs and falling friendships of the bachelorette party machine, some brides are ditching the trend and returning to the ’90s-era girls’ night out. to find a better balance between finances, time constraints and personality, without sacrificing fun.
An ‘adventure’ party in Chicago
The year Olivia Sullivan got married, 2022, she attended nine more weddings and was part of three or four bachelorette parties. He says most groups require travel, and he typically spends about $1,500 on a weekend bachelorette trip, an amount he considers normal today.
In his previous trips, “some were good, some were bad, some were very expensive,” Sullivan, 34, tells CNBC Make It.
When it came time to plan his party in April 2022, he took another approach: He told 20 of his closest friends, family members and loved ones to join him in Chicago, where he lives, for one day filled with his favorite activities.
Olivia Sullivan kicked off her bachelorette party with a morning spin class, followed by afternoon tea, a private dinner and hopping around her favorite Chicago spots.
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About 10 of them started the morning with a spin class (Sullivan said it came with a $25 fee), followed by coffee and cake and headed to a downtown Chicago hotel the bride had booked for herself and an out-of-town friend. That afternoon, a dozen or so other women join her for tea at The Langham Hotel (about $100 each) before they all meet for dinner (another $100 each) and a hopping around Sullivan’s favorite spots.
Sullivan, who thinks wedding culture has gotten “completely out of hand,” says one-day events were too fast. It also came with a number of benefits: The “choose your own ride” program meant women could drop in and out of events.
It also meant that he could invite more friends to join him. “I didn’t want to have to make a decision about: Which 10 of my friends do I want to bring on my bachelorette party?” he says. Visitors “can spend as much money as they want and spend as much time as they want.”
Party expenses have been a major source of bachelorette drama for decades, Montemurro said. When she interviewed women for her 2006 book “Something Old, Something Bold: Bridal Showers and Bachelorette Parties,” some partygoers noted their frustration with paying for a car rental or the bride’s drinks for the night. Those costs didn’t compare to the “weekends or trips to Nashville or Vegas” we’re thinking about now, he says.
The cast of Will Ferrell in Newport, Rhode Island
Sullivan says the No. 1 benefit of having a micro-bachelorette is getting everyone on the same page for one night of crazy fun, rather than having to pace a long weekend of partying.
That was also the main goal of Mackenzie Newcomb, who planned a surprise bachelorette for her little sister, Kate, in May.
On Kate Newcomb’s one night bachelorette party in Newport she dressed up as Will Ferrell’s different characters to hit up a local bar.
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The one-night slumber party at their cousin’s house in Newport, Rhode Island was an absolute cult, Newcomb says: Most of Kate’s friends from Boston could get there easily, the lodging was free, and those who attended could meet the best people at the party.
“We’re going to go hard for our bride, we’re not going to leave the dance floor, we’re not going to be on our phones, we’re not going to complain about anything,” Newcomb said.
The evening began with a hibachi dinner (about $1,100 divided between 12 women, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It). Then the women used Kate’s celebrity crush – Will Ferrell – as inspiration to dress up as her iconic characters. A group of costumed Ron Burgundys and Ricky Bobbys spent the night shutting down the city’s bars.
“Everybody’s drinking, everybody’s dancing, nobody’s in a rush,” Newcomb said. “Just come, have one perfect night and go.”
Mackenzie Newcomb helped throw a one-day bachelorette party for her younger sister, Kate, in May.
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Newcomb, 33, says the low cost was a big factor in making the party work for his sister. The growing financial commitment to attending large wedding events has been a major topic of conversation among friend groups for years.
Thirty-eight percent of Gen Z and millennial wedding guests say they’ve gone into debt to attend weddings, according to a 2025 study from Credit Karma.
Some attendees these days are also at a stage in life where their desire for an expensive bachelorette trip has been used up, according to Montemurro. As American women marry later in life, many may have already passed the bachelorette rite of passage, have friends with childcare responsibilities, or have the income to plan friends’ vacations without committing to an engagement.
Montemurro posits that these women may feel less compelled to go out on their own for the bachelorette party.
Just come, have one perfect night and leave.
Newcomb, who organizes bachelorette parties for a living, says a one-night bachelorette is the perfect compromise for the “anxious bride.”
“It allows you to enjoy this classic cultural experience, while at the same time not financially draining your friends the way they would on a bachelorette weekend,” she says. And, for those worried about mixing up friend groups or navigating friendship politics, “they can suck you up one night for sure, and they will.”
New York City slumber party
As much time and money and textual wrangling goes into planning a bachelorette party, Montemurro says one thing that has remained the same over the decades is why women plan and attend bachelorette parties at all: to show that they care about their friendship with the bride.
Washington, DC resident Alyssa Simmons says she hopes hosting her one-day party will bring the event back to “focusing on what’s really important” — spending quality time with close friends as she embarks on a new chapter in her life.
Alyssa Simmons, third from left, plans a one-day bachelorette party with her friends in New York City, where they spent their early 20s together.
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Simmons, 30, who grew up in New Jersey, says he plans to gather five or six friends for a day of work and an overnight stay in New York City, where many of them spent their youth and early 20s. On the schedule for her spring 2027 event she has lunch in Harlem, where she and her boyfriend meet, catch a burlesque show, and have one delicious dinner.
Simmons says she’s spent up to $2,500 on a four-day bachelorette trip before, money she’s happy to put aside to celebrate a good friend, and is even thinking about going on one to the Dominican Republic soon. But for him, the only kid with a limited social battery to call himself, the one-night bash strikes the perfect balance: celebrating without commanding too much time, money or energy.
“Some people get obsessed” with weddings, she says, “and I love that for them, but it doesn’t happen for me.”
Simmons, who plans to get married on Labor Day 2027, says she’d rather get things done and do things differently for herself and her friends.
“I thought this was like a good compromise, and I haven’t had a slumber party vibe with my girls, and especially in New York City, in forever,” she said. “I thought it would be fun to do that.”
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