7 Mistakes to Avoid when Organising a Stag Do

Before organising a stag do, pause for a moment to listen to the wise words of basketball supremo, clothes horse and cartoon star, Michael Jordan who once said” I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Hell yeah Mike! Makes you want punch the air doesn’t it?! Look up anyone who’s been successful and you’ll find they made mistakes. As Mr. Jordan outlines above, it’s learning from those mistakes that is instrumental in bringing achievement. So in a bid to bring you glory allow me to show you how to organise a stag do that rocks by learning from the mistakes of others. Avoid these pitfalls and you’ll execute a tomahawk slam dunk and have the crowd raving about it for years.

1) Underestimating the time it takes organising a stag do

A stag do is an event, and organising any event takes considerable time. Why? Because stuff goes wrong. People don’t always call back. You need to cater for vegetarians. The guy with a nut allergy. The dude you booked has gotten ill and you need to find a replacement. In other words there’s a whole host of activities that need to be taken care of, and that responsibility my friend is all yours! A very common mistake is to underestimate the amount of time it takes to organise a stag do and as a result, corners are cut, it’s that much more stressful and you end up looking like a bit of a you know what. Don’t let that be you! Start the process soon after your appointment as Best Man. It may seem like ages away but if you want to do cool stuff like jet packing, squad training or even go-karting you have to book in advance. In some case months ahead. Of course there is the option of stag do organisers in the uk who can take much of the donkey work out of the process. The pro is that you have someone to take care of business for you the con is that it will be a little more expensive.

2) Forgetting whose stag do it is

3) Being unrealistic about budget

In a big group of lads you will invariably have a spectrum of budgets when organising a stag do. Some may be city bankers who want think nothing of dropping a couple of hundred in a strip joint. Others may be students, on low incomes or even unemployed. As stag do organiser, this is something you need to be sensitive about. Whilst we’d all love to go on a big blow out to Vegas, you have to be realistic with the budget and cater for the group. Where you draw the line is ultimately the decision of the groom and you should consult with him. Realistically, it should be on the bottom quartile so as not to price anyone out.

Whilst we’d all love to go on a big blow out to Vegas, you have to be realistic with the budget and cater for the group

 4) Not being crystal clear on payment

Probably one of the mistakes that leads to most hostility when organising a stag do is not being clear to everyone upfront what the costs are going to be, who the stag party members need to pay and when its due. The amount of times I’ve heard stories about fights, verbal or otherwise, breaking out because someone hasn’t paid is too many to mention. This is the one big drawback of organising a stag do on your own – having to foot the bill and play debt collector. It can play havoc with your cashflow and you have to keep a firm eye on your bank balance to see who has paid and whose still in arrears. If you can see this being an issue then you may want to go down the stag do organiser route because they have a system where each person pays online in to a central account. If they don’t pay by a certain time, they don’t go. The beauty of this scenario is that you don’t have to play the bad guy.4) Not being crystal clear on payment

5) Trying to do too much

Many stag party organisers have fallen victim to their own enthusiasm and ended up with a disproportionate amount of egg on their face. “I know lads, we’ll get there, go on a pub crawl, get up the next day for a game of 5-a-side, hit go-karting in the afternoon, have a medieval banquet for dinner, go to the casino….” STOP! STOP! STOP! If this is you then you’re underestimating the difficulty of herding a large group of comatosed or hung-over blokes from one place to another (see below) but also the appetite of the group. The group will also need pockets of downtime here and there. An hour or two back at the hotel before going out for example to catch their breath and get ready for the next event. One stag activity in the day and one at night is usually enough.

6) Planning the stag activities too far apart (geographically that is)

This is one that many stag organisers fail to take in to account and here’s why it’s a problem – getting any group of over five people, from one place to the next is difficult. Throw in to the mix, a skinful of booze and heightened testosterone and you’ve got a real challenge on your hand. If you plan to move from one location to another, and then another, and another, I can assure you, you will be in a whole world of hurt. Flashbacks of geography field trips when Mr. Davis, was taking head count and chasing after the class clown who’d got left behind will come back to haunt you! Don’t be that guy! Ensure that if you have to move from A to B, its easy to do, specified in advance and that C, D, E and F are kept to a minimum.

7) Going large on Friday night

It’s Friday night. Everyone’s finished work for the week. The stag do is finally here and the group is pumped! Get to the destination, dump your bags and let’s hit the town! This is a normal state of affairs on any stag party. What you’ve got to be careful of however is that the group go too hard on the Friday because if they do, the Saturday which is probably the only full free day you all have is written off. I’ve seen this so many times its untrue. Indeed its not uncommon that one or two go so hard that they miss out on something the next day, be it the activity or even the whole night. Whilst it’s not your place to tell people what they can and can’t do, you can put certain barriers in place or provide incentives not to go too hard. For example, you can book flights so that they get in late. Book an early morning breakfast or offer a first come first serve allocation of transport. What you should avoid is booking anything alcohol intensive for the Friday, like a party bus, limo service or of course lapdancing club and save it for the Saturday.