We did my best friend Priya’s bachelorette in a rented condo in Scottsdale, and I was in charge of decorations because I am the one who owns a paper cutter. I thought that made me qualified. It mostly made me the person crouched on a hotel bathroom floor at 7am trying to inflate letter balloons without waking anyone.
Here is the thing about bachelorette decor when there is a flight involved. Anything bulky you buy at a party store gets crushed in a suitcase or charges you twenty bucks for an extra bag. The stuff that survives is flat. Cardstock, a foam board you cut at home, a banner you roll into a tube and forget about until you tape it over the bed.
So this is the pile that earned its space in my carry-on, or that I wish I had packed instead of the inflatable arch I lugged across two states for nothing. A couple of links here are affiliate links. Grab one and it tips a little my way, no charge to you.
A few of the links below are affiliate links. If you print something from one, it tosses a little something my way and costs you nothing.
The thing I print before I even think about streamers
Decor is the fun part and also the part you forget until you are standing in the rental with no tape. I started printing a packing list the week before any trip after I left the whole banner kit on my counter once. Sat there for three days while we were in Nashville with nothing on the walls.
I type the headers I actually need, decor, snacks, the playlist speaker, and print one copy per person so nobody assumes someone else packed the candles. Last time I taped it inside the maid of honor’s folder so she could check things off at the gate.
The one gripe. The default boxes are a touch small for my handwriting, so I bumped the row height before printing. Thirty seconds, and then I could actually read what I wrote at 6am.
Puffy letters that read across a dim Airbnb living room
These are the soft pink and beige puff letters, and they are the reason the Scottsdale photos look intentional instead of like four women in a beige rental. I printed BRIDE big, mounted each letter on foam board from the craft store on Mill Ave, and cut them out with a box knife on the kitchen island.
They pack dead flat. I slid the printed sheets between two pieces of cardboard in my tote and assembled them once we landed, which beat hauling the air-pump letter balloons I used the year before.
Watch your ink though. The beige reads almost white if your printer runs warm, so I had the copy shop do mine on their machine. Three dollars, and the color actually showed up against the wall.
A quiet sign for the one person who is not in matching pajamas
Priya’s mom flew in for the brunch portion only, which felt like it needed a little marker so she did not feel like a chaperone. I cut this Mother of the Bride design on my Cricut in a rose gold vinyl I had left over from a baby shower, stuck it on a small acrylic frame, and propped it by her seat.
It also works printed flat if you do not own a cutting machine. I made a backup paper version, slid it in a five dollar frame from the drugstore, and honestly could not tell the two apart from across the table.
My only note. The fine lines in the lettering are thin, so weeding the vinyl took me longer than the whole rest of the setup. Pour a coffee first.
Little tags that made cheap favors look like we tried
We did not have a budget for real favors so I bought small bottles of nail polish at the dollar store, eleven of them, and that was the whole gift. The pink heel tags are what turned a bag of polish into something the group actually photographed.
I printed them on white cardstock, punched a hole in the corner with the single hole punch I keep in my junk drawer, and tied each one with baker’s twine while we watched a movie the night before the flight. Took maybe twenty minutes for all of them.
One snag. The heel shape has a skinny point, so if you cut by hand your scissors will fight you. I used a craft knife for the tips and let the curves stay a little rounded. Nobody noticed but me.
The backdrop word everyone posed in front of
I wanted one statement piece over the couch and this Going to the Chapel design did it without needing a single balloon. I cut the letters from black vinyl, weeded them on the plane tray table like a maniac, and pressed them onto a length of butcher paper once we got to the rental.
You can also blow it up across a few sheets and print a tiled version, which is what I did for my cousin’s party in March because I forgot my transfer tape at home. Taped the seams on the back. Held up all weekend.
The catch with the tiled route is lining up the sheets. Print page numbers in the margin first or you will be on the floor doing a paper jigsaw at midnight. Ask me how I know.
Simple line art for the trip that ended up beachy
Half our weekend was a pool, half was a day trip to the coast, and this beach line art tied the two looks together without screaming spring break. The single-color drawings print clean on basically any printer, even my streaky one at home.
I ran a few onto kraft paper, clipped them to twine with mini wooden pegs, and strung them across the patio doors. Cost me the price of one sheet of paper and the pegs I already owned from a different project I never finished.
One thing to flag. The lines are delicate, so if you shrink them too small they start to vanish. I printed mine at about postcard size and they held up. Smaller than that and you lose the whole sailboat.
The loud one, for the third night when the wine kicked in
Every bachelorette needs one decoration that is not classy at all, and this In My Feral Bride Era design was ours. I ironed it onto a cheap white tank from a five-pack so Priya had something dumb to wear on the last night out, and the group lost it.
It prints on iron-on transfer paper too if you skip the cutting machine. I made the backup that way for a coworker’s party and pressed it with a regular iron, towel on top, leaning my whole weight on it on the ironing board. Worked fine, mostly.
Reverse the image before you press iron-on transfers. I forgot once and gave a friend a shirt that read backwards in every mirror selfie. She still wears it out of spite.
Questions Brides Ask Me
What decorations do I need?
Honestly, less than you think. For Priya’s I brought a name sign, one big backdrop word, little tags for the favors, and a string of something across a window. That filled a whole rental and fit in a tote.
The stuff I have regretted hauling is the bulky inflatable junk. A few flat printed pieces and some tape do more than a suitcase of balloons that show up dented.
What travels well for a trip?
Anything you can roll or lay flat. Cardstock signs, printed letters you assemble at the rental, line art you clip to twine. I slide the sheets between two pieces of cardboard so they do not bend in the bag.
What does not travel is anything pre-inflated or made of glass. I learned that dragging an arch through two airports for a party where we used it for one photo, then left it behind.
How do I decorate on a budget?
Print at home or a copy shop and buy the cheap base separately. Our whole favor setup was dollar-store nail polish plus printed tags and some twine, maybe eight bucks total for eleven people.
The trick that saves the most is reusing the printer file. I cut the same letters for two different parties this year. Once you own the design, every party after the first is just paper and ink.
Before You Hit Print
If you take one thing from this, pack flat and assemble when you land. Every decoration I love now is something I can print, roll, or slide into a folder, because the crushed inflatable phase taught me a lesson I did not enjoy paying for.
Print a test page on plain paper first, hold it up across the room, and squint. If it still reads from the far couch, it will read in a crowded rental at night. Then go buy the good cardstock.