We rented a cabin on Greer Lake for a long weekend, four of us plus the bride, and I was the one who showed up with a tote of printed signs because of course I was. I am the friend who prints things. Everyone has one. The cabin smelled like cedar and old life jackets, and I taped a welcome sign to the screen door that lasted until the first gust off the water knocked it sideways.
Here is what I figured out somewhere around the second night. A lake bachelorette does not need much, but the little printed bits are what made the photos look like we planned it instead of just driving up and hoping. Drink tags so nobody loses their seltzer on the dock. A sign for the games table. A tote for the bride so she had somewhere to put her sunscreen and the inflatable swan keys, do not ask.
So these are the printables I actually pulled into that weekend, plus a couple I have used since for other lake trips. I print a test page on plain paper first and squint at it from across the room. If it reads from the couch it reads from the dock. A few of the links here are affiliate links, so if you grab one it kicks a little something back to me. Does not cost you a thing.
Full disclosure, a few links are affiliate links. Use one and a few cents come back to me, never anything added to your price.
The dock sign that started every photo
I printed “Are We Drunk” big, like 11 by 14 big, and propped it against the cooler on the dock. By Saturday afternoon it was the unofficial backdrop for every single picture. The font is loud in a good way and it photographed clean even with the sun blasting off the lake behind it.
The png version is the one I leaned on because I wanted it on a tote and on a card, not just printed flat. I dropped it onto a plain canvas bag with iron-on transfer paper and it held up through three lake days and one accidental dunk.
One thing. The black is very black, and my home printer streaks anything that dark, so I drove the file to the copy shop on Bauer Street and had them run it. Two dollars a page. Cheaper than a new cartridge.
When you need everything matching by Thursday
We decided to do this trip with about ten days notice, which meant I needed a pile of matching art and I needed it fast. This bundle was the thing that saved me. I pulled little graphics out of it for the drink tags, the menu card for our one big dinner, and the sign that pointed people toward the bathroom because the cabin layout made no sense.
What I did was build a loose lake palette from it, sandy tan and a washed-out blue, and once everything matched it suddenly looked intentional. Nobody knew I assembled the whole thing at my kitchen counter the night before we left.
It is a lot of files, so give yourself a minute to actually open the folder and see what is in there. I almost missed the cutest little canoe graphic because I stopped scrolling too early.
The shirts that made us a crew on the water
I put “Summer Tanned and Tipsy” on five tank tops the week before we left. Pressed them myself with a cheap heat press I borrowed from my cousin, who uses it for her Etsy thing. The neon look pops against a tan, which is the whole point on a lake.
The bride got hers in a different color so she stood out in the group shots, and it worked. You can spot her in every photo without anyone wearing a sash, which she had specifically banned.
The neon files print fine but they look way better on a darker shirt than I expected, so test one before you commit to white. I wasted a white tank learning that. It looked washed out. Lesson cost me four dollars.
Borrowed from a reunion file, used for the cabin door
This one is technically a family reunion design but hear me out. I stripped the reunion text and used the tree and the little frame layout to make a “welcome to the lake” sign for the cabin door, with all five of our names on it. It read like we had a custom thing made.
The svg meant I could pull it into my editor and swap the words without the spacing falling apart. I typed our names in, lined them up under the tree, and printed it on the heavy ivory cardstock I had left over from my own wedding.
The tree art is detailed, so a streaky printer will show it. Mine did, on the first pass, which is why this also went to the copy shop. I am starting to think I should just buy a better printer.
The soft touch on the morning-after table
Not everything at a lake bachelorette is loud neon, and by Sunday morning we were all very quiet. I used these watercolor champagne glasses on the brunch menu card and on little folded place cards, soft and pretty, which felt right for the hungover portion of the weekend.
I printed them on plain matte paper because the watercolor texture goes flat and weird on glossy stock. Learned that the hard way at home before the trip. Matte holds the soft edges.
The colors are gentle, almost too gentle, so if your table runs dark they can disappear. I bumped the saturation a hair in my editor before printing the final stack. Took thirty seconds.
Cup designs so nobody drank from a stranger’s cup
Five women, one cabin, a thousand identical plastic cups by day two. This cup template bundle fixed that. I sized the designs down, printed them as little wraps, and taped one to each cup with the person’s name. Sounds fussy. Took ten minutes and saved a hundred “is this mine” conversations.
I also used one of the designs full size as the front of a thank-you note I left for the bride at the end. Same art, different job.
The templates are built to a specific cup size, so measure your actual cups first. I assumed and printed a batch that came out a little tall, with the design creeping over the rim. Recycled those. Second batch was right.
Retro bride art for the keepsake stuff
For the bride specifically I wanted something that said bride without a plastic tiara, so I went retro. I pressed the retro bride design onto a canvas tote she actually carried all weekend, sunscreen and keys and a paperback in there. She still uses it for the grocery run, which I take as a win.
The svg cut clean for the heat press, no jagged edges, and the retro color blocks held up better than I expected after she dragged it down to the water twice.
One catch, the bundle has a bunch of variations and some are busier than others. The simpler one pressed cleaner on fabric. The detailed version I saved for a printed card instead, where the little lines actually show up.
Questions Brides Ask Me
What do you do at a lake bachelorette?
Honestly, less than you think you need to. We did one real planned dinner, a lot of floating around on inflatables, a game night, and a slow brunch on the last morning. The lake does the entertaining for you.
The printed bits filled the gaps. A games table with a sign, drink tags so we stopped losing cups, a welcome sign for photos. I planned maybe four small things and let the rest happen.
What is the she’s a catch theme?
It is the fishing pun theme, she’s a catch, and it fits a lake weekend so well it is almost cheating. Think hooks, little fish, that kind of art. We leaned into it with the dock sign and the cup wraps.
A friend asked me if it was too cheesy and I told her cheesy is the point at a bachelorette. Nobody is grading you. The bride loved being called a catch all weekend.
What should I print?
If I had to cut it down to three, I would say a welcome sign for the door, drink or cup tags, and one shirt or tote design so the photos look like a set. That is the stuff that actually got used at Greer Lake.
Everything else is nice but optional. I printed a menu card and half the group did not look at it. The cup tags, though, those earned their place. Print those.
Before You Hit Print
The whole printed pile fit in one tote and cost me less than a single bottle of the wine we drank that first night. Most of it I made at my kitchen counter the week before, the rest I ran at the copy shop on Bauer because my printer cannot be trusted with anything darker than gray.
If you are throwing a lake weekend for someone, grab one or two of these and print a test page first. Tape it up, walk to the other side of the room, squint. That is my entire process and it has not failed me yet, screen-door gust aside.