So you’re a best man (or a groom-to-be himself). The bachelor party invitation task is weighing heavy on you at this very moment in time, which is why you frantically searched for ideas to help you out.

I’ve run those exact same Google searches in the past — and I always wished there was a guide like this waiting for me. There was not.

As a multi-time bachelor party planner and former comedy writer turned tech industry sellout focusing on all things email, I feel uniquely qualified to write this guide.

So let’s bang out these bachelor party invitation emails then go our separate ways.

Bachelor Party Invitation Email: Table of Contents

• The 7 Things You Absolutely Must Take Care of Before You Send Bachelor Party Invites
• Your 3 Options for Emailing Bachelor Party Invitations (Pros and Cons)
• Funny Bachelor Party Invitation Wording – 30+ Email Subject Lines and Messages
• Step-by-Step Guide to Sending Bachelor Party Invitation Emails

The 7 Things You Absolutely Must Take Care of Before You Send Bachelor Party Invites

If you’ve checked off all of these boxes, you can get the invitations out within the next half hour or less. If you haven’t checked these boxes, time to hustle.

Here are the seven things you need to take care of before you can send bachelor party invitations.

And it’s important to really be solid on all of these. Once there’s evidence of cracks in the bachelor party leadership, people will start throwing out alternative ideas for weekends, locations, and activities. That always goes horrible.

Rule with an iron fist. But, you know, have fun.

Figuring out the invite list

If you’re the groom, you likely have an idea in your head of who you want to invite. If you’re the best man, the groom’s brother, or someone else planning the BP, you should make sure you’ve talked to the groom to lock down the list.

Is it a small group? A big group? Are you inviting dads and/or brothers? (Or moms? Probably don’t invite the groom’s future mother-in-law to the bachelor party.)

And once you have the invite list, you need to make sure you have everyone’s email addresses.

To prep for sending the emails, create a Google Sheet with columns called FirstName, LastName, and EmailAddress. We’ll use that Google Sheet later on in this guide.

Make sure to put yourself as the first entry on the Google Sheet. (We’ll use that for testing your email later on.)

Figuring out when you’re doing the bachelor party

Is it a full weekend? One night? The thing people do in movies and TV where you hold it the night before the wedding, guaranteeing something goes wrong and you find yourself speeding down the highway, bumper missing, zebra in the backseat, left eyebrow shaved off, to get the groom to the wedding on time?

Figuring out where you’re holding the bachelor party

This is especially important if lots of people need to book flights.

Figuring out a cost estimate

Even if you don’t want to talk exact numbers, indicate where you’ll be staying — a five-star hotel, two-star hotel, nice Airbnb, less nice Airbnb, and campsite all suggest different price levels.

Figuring out one or two major activities

You don’t have to have the whole bachelor party itinerary planned out yet. But you do want to share a few activities both to build hype — but also to further indicate possible costs. Hunting pheasant, hunting wild rural North Carolina boars, and hunting man (the most dangerous game of all) suggest different price levels.

Is the bachelor party a surprise?

You need to let everyone know in the invites — in large, bold type — if any element is a surprise. Whether the entire event is a surprise or you’re just not telling the groom some of the activities, everyone needs to know (and you need to remind them often).

When should you send bachelor party invitations?

You should give people around three months’ notice, potentially four months for a destination bachelor party. That’s the sweet spot: It’s early enough that people’s calendars should be pretty open and they’ll have time to book travel.

Of course, if you’re reading this and it’s a month before the bachelor party… well, better late than never.

Your 3 Options for Emailing Bachelor Party Invitations (Pros and Cons)

I tried all three of these different methods when I was planning bachelor parties. Here are their pros and cons.

Sending bachelor party invites with an invitation service (Evite, Paperless Post, and so on)

All the digital invitation services offer bachelor party invitations. Some are free, some are paid.

Bachelor parties don’t feel like occasions for fancy invitation templates, and these services kinda tacitly admit it. (For instance, Paperless Post offers 44 templates for bachelor party invitations. They have 539 templates for bridal shower invitations.)

Pros

• Easy (in theory). You pick a template, fill in a few details, and the platform handles the sending and reply management processes.
• Shows some level of effort. If you go with one of these services, it might send a subtle message that you’re highly focused on the details — and that’s a positive sign for how the bachelor party will go.

Cons

• Easy to ignore. We’ve become conditioned over the years to ignore Evites. Or — even worse — to respond “Maybe” to them. One of our biggest goals with the bachelor party invites we’ll send is to get definitive responses from all attendees. We’ll do that by making the emails feel personal, individualized, and impossible to ignore.
• Impersonal. There are a lot of cold email/email sales techniques that bleed over into bachelor party invitations. One is making things personal. Everyone knows an email they get from Evite/Paperless Post/other service isn’t personal. With better personalization, you can get a better response rate.
• You might get laughed out of the room. I’m pretty sure if I unironically sent a fancy invitation for a bachelor party I would’ve been laughed right out of the planning job. But I also run in really judgmental circles. Your mileage may vary.

Sending a mass email with everyone CCed

It’s important to have a bachelor party email chain (or text group). Essential, really. But is the invitation the moment for that? I say no.

Here are the pros and cons of the mass email method.

Pros

• Very easy. You dump everyone’s email addresses in, write your email, and send. That’s all you’ll have to do. And that’s not hard.
• Quick. You could have this email written and sent within minutes.

Cons

• Gives people a place to hide. A mass email to everyone is impersonal. Some people might respond, some people might not. Ultimately, you’ll wind up having to track down individual people to get answers. With the third method we’ll discuss, you’ll save that step.
• Opens the door to brainstorming. When you take rough ideas to the group as a whole, you open the door to people throwing out alternatives — which can quickly become a mess. At this stage, it’s best to deal with people individually — avoid that situation where the group starts going crazy and suddenly everyone’s offended you’re rejecting their suggestion to move the bachelor party from a weekend in Nashville to colonizing the moon.
• Save the group email for the group that’s going. This invitation email will have people who wind up saying yes to attending and people who wind up saying no. And the people who say no probably won’t want to remain on the thread as it gets closer to the bachelor party and everyone else is getting more and more hyped. So start that group email or group text after you’ve gotten all the invitation responses, not before.

Using a Gmail mail merge to send personalized mass invitation emails

In this method, you’ll be able to send everyone a personalized invitation — but you’ll do it all at once, from your own Gmail.

And sure, because you’re reading this on GMass, which is the leading app for sending Gmail mail merge emails, we have a horse in the race. But… you’ll definitely be able to do this on GMass’s free trial, which allows for 50 emails per day (and your invite list better be smaller than that).

Then maybe after you use GMass for this, you’ll realize it was the email app that’s been missing from your life this whole time — and you’ll think of dozens of ways you can use it for everything from finding new clients to hiring new employees to running your fantasy football league and everything in between. And then you’ll sign up for a paid plan (which is almost certainly cheaper than whatever other email service providers you use or have used) because you’re getting so much out of it. Yep. That’s definitely how this is all gonna go down.

Pros

• Send personalized emails without having to copy/paste or write individual emails. We’ll use your Google Sheet to run a mail merge so each person gets their own individual, personalized invite. And since it’s one-on-one, you’re more likely to get responses.
• Automated follow-ups. We can set this up so you’ll send automated follow-ups to nudge people who haven’t responded.
• Hard to ignore. Each email will be a one-on-one thread between you and the person you’re inviting. So, as we said before, they’ll be compelled to respond and not to ignore you.
• Easy. You’ll be able to send the invitations from inside Gmail. Adding the mail merge fields takes seconds and adding the auto follow-ups takes less than a few minutes.

Cons

• Slightly more time consuming than the CC method. While this method will be fast, it will take slightly longer than just dumping everyone into one mass email.
• No predesigned graphic templates. If you had your heart set on fancy graphics, you’ll have to make them — there are no graphic templates waiting for you here.

Funny Bachelor Party Invitation Wording – 30+ Email Subject Lines and Messages

The email templates you use are important because they set a tone (while also getting across all the key info).

Humor is pretty much a requirement here. But it doesn’t have to be totally original humor. You can “Cards Against Humanity” this up — mix and match our subject lines and message ideas below to create the funny bachelor party invitations you’re after.

You should also throw some jokes into the details if you can (you’ll see our example for that below as well).

Bachelor party invite email subject lines

Let’s break these into categories so you can grab whatever best fits your bachelor party’s vibe.

Building hype

• It’s Happening! Joe’s Bachelor Party – April 14-16
• IT’S ON. Joe. April. Vegas.
• Joe’s Bachelor Party = Mass Destruction
• Let’s kill Joe
• We all need this bad. Joe’s BP. Vegas.

Debauchery

• NO pictures or video allowed: Joe’s bachelor party in Vegas
• We all might die – Joe’s bachelor party
• Bad choices make the best stories: Joe’s bachelor party is coming
• A nice, chill, mature bachelor party… is not what Joe’s having
• I hope this isn’t your work email – Joe’s bachelor party invite

Gallows humor

• Joe’s Last Stand: Las Vegas, April 14-16
• Our funeral for Joe – Las Vegas, April 14-16
• Another one bites the dust – Joe’s bachelor party
• Joe’s last night of freedom
• The end is near. Joe’s bachelor party, April 14-16

Theme bachelor party (golf, camping, etc.)

• Time to tee off on Joe – April 14-16
• You’re invited to a foursome – Joe’s bachelor party at Pinehurst
• Joe’s pitching a tent – bachelor party in Sequoia
• Time for pole dancing – Joe’s BP in Vail
• You’ll probably catch something at Joe’s Bachelor Party (note: this is for a bachelor party that involves going to a baseball game, playing football, and so on)

Destination/event-focused bachelor party

• $9 Waters for All – Joe’s Bachelor Party at Coachella
• Indy 500 Bachelor Party for Joe – May 26-28
• Jazzfest. Bourbon Street. Incredible food. Celebrating Joe (if there’s time).
• Time to go all in – Joe’s Bachelor Party in Vegas
• Come push Joe out of a plane (skydiving, not murder)

Bachelor party invite email opening lines and messages

We recommend starting every email with the person’s first name. It’s just a little bit of personalization, but lets them know you’re sending this email to them specifically.

If there are a lot of people on the invite list you don’t know, you may also want to introduce yourself.

And then, after their name and/or your intro, jump into your opening line.

Opening lines

• Here it is, the email you’ve been waiting for ever since Joe got engaged. The link to his registry at Crate and Barrel bachelor party invite.
• Believe it or not, Joe is still going through with this wedding. On the down side, we’ll never see him again after this. On the up side, we’re going to have to throw the greatest bachelor party in the history of mankind.
• That’s right. The time has finally arrived for Joe’s bachelor party.
• This is the most important email you’ve received in weeks, maybe ever.
• It’s time to have the best weekend ever. And then we will never speak of it again.

The rest of the message

This email is a good scenario for a list; that keeps things easily readable (and skimmable), plus it keeps the email organized. It will also ensure you don’t accidentally forget a key detail.

We’re also putting a strong call-to-action in this email: You want the person to reply to let you know if they’re coming.

When: April 14th to 16th

Where: Las Vegas (we’re still locking down the hotel, but it will be on the Strip)

What we’ll be doing: It’s probably best that I don’t write it all down. But we will definitely be doing Saturday afternoon at a pool and a dinner that night at a steakhouse.

Costs: It’s Vegas, so really you’ll wind up making money on this trip. But you’ll be on the hook for flights, hotels, meals, and whatever activities we do. It’s not going to be cheap… but we’re also not going to go so crazy you need to take out a second mortgage.

I need to get a headcount so we can lock down the right number of hotel rooms and start making reservations. So please just reply to this email to let me know if you’re in or out (yes, reply to this email, so I can keep all the RSVPs in one place.) Please let me know as soon as you can, but by January 15th at the latest.

Mike

Step-by-Step Guide to Sending Bachelor Party Invitation Emails

You’ve taken all the steps to prepare and you’ve got your template. It’s time to send this email.

Step 1: Set up GMass (it takes about one minute, maybe less)

You’ll need to set up GMass to send this personalized mass invite.

Head to the Chrome Web Store and install the GMass extension. Give it the necessary permissions, and you’re good to go.

Step 2: Connect your Google Sheet

Open a new Gmail compose window. Click into the To field and you’ll see a little GMass icon appear on the right. Click that icon.

A pop-up will ask you how you want to add recipients. Click “From a Google Sheet.” Give any necessary permissions, then select your spreadsheet from the dropdown.

Click into the optional settings to make sure “Update Sheet with reporting data” is checked. Then click the Connect to Spreadsheet button.

You’ve now connected your Google Sheet. You’ll see GMass turned all of the emails into one alias (like “[email protected]”). GMass also hides the Send button, so you don’t accidentally fire off your email to the group before you’re ready.

Step 3: Compose your email

Time to write your email (or copy and paste some of the ideas from this article).

To add the person’s first name, type a left curly brace. The mail merge options will appear (they’re your Google Sheet columns). Choose {FirstName}.

Then write the rest of your email. You can use standard Gmail formatting here. But… while you can use fonts, colors, and pictures here, this email will be the most effective as a simple, text-based email. That should resonate more with everyone at the bachelor party than a fancy invite.

That being said, if you have a good, preferably embarrassing, photo of the bachelor, go ahead and toss that in.

Step 4: Set up automated follow-ups

You need answers on whether people are in or out. And a few follow-ups should get the job done.

Click the arrow next to the GMass button to bring up the GMass settings.

Click “Auto Follow-up” to open the automated follow-up options.

Check the box under Stage 1. Leave the dropdown on “No Reply” — we only want to send this if the person hasn’t replied to your first email. You can set the time frame however you want; I went with 4 days.

Type a one or two sentence message here.

Then repeat this process to set up two more automated follow-ups over the course of the next few weeks to people who haven’t replied.

These follow-ups will go out in the same email thread to the person as your original invite email — basically, they really look like you’re sending personal, one-on-one messages to the person to get their answer.

You can see how I set it all up in the image below.

If you want, you can also set this up so your auto follow-ups will only go out on weekdays. In the GMass settings box, click on “Schedule.” Then check the box that says “Skip weekends.”

Step 5: Send a test

You can send yourself a test of the entire sequence of emails by clicking the arrow next to the “Send Test” button in the top right of the GMass settings box, then checking the box for “Send all stages.”

That way you can make sure the mail merge is working right and everything looks good for every email in the series.

Step 6: Send

Assuming all looks good, you can send the email to everyone by clicking the red GMass button.

And you can monitor who’s opened and replied in your Google Sheet — GMass will add new columns to note who’s responding. You can also check the stats on your email in the GMass dashboard.

Bachelor Party Invite Emails: Time to Get Started

With this guide, we hope you can send a funny bachelor party invite that gets you a 100% reply rate — and that you can get the email taken care of, start to finish, in a very short amount of time.

If you’re ready to get rolling, download GMass from the Chrome Web Store and put together your email. And consider using GMass for all of your wedding emails — it’s a great way to keep costs down and send emails that get responses every step of the way.

Also, if you want to send me your invite, I’d be happy to evaluate it — but also, I will show up at the bachelor party. I used to be pretty fun, but now I’m over 40 with two kids so you get what you get. Still, if you’re willing to make that trade off, hit me up.