We’ve all heard of babymoons and bachelorette parties and baby showers. Now, expectant moms are putting a cool and fun twist on the celebration of a mom-to-be — hatchelorette parties!
Instead of a relaxing beach vacation or romantic getaway with your spouse that most couples enjoy before baby comes, expectant moms are grabbing their best girls and getting out of town to go out on the town.
What is a hatchelorette party?
One mom-to-be and professional cosmetologist, Kiara Bastian, had her own hatchelorette party. She shared the special weekend on social media and soon went viral for her twist on a baby shower.
“This is your sign to have a hachelorette,” Bastian says in her viral video. “A last hurrah with your girls before you drop that beautiful baby.”
“I’m currently 24 weeks pregnant and my girls set up a beautiful itinerary in Chicago to celebrate me one last time before baby. We had matching pajamas, activities, and a beautiful Airbnb that my cousin decorated … They planned activities … We had a mocktail competition where everyone had to make up their own mocktail.”
The girls also played baby games, had a movie night, massages, fun brunches and fancy dinners, and adorable gift bags made by the mom-to-be!
How to plan a hatchelorette party
She told the New York Post that she’d already enjoyed a bachelorette trip and a babymoon — but she and her friends wanted one final girl’s trip before the reality of motherhood set in.
“[My friends] just wanted us to have a last hurrah because we love to go out and travel. So they were like, ‘Hey, let’s have a last road trip,” she told The Post.
“I just wanted to be bonding with my girls,” Bastian said. “I was scared, you know, I don’t want to be the mom that can’t go to Jamaica next month because I have a baby now.”
The beauty salon owner told The Post that the hachelorette party was a great way to relieve the obvious stress that comes with being pregnant, noting that keeping herself and her baby healthy is “the most anxiety-driven thing” of a woman’s life.
“I just needed my girls,” she admitted.
What a sweet sentiment and the perfect way to acknowledge and recognize just how special female friendships are. There’s no denying that relationships and friendships change after someone in the friend group has a baby and a hachelorette party seems like such a sweet way to transition into a new version of that.
For Bastian, the special weekend locked in her confidence that she had a support group surrounding her as she ventured into motherhood. It’s also such a special notion to those in her life who want to feel a part of the baby’s coming that’s not as formal and traditional as a baby shower.
“I made it my last reassurance like, ‘We’re doing this. We have a village. We’re happy. This isn’t a burden. This is something that the whole group can benefit from,” Bastian said.
Her son, Kruz, is now earth-side, and Bastian said she’s been visited by everyone who went on the trip several times.
Best hatchelorette party destinations
Another popular TikToker, Emily Belson, threw her her sister a low-key hatchelorette trip after her bachelorette was cancelled due to pandemic lockdowns in 2020.
“Come with us for my sister’s hatchelorette party, which is basically just a bachelorette before you’re going to have a baby,” she says in her video.
“The afternoon after her baby shower, we whisked her away to a local resort for the night. We went to the spa and got massages and then we had cocktails and mocktails in the room.”
“The great thing about a hatchelorette with pregos is that it’s a very like low-key, everyone feels very good and rested experience. So she got us some gifts which was really sweet. We had a joining rooms the next morning. We went to yoga, it was a little drizzly, but it was still really nice and then we got breakfast at the cafe and it was such a fun night celebrating my sister and her baby,” she concluded.
Belson admitted that the original bachelorette plan included more lively events like karaoke and grabbing drinks, but now with a pregnant sister, she had to pivot.
Enter: the hatchelorette party.
“It was really sweet, chill and intimate. We had a great time. And the most important thing to me was that she felt like she got a similar experience to all of her friends with their weddings, since she didn’t get to do it at that point,” she shared to The Post.
“My hope was just that she would just feel special and like her friends wanted to celebrate her.”
What is the difference between a baby shower and a hatchelorette party?
A baby shower typically includes your great aunt Tilly and your mom’s friend from work that has known you since you were a baby with a bigger focus on gifts. It’s “showering” the mom-to-be with items and presents (and love, of course) that she may need in the first few months of motherhood.
The hatchelorette party is more about mom, making sure she’s having one last hurrah before sleepless nights and clothes covered in spit-up. Pregnancy can take a toll on a woman’s mental and physical health. There’s something be said about a little pampering with your best friends to say “bye-bye” to the pre-kid you.
