When it’s time to tie the knot and take the dive, you way as well go out on a high! A stag party is the last chance for a man to enjoy his freedom and more importantly enjoy the company of their friends before they are destined for cuddly nights in and ‘couples evenings’.

Traditionally, many parties would travel to a big city in the UK but with cheap travel and accommodation, many are travelling a little further. Eastern Europe and the Med are popular destinations but some people are even going as far as Thailand or even Las Vegas. If you are planning one, you should consider the circle of friends you mix with and whether they can all afford what you have planned, the last thing you want is to exclude your best man because he can’t afford the destination.

The key to the perfect stag do is planning, it’s not something that will just happen and you don’t want to waste something that doesn’t come along very often. You will need to begin planning in advance and if you have a wedding date make sure there is a period of recovery time before the big day, enough time for arguments to settle and eyebrows to grow back.

Once you have your date and destination sorted, come up with a theme, something outrageous that immediately makes all your mates scared of being seen in public. It’s also much easier to find your friends in a club if everyone is wearing fluorescent lime green man-kinis. If you can’t think of a theme good enough then consider charity shop roulette, each person can spend 10 in a charity shop on a full outfit that they may or may not wear, then put each outfit in a black bin bag and hand them out at random, you MUST wear what you are given. This way everyone ends up wit ha horrendous outfit that they had no choice in buying, the outcome will be hilarious.

If you do go abroad, go for a long weekend to make the most of it, rather than just sitting around recovering during the day time, it is worth planning some activities to make the weekend memorable. Paintballing is usually a popular choice or try contacting some local sports teams and organising a friendly game, many parties will organise a fancy dress match against some locals where nothing is taken seriously.

Be aware that most of the attendees other halves will have issue with them going on a stag do and probably won’t be greeting them open armed on their return, so try and make the whole debauchery seem a lot better than it is, enforce strict rules on what is said on your return, if there is need for a cover story make sure everyone is clear of what it is. Bringing home a gift for your loved one is also a good idea as it might make them forget about the love bite on your neck!

If you are planning a stag party for the groom, make sure there are a few novelty gifts and unique gifts waiting for him along the way to make things interesting.