I'm the Best Man what now?

So you have been given the "honour" of being The Best Man. All those years of lending each other money, lying for each other, wearing dubious fashion trends, attempting to pull dubious girls have paid off and you are in effect, the last man standing amongst your group of mates.

After the elation of this moment dissolves it becomes clear that there is more to this than pouring out a succession of half-arsed jokes to a room full of strangers and piss-takers (friends) for 15 minutes. One of the big pre-wedding priorities is of course, the stag weekend.

This traditional event has developed over the years. Initially it was a simple night out with the lads in the local pub, a buffet that was generally overlooked (and thrown around at about 10pm ) and if you were lucky/unlucky, a stripper.

The playing field has changed slightly recently - Great Britain, Europe and beyond has become the venue for adrenalin-fuelled activities and adrenaline-fuelled drinking. Cheap airlines have opened up previously overlooked destinations and the lure of 8 pints for £10 is strong.

But where do you start?

Everyone's got a story about such and such having "the best stag weekend ever" and expectations can be high. The prospect of going down in history as the organiser of "the worst stag weekend ever" is not something anyone wants to carry around with them, and if your friends are anything like mine, you will, and they won't let you forget it. Ever.

This is where we come in.

The Stag Company has had 6 years solid experience in organising weekends from Brighton stag nights and Edinburgh stag weekends through to Amsterdam stag weekends and Krakow stag weekends and we would like to take this opportunity to give you some general advice.

The best man and the stag

You guys are the key players in the event and as such your decision is final.

The phrase to remember at all times is "As long as the stag and the best man are happy the others must, to a certain extent, follow suit."

If you spend your time making sure you are pleasing everyone in your group you might as well stay in your local pub. 12 opinions on what type of restaurant you want to go to, locations you want, activities you want, are only going to confuse the already daunting task.

You must know that as a group of friends you will have a good time anywhere so talk solely to the stag and stick to your guns.

Best man booking something

The simple thing to remember here is the further in advance you book the better hotels you will be offered and better choice of activities and timeslots.

No-one wants to do go-karting at 9am on a Saturday morning after a night on the beers. All of the suppliers for the weekend operate on a first-come-first-served basis and when you consider there are over 40,000 stag groups out each year in the UK alone you can see the situation clearly.

Phoning up 3 weeks before the weekend date and trying to book up 20 guys may not always produce the results you want.

In the ideal world you should look at getting in early (3-4 months in advance if possible).

Best man locations

It has been years since "Stag Night" transformed into "Stag Weekend" and the choice is almost endless.

The best way to start, once you have a list of the lads, is to decide upon the question of where to go and what to do.

Keep it simple at first and be realistic about costs, not everyone will be able to afford a weekend in New York but the majority will be able to attend a 2 day extravaganza in Nottingham stag weekends.

You want as many of the people on your list to attend so be realistic with budget and be aware that packages are there to be personalised in terms of price as well as activities.

If you let us know what you want we will put 100% effort into providing it for you.

UK Stag Weekend Destinations

There are a host of excellent destinations in the UK to choose from and again the Stag and the Best Man should have the final say on this one.

Be aware that many of the coastal towns (Brighton stag weekends, Newquay stag weekends, Bournemouth stag weekends etc) simply do not accept one night stays from March onwards. This is simply because the tourist trade picks up immensely over this time and the hotels know they can fill up for both nights without fail.

Also don’t forget to take into account getting to the location in your budget as this can affect the choice dramatically.

European Stag Weekend Destinations

The key thing to consider here is FLIGHTS and TIMESCALE.

If you are determined to go overseas then you need to be ahead of the game on this one.

There is little point in deciding two weeks before the weekend date you want to go to Budapest. It sounds great but the flight prices generally put this idea to rest. Budget airlines are not always as cheap as advertised and long gone are the days of last minute booking for cheap fares, at least not for 10 people.

Choose your location and get the flights straight away, realistically 4-5 months in advance, this way you should be getting them around the £100 mark. Websites such as www.skyscanner.net provide a good round up of flights to European destinations.

Think of alternate days for better prices, often going on a Thursday to Saturday can be cheaper for example.

Also if you have a large group, get the core guys to get the flights straight away and the rest of the guys will soon follow suit. For example, if you all wait another four weeks for two of your group to get the money together by the time you all go to book the flights may have doubled in price and then it is essentially back to the drawing board.