Many of you are thinking: “What’s a bachelor party without alcohol, my best buds and sexy strippers dancing around us?”  While that question does make sense to the majority of the male population, trying something different like a casino night (even if you plan it prior to attending a strip club) can be quite entertaining.  With rows upon rows of slot machines, tables with card games, Roulette and Black Jack, the casino is a modern-day playground for adults.  However, gambling doesn’t end at the casino.  Visit Woodbine Race Track and bet on the best breeds and see if you’re lucky enough to score some extra coin off a winning horse.  Of course, there are many ways to bet on the horse races – daily double, pick 3, and so on.  Plus most facilities will provide you with instruction sheets if you’re new to betting.  What’s even better about these places is that your friends can kick back, socialize amongst each other and grab some food as well.  Here are some suggested gambling endeavors:

 The Casino

 The casino is without a doubt the place where adults come to play at all hours of the day up until the wee hours of the morning.  This is undoubtedly one of the places where you and your friends can spend hours in!  Who knows? One of you may even walk out of there a millionaire.  But unrealistic expectations aside, you and your buddies can spend time gambling and eventually dine at one of the casino’s restaurants followed by seeing a live show.  Transportation is usually the easiest to arrange when going to a casino.  If you and your buddies are looking to go to Casino Rama, for instance, their website brings up a list of coach bus services traveling there.  On the drop-down menu, select the city you’re coming from and the website will then pull up a list of pick-up dates, places and times, making your casino arrangements that much easier and no one has to volunteer to drive. Too drunk to get home at the end of a gambling night? Most casinos come equipped with hotel packages and continental breakfast to chase your hangover away the next day. 

 Horse Racing

 Betting on slim odds are not always a favourite, however, it can quickly become an addiction once you get a feel for the stronger breed, or winning horses.  Start off by betting something small.  Woodbine racetracks allow a person to bet an amount as little as $2.  From there you increase your betting amount as you begin to get comfortable with your bets and betting styles.  Check out Wegz Stadium Bar as well for off-track betting and high quality televisions to view sports games on (for those in your group not looking to gamble).  Wegz also has designated areas for group events complete with golf simulators, arcade games and lounge areas that you and your friends can book for a bachelor party. 

 Betting on your Favourite Hockey Team

 If you’re looking for something simple but not too standardized like your regular boys’ night in playing poker, check out a live Leafs game (or hockey team of your choice) and agree to bet on the odds your favourite team will win.  This puts an exciting gambling ‘twist’ to viewing a sports game and for the gambling amateurs out there, it will make watching the game that much more exciting.  You can make things interesting by arranging to take a shot every time your favourite team scores a goal? Or you can buy the groom a beer when the opposing team scores? – Create the bets as the game continues for added excitement.

It is the most important communication piece you will ever have pertaining to your event.  Guests most of the time would have to purchase one in order to be in attendance – of course, all proceeds would benefit the guest of honour, The Groom. These are the invitations and they are an essential and necessary communication piece to give to your guests.  While online social media invites like iContact, E-vite and Facebook Groups allow a much simpler and quicker format to invite guests to a bachelor party, there is a much more formalness to a professionally made, printed invite.  This is a communication piece that commemorates a transition in a man’s life, a rite of passage before he is committed to one person for the rest of his life and ending his crazy, single partying lifestyle.  Here are a few more reasons why a tangible invitation is a must-do:

In an age of instant communication, you lose the human touch:

We get invited to the odd party, concert, birthday bash, beer fest, walk-a-thon and so on through Facebook and other social media invitations.  Since we’re so use to this platform, it only seems like the best way to communicate about a bachelor party, right? Wrong.  We’ve become so accustomed to this standard way of invitation giving that we lose sight of the importance a tangible invitation gives us – that human touch.  Furthermore, it’s created on a cookie-cutter platform, leaving no room for a creative or personalized input and your invitation would therefore look like any other.  Thirdly, your guests will think that since it was created online, it is a casual event and they may feel they can invite other people and before you know it, 100 guests show up when you had intended on only 30 that night.  Lastly, you can’t keep track of who’s coming with an online invitation.  Because it’s such an informal invite, people will just state that they’re attending and feel they still can chose to be a no-show, should anything else come up.  Or worse, they will be listed as a “maybe” and you’re caught trying to regularly get in touch with them to confirm who’s coming and who’s not, leaving you struggling up until the night before the party, just to get the final guest count. 

 The right kind of communication:

Nothing communicates better than a tangible invitation in the hands of your invitees.  The invitation will set the tone of your event and give the appropriate information on the venue, theme, activities and the like – without any miscommunication (or anyone to reply on some event “wall” or two-way social media platform with alternative suggestions and inappropriate comments).  This is a controlled invitation because it is issued to only those invited and they “earn” it by purchasing them.  They can’t bring a friend last minute or delay their status confirmation either – once they’ve bought their ticket, they make it a priority to attend.  It’s also what’s written in the invitation that counts too, so get creative! An invitation doesn’t have to be boring with the same old headings like, date, time, place and R.S.V.P. There are many options to make your tickets suited to your likes and tastes.  Share some jokes about the groom or include that a magnum-sized bottle of Vodka will be given as a door prize. 

It makes your party official:

Once you have finalized the venue, date and every miniscule detail possible, the invitation is the final touch to make the bachelor party you’re organizing official.  Everything comes together once the invitations are done.  A professionally designed invite gives your event a more richer, holistic feeling.  Like a fundraiser or gala event, the tickets are to be sold and hopefully kept as a souvenir afterwards of a night well spent!