The Bachelor Party Through the Years

The crazy thing about bachelor parties is that we all know it's a rite of passage, but we just make it up as we go along. We know it's a must to gather a bunch of cool dudes, and that the groom is supposed to hand out crazy cool personalized groomsmen gifts, but beyond that, the bachelor party has changed a great deal over time. To explore what guys go through on their last night of freedom, take a trip back in time as GroomStand.com explores another groomsmen origin story.

Bachelor Party Origins

Bachelor parties are no new thing. This man-ritual dates all the way back to the days of Sparta, where soldiers would gather to celebrate a fellow comrade on the last night before his wedding. As far as we know it, nothing too crazy happened. They ate dinner. They gave a toast. They wished him good luck.

This trend was the norm in marriage customs for well over a thousand years... that is until some yuppies from New York were caught with a dancer jumping out of a cake.

Turn of the Century Bachelor

Once the 20th century hit, everyone seemed to know about Stanford White's bachelor party, with the woman jumping out of the cake. Thanks to this trend setter, the best groomsmen gift you could deliver was a "strip tease" dancer in front of a large group of your closest friends.

Post War Bachelor

If a man was lucky enough to return from WWII, it was his right to claim a bride and start making babies. One of the problems with the baby-boomer era was the fact that most these new grooms were young, poor and inexperienced.

Thanks to the advancements of film and print, bachelor parties evolved to include some adult material. It's true that some upper class guys had enough cash to hook-up with an escort back then, but it wasn't near the norm. Most of these guys just came back from Europe. They were pretty nave, and needed some educating on what takes place the night of the honeymoon.

Sex Revolution Bachelor

The 1960's brought us birth control and Playboy. There was no such thing a sexual norms, which mean almost anything could fly at a bachelor party. Hookers. Strippers. You name it.

In the book Bachelor Party Confidential Prof. Joseph Slade talks about how the sixties was the most graphic jump in the evolution of the bachelor party. It was the sexual revolution, which means people actually had sex.

Modern Day Bachelor Party

Sure almost 50 years have passed since the sexual revolution. Drugs have come in and out. The idea of shaming or hazing the groom has come into style. But the most significant change over time is the need for the groom to get "it" all out of his system before the big day. Of course, this was without considering that whatever "it" could get back in his system and want to come out in the future. The fantasy of "the craziest night ever" is commercialized, and you can find it at a number of places - most notably being Las Vegas.

When you have your bachelor party, do something that you think is awesome, not some night of testing your manhood to beat your other buddy's bachelor party (unless that's your idea of something awesome). Make the night cool, and hook your bros up with personalized brush metal flasks as groomsmen gifts.