A few weeks ago, it happened: that moment when you look in the mirror or get on the scale or try on your summer outfits (do moths cause shrinkage, perchance?). I realized I needed to kick my weight-loss routine up a notch.

Sure, I’ve been losing slowly but steadily—my bridesmaid dresses came in too big, yay!—but I wasn’t yet where I wanted to be. At the very least, I wanted to tighten up my arms and waist for all that reception dancing. No one wants to have chicken arms flapping around during the chicken dance (okay, no one wants the chicken dance, but it’s the bride and groom’s prerogative to make their guests look ridiculous).

At Ducky's bachelorette party, girls just want to have fun.

Ladies, remember what we used to do at parties before we were old enough to drink? In my case, we played “light as a feather, stiff as a board.” That eventually evolved into truth or dare and “never have I ever” in junior high and high school.

Games we play now aren’t that different from the ones we played as kids. Poker is just a grown-up version of war and crazy eights. And dark, hip-hop-thumping nightclubs are like the closet in a grown-up game of “seven minutes in heaven.”

As it turns out, revisiting the games of our youth can be an exciting way to spend a bachelorette party. Celebrating your last night of freedom isn’t just about embracing your final bit of singledom—it’s also about the selfishness and lack of responsibility that you can’t really feel again once you start a family of your own. In other words, goofiness can be just the kind of fun a bride-to-be is looking for at her bachelorette party.

Last weekend at Ducky’s bridal shower, her bridesmaid BB entertained us by crafting a beautiful paper plate bouquet out of the bows and ribbons from Ducky’s shower gifts. I always forget about this tradition during the wrapping stage of my bridal shower gift-giving: the faux floral bouquet that’s made to be used at the wedding rehearsal. While I jotted down a thank-you list for Ducky’s shower gifts, I thought about all the other funny traditions that come with weddings.

One of my favorite things about weddings is all the tradition—especially all the stuff that no one seems to know the meanings of. (I imagine the amount of time it takes just to coordinate seating arrangements probably dissuades people from researching wedding traditions for kicks).

I love the tradition that the bride has to wear something blue…the idea that the groom can’t seen the bride before she walks down the aisle…even the fake bow bouquet.

My favorite magazine, Esquire, has a feature every month called What I’ve Learned. The article has one-liners and paragraph-long tips about life as told by a range of celebrities and other accomplished people. I’m stealing the format to share my tips about how to plan a bridal shower. I just finished planning Ducky’s, so I have a few tips:

• Plan early. So many things that go into a bridal shower are last-minute preparations. You wouldn’t want to bake a cake or buy a vegetable tray a week ahead of time. But don’t underestimate how long it can take to put together bridal-shower games, decorate the space, or order favors for the guests’ gift bags.

This weekend, I was sad to miss my good friend’s bridal shower in Ohio. Though she couldn’t be cooler about it—and the party certainly won’t be hurting in my absence—I was still just upset that I couldn’t be there to join in the fun. The combination of expenses, the day it was planned for, and travel logistics just didn’t work out for me. I cringed but I did it: I said no.

Wedding season has helped me target this personal weakness. “Sorry,” I’ll now say. “I have plans,” “I can’t afford it,” or “I gotta wash my hair.”

Seriously, though, it’s not that people often care if I say no. But I still hate saying it. I hate admitting I can’t handle it all. I hate feeling like I’ve let somebody down. I hate missing out on things that sound fun or interesting. Sometimes I actually have to convince myself that passing on one party isn’t like turning down tickets to see an Oprah taping. It’s not like the bartender at the bachelorette party is going to start giving away free cars.

This may be the only photo we got of the entire bachelorette party together--but some guy we didn't know jumped in the photo!

When Angie opened her first bachelorette present, she sighed in relief that we had spared the mother of the groom from this gift exchange.

We started Angie’s bachelorette party in adjoining hotel rooms in Raleigh, North Carolina. Ducking under curling-iron cords and dodging hairspray streams, we reminisced about the last time we had all gone out in the same town before. It had been two years before at the last group wedding. On this night, we distributed bachelorette paraphernalia and tied a sash around the woman of the hour. Pins with fun messages denoted us as her entourage—I pinned a button on my dress that read “Too Hot.” Wrigley put the same one on her butt. People noticed.

The bride gets grilled during her bridal shower trivia game.

“Rain on your wedding day means good luck,” one of my friends said when we looked out the taxi window at the torrential downpour standing between us and our destination last weekend in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“That’s just something a bitter bride made up that caught on,” my friend responded before stepping out of the car to make a dash into the restaurant.

“No holding back” describes the rest of our evening bridal shower celebrating Angie’s upcoming nuptials to her groom, Lion.

I should’ve known with this group that the shower would be a success, but I still didn’t anticipate quite that much laughter. I haven’t been to a shower at such a classy locale before—mostly I’ve just been to showers hosted in homes, and this place actually made me consider where I was putting my elbows. The cocktails all had cool names, and one was named for the maid of honor’s mother.