When Priscilla (Prissy) Torres got engaged, she assumed she would have a big bachelorette party.
Torres, a 30-year-old Miami-based content creator and the founder of Mood House, is getting married on September 14.
The bride-to-be is tying the knot at a time when extended bachelorette parties have become the norm for many. It’s common for large groups to travel out of state for destination celebrations, which can be both time-consuming and costly.
“I started planning a very traditional bachelorette with about nine girls,” Torres told Business Insider. The group was made up of friends and close family members, and they planned to go to Palm Springs, California, for the trip.
But as time went on, Torres realized a bachelorette would be more difficult to pull off than she anticipated — so she decided to go on a solo trip instead.
A bachelorette didn’t feel right
Torres told BI that she and her friends were excited about the trip, but as the event loomed closer, it became more difficult for people to commit to a vacation due to work and family conflicts.
She also felt uncomfortable about how much the trip would cost her friends, as bachelorette trips can often be expensive for attendees.
“There were girls in that trip that financially couldn’t commit to spending or chipping in $800 to $1,000 on just an Airbnb,” Torres said. “You have to add in food, activities, and travel.”
“As a friend, I didn’t want to put that pressure on my friends,” she added, particularly because several of her friends will be traveling from out of town for her wedding.
“I feel like the greatest gift that I could get is my friends attending my wedding, and that’s all I want,” she said.
Torres had also opted not to have a bridal party, so she didn’t have a maid or matron of honor planning the trip. She told BI that the bachelorette came to feel like an additional stressor on top of wedding planning rather than a way to relax ahead of her nuptials.
“I told myself, ‘Oh my God, I don’t think I’m even happy doing this plan anymore, and I gotta figure out what I really want to do. Because at this point, I’m just catering to everybody else, and I’m not catering to what the actual point of having a bachelorette is about,'” she said.
About two months before the trip was supposed to take place, Torres decided to call off the big bachelorette in favor of a solo adventure.
The bride chose a solo trip instead
Instead of traveling to California, Torres went to Palm Beach, around an hour and a half from Miami, for a long weekend at the end of July.
“I love Palm Beach in general,” she said. “It’s so curated. It’s cute. It’s aesthetic, and it really screams me as the general vibe.”
She stayed at the Colony Palm Beach, which she selected because of its all-pink aesthetic.
Torres treated herself throughout the weekend, enjoying solo dinners, a day at the beach, a pool party at the hotel, a relaxing brunch, and a shopping trip on her way back to Miami on Monday.
The trip was much less expensive than her larger bachelorette party would have been, which Torres said was “relieving.” Her friends also didn’t lose out on any money when she decided to have a solo bachelorette trip since they had not put deposits down anywhere before Torres changed her mind.
She said she was apprehensive about spending time alone before she went on the trip, as the bachelorette marked her first solo vacation.
“The first night dinner I was a little nervous,” she said, adding that she worried other patrons would judge her for being alone.
“As soon as I got to the restaurant and I sat down, all of that went away,” she said. “I really enjoyed my own company.”
Torres said she left the weekend feeling “recharged” and grateful that she got to do exactly what she wanted, from enjoying a place with an aesthetic she liked to relaxing on the beach.
She also documented the weekend for her TikTok followers.
“I knew that there are brides out there or future brides that are feeling the same or have felt the same about their bachelorettes, and I didn’t want anybody to feel like they were alone in that thought,” she said.
The solo trip ended up being exactly what Torres needed
Torres said her hesitation about a solo bachelorette came from what she thought others might think of her trip.
“People are going to think, ‘Oh, this girl has no friends, she’s so lonely. Why would she choose that?'” Torres said of her fears. “But I built up this confidence, and I told myself there has to be an aspect of this that is wrapped in self-care.”
“I’ve been so stressed throughout this process,” she said of wedding planning. “It’s been a lovely process, but it is stressful, and I need to take some time for myself, treat myself, and take care of myself mentally and physically.”
Torres’ solo trip also allowed her to celebrate getting married the way she wanted, which she thinks might not have happened if she had a larger bachelorette.
“I feel like the general vibe for a bachelorette is celebrating your last moments of being single,” she said. “It kind of gives a negative connotation to marriage.”
“I wanted to take the time to reflect and just be at peace and celebrate that I did find such an amazing partner in life,” Torres continued. “I don’t care that I’m saying goodbye to my single life. I’m just looking forward to my new chapter and my new role in life as a wife.”
Torres wants other engaged people to know they don’t have to celebrate their impending nuptials the way they see other people do.
“I just think it’s so important to show that there’s no one way to do this phase of life. At the beginning, when you get engaged, I feel like everybody’s telling you the right way of doing things,” she said, adding that “it’s a lot of pressure.”
While choices like her solo bachelorette, forgoing a bridal party, and walking down the aisle with both of her parents might not be traditional, they feel right to Torres.
“No two brides are the same, so why do they have to have the exact same path?” she said.
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