By Megan Graham
Brides-to-be are flooding brands with requests for free swag for their bachelorette parties, leaving some small businesses struggling to keep up.
The future brides are sharing lists of contacts at companies and scripts to follow when emailing them. They post "haul" videos if they succeed, sometimes accompanied by the precise phrasing that worked, and bemoan the lack of engagement if nobody answers.
A woman snaps shut her laptop in one such TikTok from July, accompanied by a moody Taylor Swift song and the on-screen text, "Me when I've [spent] hours emailing over 200+ companies for my bachelorette and not one has responded."
In the caption below the video, she adds: "LMK what brands I should be contacting!!"
But the TikToks are flying in both directions, with some frustrated small businesses posting videos to complain about the volume of requests.
Asking brands for bachelorette "PR" packages has become common in recent years as influencer culture mingled with wedding conversations in social media.
And many brands are happy to oblige. Bare Bones, which makes bone broth and collagen-infused drink mixes, started noticing an influx in requests late last year.
" 'It's starting to snowball,' " co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Katherine Harvey recalled a company staffer warning. " 'Do we have a budget for this? Is there a cap on how many of these I can say yes to? What are the criteria for saying yes?' "
The company implemented a more formal process in time to handle more than 300 requests this year so far. It approved them all, distributing $2,600 worth of products before shipping.
Harvey calls it a "win-win."
"You're helping the bride make the event more affordable, and you're getting really authentic brand recognition and awareness," Harvey said. "And for us, the best form of marketing is trial, getting our product into people's mouths so they can experience it."
But some small brands can't consider every ask they receive, much less say yes to them all.
"I don't think a lot of people realize that for a lot of brands that they're sending these emails to are small teams, and every email takes up time," said Sarah Moret, founder and CEO of deodorant and body-care product company Curie. "Also, we can't afford to send tens of thousands of mini deodorants to everybody, especially when a lot of them aren't even paying customers."
Some bachelorette planners are using ChatGPT to automate outreach or failing to research their targets. Bulk Butter, which sells nut butters in flavors like Oreo Delight and Twixie Sticks, has gotten donation requests for both dairy and body butter.
"They're like, 'I love your product. I use it every single day. It's so hydrating and nourishing for my skin,' said founder and CEO Emily Koltermann. "These comments give me a good laugh, knowing they really haven't tried Bulk Butter."
Koltermann temporarily made her business email less accessible from the company's website after she started receiving hundreds of bridal PR inquiries weekly this spring.
"The tone of requests can definitely feel a little bit entitled, because the ask is positioned as they're doing the brand a favor," she said. "But what's really the return on investment?"
Koltermann replies to each request with congratulations for the bride and a discount code.
Weber's Resupply, an outdoors-focused clothing company, received so many form emails still addressed to "[insert business here]" that it made a filter to screen them out, according to founder Meredith Weber.
Weber has also given feedback on social media. One woman had asked for 15 free Aspen-themed sweaters for her bachelorette party, she said on TikTok this March.
"Ma'am, if you can afford an Aspen bachelorette trip, you can afford a ski sweater from my shop," Weber said in the video.
Some brides-to-be trying to participate in the trend are more careful with their asks.
"I had seen, obviously, the trend on Tiktok, of everyone reaching out to these companies, and they were making Excel spreadsheets and just asking anyone and everyone," said Carissa Mira, a Michigan-based accounting administrator with about 1,500 TikTok followers.
Mira said she made sure to carefully tailor her requests. At her bachelorette party earlier this month, she was able to give her bridesmaids hydration packets from Waterboy, Sweet Chaos popcorn, Bare Bones fruit punch mix and a slew of other free products.
"I definitely did go through some of the lists that I did come across, but a lot of them were either huge, huge companies that I just didn't honestly expect a response from, or companies that were really small that I just felt wrong to be like, 'Send me free stuff,'" she said.
But the requests may have already gone too far for many.
Dave Maffei, founder of cookie company Halfsies, generated headlines last year after putting an influencer on blast for seeking free bachelorette party treats despite having a small following.
"We were super, super slow, and I was like, I don't know if we're gonna last another year," Maffei said. "And we started getting these bachelorette requests."
The messages always claimed they loved the product, but never came from existing customers as far as he could tell.
And even influencers with big followings don't drive as much business for Halfsies as they used to. The company has provided cookies for large influencers' baby showers and other events, but they don't stand out any more when they're surrounded by products from a dozen other brands.
"We get nothing from that," Maffei said.
So a sales lift from 15 posts by a bride-to-be with 300 followers, he added, is "not gonna happen."
Write to Megan Graham at megan.graham@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 26, 2025 06:00 ET (10:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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