Will Stevenson made a habit of piggy-backing on complete stranger’s send-offs (Picture: SWNS)
A party animal spent a sobering £50,000 to go to 56 stag dos in 18 months – and doesn’t regret a single thing.
Will Stevenson, 43, watched his credit card bill grow longer and longer as he downed airport pints and wolfed down English breakfasts before flying off to yet another stag do.
The Lincoln local first got a taste of the stag do life when he bid online to piggyback a complete stranger’s Budapest bachelor party in 2015.
After him partying with 22 guys he’d never met before made national news, Will soon became the go-to man for prospective grooms in scenes straight out of the film The Wedding Ringer.
He’s boarded flights to too many countries than he can count now – which is quite a feat given he was once scared of flying – from Tenerife and Gran Canaria to Amsterdam and Australia.
Sydney, Las Vegas and New York are also on the car salesman’s list of favourite stag do spots.
Will says he’s made life-long friends from going to all the bachelor parties (Picture: Will Stevenson / SWNS)
‘There was a time I was going to so many that I felt bad ever saying no,’ he said.
The pre-nuptial fun set Will back more than £50,000 in credit card bills which he’s still paying back nearly a decade later.
But during the blur of beaches and beer, Will proposed to his now wife Abigail in 2016.
He had no choice really but to have not one but three stag dos across Blackpool, Brighton and Magaluf.
Will and Abigail had a daughter, Iris, four years later and finally tied the knot in 2021 – a second baby is now on the way too due in February next year.
‘Things are a lot calmer nowadays,’ he said.
Stag and hen dos tend to cost on average in the triple digits (Picture: Will Stevenson / SWNS)
Of the dozens of stag dos, Will says some of his favourites have been in the US (Picture: Will Stevenson / SWNS)
Will, Abigail and baby Iris (Picture: Will Stevenson / SWNS)
‘When I proposed to my wife Abigail I told her I would stop doing stag dos apart from my own.
‘That didn’t stick – I did go on a few more – but they’re not often any more.
‘I keep in touch with more or less all the friends I made though!’
The cost of being added to stag or hen do group chat has gone up for years. Research commissioned by Hotels.com in 2018 found that eight in 10 people think the increase has been ‘staggering’ – no pun intended.
While the insurance company Aviva this year found that men spend £920 on average for their friends’ send-off, while women pay £652 for hen dos.
Beyond the usually triple-digit money spent on transport, accommodation and food and drink, Aviva found that other expenses like gifts, fancy dress costumes and activities can pile up high fast.
His stag do days might be long behind him, but Will says he looks back on them fondly.
‘It was always an adrenaline rush, he said, adding: ‘I did need about three months of not drinking after them all, though.’
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He might have had a hangover or two, though.
