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4 Bachelorette Party Ideas Fit Brides Will Love

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Forget Vegas. If you’re helping to plan a bachelorette party for a future Mrs. who loves staying active, celebrate her upcoming nuptials with a fitness-focused getaway. The best part: You’ll be able to enjoy all those drinks without worrying about your bridesmaid dress feeling a little too tight afterward.

Ballooning and Biking in Yountville, California
The bride’s probably already in pretty high spirits, but you can lift them even more by taking her on a one-hour hot air balloon overlooking the beautiful vineyards of Napa Valley. Groups of up to 12 can share a balloon, then continue the adventure by bike: After you’re back on solid ground, you’ll pedal to various boutique wineries in Napa Valley, learning about locally made vino. Also included: a picnic lunch overlooking more vineyards in Yountville.
$ 354 per person for local transportation, a one-hour balloon flight, a post-flight Champagne breakfast buffet, bike and helmet rentals, a tour guide, and lunch. Winery tasting fees not included.
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White Water Rafting in Weatherly, Pennsylvania
Strapless wedding gown? No problem. The bride can row her way to super buff arms and shoulders on a rafting adventure down the Lehigh River Gorge in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. Each raft holds up to six people, and the 10-mile journey lasts about six hours (that includes a picnic break on the shore). Pack her favorite foods, and prove you’ve got her back as you work together to paddle through choppy Class II and III rapids together.
Starting at $ 65.55 per person (depending on the season) for gear and transportation back to the starting point
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Tightrope Walking in Monroe, North Carolina
After the nerve-wracking-in-a-good-way experience of completing a high-ropes course, walking down the aisle will seem like a breeze. At the Xtreeme Challenge park (about 45 minutes from Charlotte-Douglas International Airport), a guide will help your private party climb 28 feet into the air so you can make your way across a swinging 50-foot-long bridge strung between oak trees. At the top, you’ll navigate a horizontal rope ladder, sidestep along a tightrope cable, swing between platforms on a rope a la Tarzan, and zip line over a lake at up to 35 miles per hour. Women of any age and fitness level can participate…or opt out at any point in the course. If you stick it out for the full two-hour journey, you’ll work your core, upper, and lower body. Even better: It’s BYO (food and booze), so you can pop a bottle of champagne in honor of the bride after you complete the course.
About $ 100 per person for a private, 2-hour adventure with training and a professional group photo keepsake
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Butt-Busting in Playa del Carmen, Mexico
Want to make sure the bridal party really bonds? Head to the Riviera Maya in Mexico for a five-day bachelorette trip with Tiger Athletics Fit Camp. You’ll stay in a villa together (each one fits up to six people) and complete twice-daily group workouts—60 to 90 minutes of cardio and strength-training on the beach in the a.m., plus paddle boarding, kayaking, yoga, core work, or a pool workout when you reconvene in the late afternoon. But don’t worry—it’s not all work and no play. The resort is 30 minutes south of Playa del Carmen’s hopping nightlife, so you can still take the bride out on the town.
Starting at $ 1,500 per person for five days of accommodations, healthy breakfasts and snacks, training, kayak and paddleboard rentals, and a token T-shirt. Flights not included.
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photo: Stockbyte/Thinkstock

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Would You Throw an Ultrasound Party?

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Looking for a more interesting way to reveal the sex of your baby to your friends and family? Skip the Facebook post of your last doctor’s visit and order some hors d’oeuvres. Some ultrasound technicians are now offering baby shower packages that include live video and images of the fetus displayed in the comfort of your own home.

Thanks to new technology and smaller hardware, technicians can now conduct 3D and 4D ultrasounds outside of their clinics, prompting women to invite friends along for the fetal festivities. Chad Berry helps run Miracles Imaging in Lehigh Acres, Florida with his wife, Camie, a certified sonographer. They started offering baby shower packages three years ago and have recently added a “gender reveal package” to their available options. The reason for their at-home services was a product of limited options in their area and developments in the ultrasound technology, Berry says. “When we first started, our equipment had to fit in a minivan but now it’s the size of a laptop and fits in a briefcase so we can easily zip it up and take it places,” he says.

For $ 249, women can book an ultrasound at the location of their choice, which includes 20 to 30 3D images of the baby and a 4D video recording as well, says Berry. Although medical ultrasounds usually last a total of 18 minutes, Berry says shower ultrasounds can last up to 30 minutes depending on the location of the baby and the interest of the mom or the party guests.

In order to book a baby shower ultrasound with Miralces Imaging, Berry and his staff require mothers to be under the care of physician. They also have a medical director on staff they can call if they have questions or discover an issue with the fetus. In the past six months, they’ve conducted 15 off-site baby shower ultrasounds.

Although an extended ultrasound is loads of fun for your eager family members, it does pose some possible health risks, says Debra Wickman, MD, co-founder of SHE: Sexual Health Experts, a dedicated sexual health practice. “We think of ultrasounds as being really safe because it’s not radiation, but they can generate heat, and too much may affect the fetus,” Wickman says. The ultrasound probe heats more rapidly near bone, so the larger the baby is, the more likely the probe is to pass over boney areas, she explains. And if technicians are trying extra hard to get a good look at the baby’s face, they may be adding unnecessary heat there as well, she says.

Overheating is probably not a worry if the ultrasound is limited to 30 minutes, Wickman explains, but she is concerned about the pressure of the technicians to get high-quality images of the baby. “Patients have told me that technicians can get pretty rough trying to move the abdomen around to better position the baby so they can see the face or genitals (for a gender-reveal),” she says.

Typically moms-to-be have two ultrasounds of their growing baby—one in the first trimester and one in the second, says Wickman. It’s usually okay to have additional ultrasounds, just make a point to find a technician that is properly certified and has the correct training. Also, Wickman advises against using the high-energy Doppler component of the ultrasound unless recommended by a doctor, which looks at blood flow.

Sound Off: Would you throw an ultrasound party?

Image: iStockphoto/Thinkstock

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