Before you head out on NYE with your besties, your most sequined dress, heels and all the worst intentions, do like mom said and make sure you have everything you need before you walk out the door.

We know. You didn’t. It’s okay. We probably wouldn’t either if we hadn’t heard all the worst horror stories from girls who left the house before they had all their last minute necessities.

So, knowing what a hassle it can be to realize you’ve forgotten something after you’re out, we put together a last minute checklist so that you can sip champagne all night long without a care in the world!

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image via stryjek/Shutterstock

New Year’s Eve…you either love it or hate it.  True, it doesn’t usually live up to expectation, there’s never been a year that everyone makes it to midnight, and you don’t always have someone to kiss.  But there is champagne…God, is there champagne.  But despite all the inherit glitz and glam that comes with ringing in January 1^st, there are still those few annoying people who manage to ruin your night…

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Thank. God. For. Champagne.

[This post was originally written by Alex - University of South Carolina]

Is it safe to say most of us saw 500 Days of Summer? That self-indulgent, why-am-I-even-watching-this?, aww-he’s-so-whipped, just-love-him-already!, omg-she’s-such-a-bitch masterpiece? Yeah, well, then you’re well aware that Zooey “I’m just wearing this tiaria” Deschanel and JGL are pretty much the reigning queen and king of hipsterdom.

Think about it. If Brad and Ange — with their multicultural brood, gorgeous looks and endless swagger — are the regular person’s be all and end all of fabulosity, then Zooey and Joseph (Zoeseph?) are the emo kid’s equivalent. The whiney voices, the thrift store grandma sweaters, the depressed sighs…

And just when you thought your holiday season couldn’t get any cheerier, here are our two favorite people with a very enthusiastic, very upbeat question for you.

If Ke$ha and Prince had a love child, and then proceeded to pour some glitter on it, that child would be New Year’s Eve. Full of alcohol and lowered inhibitions, New Year’s Eve is the most fun you can have with your pants on…or off, depending on how you party. It is a night of last chances and new beginnings, first kisses and final opportunities…or at least this is what movies like New Year’s Eve would have us think. The truth is, New Year’s Eve is never what we expect. Like the ball that drops in Times Square, New Year’s Eve is usually insignificant and overrated.

Expectations for NYE:

Brimming with excitement, all of your single girlfriends come over to get ready for the big night. We’re talking pedicures on your toes-toes, trying on all your clothes-clothes, boys blowing up your phones-phones…well you get it. And although your friends look beautiful in their cocktail dresses, you’re the only one who ordered from Rent the Runway, and thus clearly look the best.

When you get to the party, there is a line out the door full of beautiful and glamorous people. Just as you are about to get disappointed, a gorgeous man with green eyes spots you from inside. He tells the bouncer to let you and your party in, and proceeds to order six Grey Goose martinis. Keep ‘em coming!

The place looks like a P Diddy party. You spend sometime on the dance floor with your girlfriends, drinking and dancing and eyeing Seth, the guy with the green eyes, as he comes back with your next martini. He has five sexy (but less sexy than himself) friends and each one hits it off with one of your girls.

The clock is about to hit eleven when Seth asks if you’d like to enjoy him on his family’s yacht for the last hour. It’s no big deal or anything, but he and his boys were planning on watching the fireworks over the New York skyline at midnight.

You move the party onto the boat. There is nothing but champagne, music and dancing. At midnight, Seth dips you, Old-Hollywood style, and goes in for a kiss. Everyone “Awws” and then proceeds to celebrate under the most beautiful firework display you have ever seen. You and Seth sneak away for the next couple of hours and after waking up to breakfast in bed, you contemplate starting a New Year with this wonderful man.

Reality for NYE:

Your stupid harlot friends all manage to find dates for New Year’s Eve, so you invite Isabella, your disgustingly-beautiful frenemy with huge boobs and like a nine inch waist, whose boyfriend is away on a modeling gig on Milan, and who stole your tenth grade boyfriend — but whatever you’re over it — to come along with you to a local house party.  She says she’ll meet you there.

When you get to the house party, the first thing you notice is the smell of stale beer and lost morals. There are not a lot of people there, just a few guys playing video games on the couch, a group of bitchy girls talking in the kitchen, a couple ravishingly hooking up in the bathroom and a cute guy pouring himself some Burnett’s and Sprite into a red cup…wait, maybe tonight is looking up after all.

You head over to the Burnett’s bottle, careful not to trip in your Barbie heels, and the guy pours you a cup. He asks you whom you’re here with and you awkwardly tell him that your friends are coming in a bit. Nevertheless, you engage in some pleasant small talk. His name is John, he is a Poli-Sci major, and he had just stopped by to pick up a few things from his friend.

He asks if would you like to come with him to his own party. He ensures it’s a lot more fun than this one. Just as you are about to say yes, Isabella and her group of model friends walk in the door looking entirely grossed out by the stains on the floor and on the walls. John tries not to be rude, but his attention has totally been put on Isabella. He excuses himself and greets her at the door.

At this point you are slightly too drunk to drive home. You think, fuck it, and grab the bottle of Burnett’s. This is your bottle now and like a dog protecting his favorite toy, you snarl at anyone who so much as looks at it. As the clock counts down to the last few seconds of the year, you can now be found lying fully clothed in the bathtub.

Despite what people say about the bottle-popping, kissing-strangers holiday, the truth is that it usually sucks. Maybe we are all lucky enough to have one or two great New Year’s Eves, but that’s about it. Either way, I wish you all the best of times this time around and who knows, maybe Seth is free and Isabella will get hit by a car this year.

Well, we can only hope.

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If you think your NYE outfit, alcohol supply and approximate cab fare combine to cost a pretty penny, just be glad you aren’t greeting 2012 from a nightclub in Vegas. It might sound fun at first: there’s a ton of options, the venues are gorgeous, and you can simply walk back to your hotel room whenever you’re ready to change outfits in time for breakfast, right?

Newsflash: unless you’re being escorted by a high-roller who is getting everything comp’d by the hotel, partying in Vegas on the last night of the year is serious business — literally, as in you’ll be spending a lot of money and the Strip will love you for it. Hotel room rates skyrocket and nightclubs prefer you arrive before 9PM. Before 9PM! You’ll hope to maintain a smooth buzz from overpriced mixed drinks until midnight so that you can participate in a cheap champagne toast and a sloppy kiss, and then hate your choice of heels when you suddenly decide to leave. Oh, and you’ll probably end up sleeping on the floor because you decided to cram way too many friends into the same room in order to make the weekend just a little bit more affordable.

Nevertheless, I’m actually headed that way this weekend, and here are the celebrities hosting overrated NYE celebrations on the Strip this Saturday, complete with pricing information. Now doesn’t that just look like SO much fun??! Oh man, I just can’t WAIT to empty out my wallet to party for a few hours alongside in the general vicinity of these amazing gods and goddesses!

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Which of these celebrities will probably end up partying in a half-empty nightclub because their prices were so ridiculous?

Ashley is a UC San Diego grad who is holding on way too tightly to a potential career in magazines and goes to Vegas all too often. She’s fascinated with celebrities and strawberry beer and doubles as a pathological texter/emailer/blogger. Feed the addiction with tweets @cashleelee. Thanks in advance.

New Year’s Eve is seriously THE most overrated holiday of the year. Valentine’s Day is the day that all lazy boyfriends have to get up off their asses and remind their girlfriends why they should stick around, and Halloween is the night to dress up like someone else and make out with someone whose face you don’t ever really want to see. So why celebrate NYE?

People say it’s the end of a year and the beginning of another. Well thanks, Captain Obvious, excuse me while I go “celebrate” the end of one minute and the beginning of the next sixty seconds of my life! That justification only works in a game of Power Hour, and besides, we all know that NYE isn’t actually about a night at all; it’s about a ten-second countdown and how you think you’ll feel afterwards. And unless you hit the lottery when the clock strikes midnight, absolutely nothing will change in your life after you spend an entire night getting drunk and flirting with the person you’ll make out with later on. Take it from those who do it regularly: it’s fun, but it’s definitely not life-altering or magical like Harry and Sally portray it to be.

I think all our ideas about an ideal NYE are actually rooted from the media anyway. How many times have we watched Bridget Jones’ Diary and that NYE episode of The OC as a child and awaited the days when we could cover ourselves in too many sequins and kiss the loves of our life’s during the first few seconds of the New Year? How hard did we wish to be those people freezing their faces off in Times Square as they watched a giant light bulb drop a few feet – live- while we sat warm in our pajamas and saw the entire thing at a much closer view through our televisions?

Well, I’d say that true definition of NYE can also be found in the media too, like on MTV’s super exciting television special and in Garry Marshall’s latest box office name dropper: it’s completely overrated. Often it’s overhyped and a waste of money, and in a few years, you really won’t remember it anyway. “The One Night Anything Is Possible” is the most inappropriate tag line for that movie…have you ever tried to drive across town on NYE? It’s the everyday tasks that are actually IMpossible on the last day of the year!

Here’s the fact that everyone seems to forget once December 31st rolls around: it doesn’t matter how you start the year or end the year; these things have no reflection on the value of the year altogether. You know what went down during the other 364 days: all the amazing things that happened that didn’t involve wearing a exclamatory greeting on your headband or a bunch of numbers over your eyes. Times that didn’t involve counting down to anything because you were having the time of your life in the moment already. Drinks that were cheaper, weather that was warmer, and dresses that fit better than after a week of indulging in holiday meals prepared by the best chefs in the family. Seriously, who’s idea was that?!

So what’s the best way to not have an overrated NYE? Don’t take it so seriously. Realize that NYE doesn’t necessarily require overpriced cover charges, overpriced alcohol, overpriced outfits or overpriced hotel rooms. Hang out with people you actually stand rather than joining groups of acquaintances who can’t hold their liquor. And if you find yourself with no comment-worthy Facebook photos to upload afterwards, let it go, it’s not the end of the world. In fact, it’s only the beginning, right?

Here’s to a Happy New Year, everyone!

What are your NYE plans? Do you think they’ll actually pan out the way you initially planned them to?!?

Ashley is a UC San Diego grad who is holding on way too tightly to a potential career in magazines and goes to Vegas all too often. She’s fascinated with celebrities and strawberry beer and doubles as a pathological texter/emailer/blogger. Feed the addiction with tweets @cashleelee. Thanks in advance.

One of the most fun nights of the year, New Year’s Eve, is just a few days away, but don’t worry if you don’t have an outfit picked out yet! Here are some great outfit options for New Year’s in the perfect colors for the night — silver and gold. No matter where you are or what you do for New Year’s, you’ll want to sparkle, and all these pieces will help you do just that! And best of all, each piece is less than $20!

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The days after Christmas that lead up to New Year’s are some of the most exciting fun-filled dreadful days for a single girl (let’s be honest). New Year’s is swiftly approaching and I find it particularly irksome that so much importance is spent on a holiday that is really only fun for the few of us that are over 21 and in a relationship (I belong in neither group). New Year’s usually amounts to a toast of sparkling cider and a swift move to bed  after the year’s begun. But even if I am a Debbie Downer about this particular holiday, I am still a girl who deep, deep, deep, deep down somewhere in my heart enjoys the romanticism of the holiday.

Here’s a list of Top New Year’s Eve Kisses for the like-minded single girl.

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