Bachelor Party

Most dates—at least of the type that might one day lead to an exchanging of rings—don't begin at two in the morning. Then again, most dates don't include a surprise trip to the Caribbean island of Anguilla, nor are they conducted and parsed before nearly 10 million sets of eyes.

Such is life on ABC's The Bachelor, where contestants learn to expect the unexpected. But even by the show's untraditional standards, the date at the center of the Valentine's Day episode was special. Ashley Hebert, Michelle Money and Chantal O'Brien were rousted from their beds at the CuisinArt Hotel & Spa in Anguilla (which also housed the SI crew) by the show's titular star, Brad Womack. They were then taken, bleary-eyed, to meet Swimsuit senior associate editor MJ Day, who told them how they'd be spending the next 10 hours: having their hair done by Peter Butler, their makeup done by Tracy Murphy and being fitted for swimsuits, all so they could take part in a sunrise photo shoot with ace lensman Raphael Mazzucco (see Philippines shoot on page 52).

Brad stuck around for the fittings—he helped select the suits—and the shoots. (Alas, despite Day's best efforts, he refused to get the full Swimsuit experience by trying on a bikini.) Each bachelorette was shot on her own, then with Brad.

The results? Safe to say that none of the contestants looks out of place in these pages. (Additional pictures and video clips of each woman can be seen at SI.com/bachelor.) "I don't know which bachelorette Brad will decide to go with," says Day, who will find out on March 14 when the season finale airs. "But there's at least one area in which they definitely all have desirable qualities."

INFO

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