Following on from my post yesterday I wanted to give you some hints on how to plan the perfect hen party. The hints and tips that will make it stress free for you and will ensure that the bride to be has the best time and the hens love it too.
1. The Guest List
For any hen do you will need the Bride to give you a lost of who they want to invite. You can use email address, contact numbers or Facebook. In this case we used Facebook for main arrangements, plus a WhatsApp group for up to date info as it is much quicker. Remember this is a list of people the Bride is suggesting and they aren't your social circle (although you might know them) so you might not please everyone but as long as you do your best that is all you can do. I would suggest texting everyone first and asking the best way to contact them and once you get this back from everyone make a note and proceed that way. The overall opinion was WhatsApp so we went with a group chat on this which meant you could easily give everyone information. Don't add the Bride to this so you keep things a surprise
2. The Budget
Everyone has different lifestyles and this will mean everyone will have a different expectation of budget. Firstly, individually and not in the group chat to avoid embarrassment ask everyone what they are able to budget. Don't leave it so open that you get budgets that are completely different from everyone. I suggest something like "Hi ladies, I am going to start organising the hen do over the next few weeks and wanted to get an idea of budgets. I have a couple of suggestions up to £100; up to £150 and up to £200" This gives everyone the opportunity to be honest from the start. Make a note of this and then start investigating options. Remember it is unlikely everyone will be able to spend the same so don't panic and use this as a guide. From this you can suggest options and people can always extend their budget as long as it isn't a lot more than what they expected
3. Don't Go It Alone
Organising a Hen Do cannot be done by one person and it will mean lots of stress, however too many cooks can cause arguments. I would suggest one person finalises the main event (possibly maid of honour) and then you can involve other girls along the way. Perhaps, one person could do party games; another could finalise a club; one girl could sort out transport; and one could sort out fancy dress. This means everyone feels involved and it also means that one person isn't left with the whole responsibility. If the bride has more than one bridesmaid then it stops people feeling left out or like they don't matter
4. Pleasing the Bride To Be
The purpose of a hen party is for The Bride to have a fabulous time with her closest friends and family. You are not going to please everyone but your focus is her and it should be everyone else's too. Before you start organising get an idea of what the Bride To Be wants. For example, if her main focus is going out and getting drunk in fancy dress then you need to organise this first and then arrange everything else. If she wants a 'ladies day' then arrange the day plan first and go from there. It is all about prioritising and it will allow you to utilise the rest of the budget for adding in the extra parts that will make it even more special
5. The Location and Getting There
Most hen parties stay overnight somewhere, and some even stay over two nights. This will be determined by your budget and also whether all the girls are able to stay one or two nights. In our hen party one girl only came for the day and didn't stay over and we made allowances for this in terms of room allocations and what she paid. Once you have decided the location look into rooms and the cost. We were staying over on a bank holiday weekend so we chose a hostel to save on money, so do remember to research this. It was also the semi final of the rugby so travelling there was a nightmare and the traffic was awful. This is something you should think about and make allowances, if this is the case then a train might be better to avoid long traffic jams. I would suggest offering the girls some options for stay, for example we were in a hostel that was a few miles out of town so relied on taxis. This also meant we were away from bars when we were there so it can affect the atmosphere so you need to think about things like this. If you are going to be out of town do you have alcohol you could take, what about food and games. A hotel in town may be more expensive but you will save on taxis and if people get ready before others they can always go on to a bar to save sitting around
6. Food
Remember at most hen parties there will be alcohol involved and it is easy to forget feeding everyone. The last thing you want is lots of drunk girls who by 5pm are ready for bed or being sick. We had afternoon tea during the day, which is really popular now for hen dos, but remember this isn't actually a lot of food and your girls will need feeding in the evening. Most hen dos are at the weekend so remember to book somewhere. I would suggest Pizza Express, Slug and Lettuce or Prezzo. They have wide menu choices and are not adverse to hen party bookings so if a few willy straws are on the table they wont cause too much of a problem
7. Dress Code
Our Bride To Be wanted fancy dress and she is marrying an Australian so that was the theme. You need to find this out first and decide what you are going to do in terms of fancy dress. I get married in August and I have specified no fancy dress to my bridesmaids, however fancy dress isn't allowed in some places so double check when booking. Also remember to allow for this in your budget. Don't make it too complicated and use websites like eBay for cheaper alternatives for fancy dress. Also think about whether your hen party can provide things to assist with the fancy dress which will help with the budget. We worse Floral dresses to the afternoon tea, and most girls already had them so it saved on money
8. Itinerary
The day needs to run smoothly so do an itinerary and tell the girls what the plan is. This needs to be something to follow but don't stress about timings if you don't have too. A good example is:
1pm - Afternoon Tea
3pm - Bars
6pm - Go Home and Get Changed
7pm - Table books for dinner
10.30pm - Guest list at a club
Remember that if you are staying out of town you need to allow for taxis. I really suggest booking a table at a restaurant for the evening, as we had pizzas at the hostel and it meant that we had no structure for getting ready. If we knew we had an hour to get changed it would have meant that some of the girls weren't sat around waiting for those that took longer
9. Don't Forget About You
You have done all you can and the girls will have a great time. The last thing you want is to spend the day stressing about it going wrong. I suggest giving everyone an intinary of timing so they know the plan and don't stress if they take longer in the bar etc. You cannot babysit everyone and they will soon sort themselves out once they see they are late for things. Your main concern is the Bride but if she gets to drunk then don't panic as everyone else can help too. You have spend money as well so make sure you have a good time as well. You cannot control everything so don't worry. It will be fine and you will have done a fab job
Have you arranged a hen party recently? How did it go?
LJ xx
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