What have you done on a Hen night?

arubababy

I love the Highland Games idea!

The hen do's i've been to are -
1. Night out in Ayia Napa (wedding was in Cyprus)
2. Night in Bournemouth and adonis caberet.
3. Meal out local restaurant and in town,
4.Local entertainment venue had a dirty dancing tribute night and meal.

For mine i'm hoping for.. Joint watersports and sumo wrestling or similar with stags in the morning, followed by a meal, night out then the next day a spa day and afternoon tea to relax.

*Scottish*Lass*

Loving all these ideas! Def getting the brain fired up a bit now

Arubababy - the sumo thing's something I looked into too. I can hire costumes and bouncy castles from a guy locally and I'm a scout leader so could use our meeting place as a venue.

Think I'm just going to settle for hiring the inflatable sumo costumes, a bouncy castle and having sports day races and scottish games like toss the welly etc. I used to be an Ann Summers rep so I'll whip out a few of the games we used to play at my parties

If we do that till 5 then get a bus the 16 miles into town for bingo and a night at the casino after (for food live music and a few slot machines).

SO glad to have finally made my mind up. Thank you so much for all the stories and suggestions

Hopefully people will continue to post so we can all find something perfect for us x

twink22

My hen do was last weekend, went to Newquay fri - mon stayed in a lovely 4 bed room cottage with pool and gym, had a pj party on the friday night, on saturday day we went go karting, the in the evening went out in a limo, cocktail making, mexican meal and vip booth at a club, sunday we went shopping and then for a meal at a restaurant on the beach.

got another one in 2 weeks, going to a local spa for the day then a meal and nightclub in the evenning and staying at the hotel.

Rhonda1523

Hi

I chose to go to the Horse Races for my hen party followed by a meal and drinks. The tickets weren't too expensive and because the betting could be as much or as little as everyone wanted it was afforded by all my friends and family, no matter what their budget. Was really good fun planning outfits and fascinators etc too.

Highly recommended, but obviously depends on the time of year xx

elvis86

For my friend's Hen Do in May, we just told her to be ready at 9am on the Saturday and free until Sunday evening. We wanted to completely suprise her as she's such a control freak!

We picked her up and had champagne ready in the cars, then drove an hour-and-a-half to a Hotel and Spa complex (for the first hour I'm sure she thought we were taking her to her parent's holiday home as it was in the same direction!).

We had lunch on arrival, then spent the afternoon in the spa (best I've ever been to!) and had a couple of treatments each. Checked into our rooms before dinner, we'd sneaked off and decorated the bride's room and there was more champagne waiting. Then had a 3 course dinner in the hotel's restuarant on Saturday evening, followed by drinks in the bar (we'd intended to go to the local town, but were all so relaxed after the spa that we couldn't be bothered!).

We had breakfast the next day, then stayed in the spa until about 4pm, with lunch included again. The whole weekend cost us £140 each plus a little for drinks and maybe a tenner each towards the champagne and room decorations etc, and that included the cost of the bride-to-be who went free as there were 8 of us.:)

Personally we all felt that this was reasonable, but then again it's not like we have friends getting married every 5 minutes and we had known about the wedding for 2+ years, so even if money had been tight, people could've saved £10 a month which would've covered it.

I hope they do something as nice for me when it's my turn!:)

minerva_windsong

I've been on three hen nights and they were all great in different ways, so I'll give a breakdown of each:

For my middle sister's hen night we went to the races at Cheltenham. We booked a table in the restaurant and got lunch and afternoon tea, as well as being able to watch the races on the TVs (handy if the weather's not good), and could also go to the parade ring and the paddock to put bets on and watch the races outside, and then we went out for drinks in the evening.

My eldest sister's hen was a bit of a last minute job and we ended up booking into a nice boutique hotel and then going to see Funny Girls in Blackpool. This was probably the cheapest, mainly as we didn't have a day activity, and would be good if you wanted a more 'traditional' hen.

The most recent hen do I've been on was my boyfriend's sister's, which started with a champagne breakfast on the Thames (my boyfriend's uncle has a pleasure cruiser on the river so we hired that), followed by a life drawing class and then a meal out and dancing in the evening. Again, really fun and a bit different but (largely due to hiring the boat and staying in a swanky apartment overnight) it was really expensive so maybe not the best if you're on a budget.

As others have said though the sky really is the limit and you can do pretty much whatever you want to and can afford - cocktail making, crafting, having a pampering night (hire people in or buy cheap nail polishes, face masks etc and DIY), spa day, karaoke, afternoon tea, comedy club, laser tag, go karting, shopping or just dinner and drinks. If it was a winter hen I've also thought it would be really cool and fun to go ice skating at one of the pop up rinks, even if you're not much cop it'll still be a laugh!

The only things I would say are consider everyone's budget - I don't regret the amount that was spent on my boyfriend's sister's hen as it was a lovely weekend, but I would have liked it to be cheaper! - and, most importantly, make it about what the bride wants. You know what your friend likes (maybe ask her mum/sisters for further inspiration provided you and she trust them enough not to muscle in too much with what they want) so use what she'd love to do as the starting point and you can't go wrong.

Sarahdol75

I went to my SIL hen night last year and it was brilliant, we stopped in a hotel in Manchester, had afternoon tea at The Lowry, then on the evening a 3 course meal and then a comedy club which then turned into a nightclub after, then on the sunday we had a pub quiz around Manchester, was all organised by Crocodile Events.

*Scottish*Lass*

minerva_windsong wrote: »

For my middle sister's hen night we went to the races at Cheltenham.

The only things I would say are consider everyone's budget - I don't regret the amount that was spent on my boyfriend's sister's hen as it was a lovely weekend, but I would have liked it to be cheaper! - and, most importantly, make it about what the bride wants. You know what your friend likes (maybe ask her mum/sisters for further inspiration provided you and she trust them enough not to muscle in too much with what they want) so use what she'd love to do as the starting point and you can't go wrong.

Hi thanks for your post minerva_windsong.

We would have loved to go to the races but unfortunately our local race course is now done for the season. We go every year for Ladies (with a different group of friends) and we always have a great day - would def recommend this to anyone out there who's wondering about doing it for a henny.

I'm very conscious about the money side of this henny as a lot of us in the bridal party have a friend who's baby is due today, another wedding to attend and my mum's 50th all between now and the wedding, the wedding itself is in Oxford and we all have to travel down from NE Scotland, then obviously xmas just after it! So I've been trying to keep costs to the bare minimum - but at the same time want her to have a fab day.

She hasn't been up here since Easter '10 so i know she's really looking forward to seeing everybody, which helps!!

minerva_windsong

*Scottish*Lass* wrote: »

Hi thanks for your post minerva_windsong.

We would have loved to go to the races but unfortunately our local race course is now done for the season. We go every year for Ladies (with a different group of friends) and we always have a great day - would def recommend this to anyone out there who's wondering about doing it for a henny.

No worries - it's great if you can get the races at the tail end of the season but obviously if the wedding's around Christmas then it's probably a bit late for that.

Although I have just had a thought - I've seen a few community centres, school PTAs etc do 'race nights' where they play old tapes of horse races and you place bets on the winner. I'm not entirely sure where you'd get the race footage from (maybe YouTube?) but that might be a fun way to incorporate it.

*Scottish*Lass*

minerva_windsong wrote: »

No worries - it's great if you can get the races at the tail end of the season but obviously if the wedding's around Christmas then it's probably a bit late for that.

Although I have just had a thought - I've seen a few community centres, school PTAs etc do 'race nights' where they play old tapes of horse races and you place bets on the winner. I'm not entirely sure where you'd get the race footage from (maybe YouTube?) but that might be a fun way to incorporate it.

oooh, I'm LOVING that idea!! We've had a few race nights as fundraisers for our scout group, will have a wee word with the guy who normally organises it for us and see if he'll lend me the DVDs