This summer I organised
a hen do for one of my gal pals. I have been to many a hen do but this was the
first time I organised one! We ended up having a weekend away at a beautiful
lodge with a hot tub and we spent the day at a spa. It was perfect and everyone
had a fabulous time! However being the organiser was an eye opener! It made me
realise some people are pure bonkers, I am waaay to polite and people love
sharing their opinion.... so I thought it would be fun to share a few tips,
words of wisdom if you will, for anyone who may have the pleasure of organising
a hen do themselves sometime soon....
• find out what the brides dream hen do entails, if there
was something she hates or something she has always wanted mow is the time to
find out! I was told no willies from the start!
• Its not about you! Put your perfect weekend/night out into
your back pocket and leave it there. Its all about the beautiful bride!
• Its the little things – I surprised the bride with a
personalised ‘bride to be’ dressing gown and slippers at the spa and a got her
a customised ‘mrs..... to be’ pj set! She loved it and those touches made it
seem a lot more special.
• find out if there are any ‘tricky’ invitees. If they are
all your mates and you know them well then you are very jammy! I had to deal
with friends and family I had never met and who deemed it appropriate to ring
me at 6am to tell me they refused to share a room with certain people! Real
story.
• know your hen party! I had to cater for mums and god mums and
was warned blow up willies were a no no! My bride was also tee-total so going
to a cocktail making class (as one of the other bridesmaid actually
suggested!!!) was a no go!
• Sort out the money early on! For two reasons – you don’t
want to be left out of pocket and you don’t want the cost for everyone else doubling!
Work out a total cost early on and add a few pounds on to cover any extras. So
everything was paid for a couple of months in advance and included everything!
Trust me this will save you so much agro later on!
• Have a plan before contacting everyone. Giving options is a
terrible mistake! People have an opinion on everything, no one will want to do
the same thing and everyone will want a different price range. Give a plan and
limited options! All for an easy life!
• Have a back up plan – make sure you have a few spare games
to play if you need to fill any time up as well as make sure you have a back up
plan for any activities just in case anything goes wrong!
• And finally the most important tip I can give you is to
learn to smile and bite your tongue! You cant please everyone, just focus on
making the bride happy!
