I find myself in the position of having to organise a friend's hen party within the next 6 weeks. Except, I have yet to go to ANY hen party, and I'm having a bit of a panic about my decision-making process.

So, does anyone have any advice? What works and what doesn't? Any recommendations for entertaining games that won't mortify my friend? And how to spend the evening, when she is adament she doesn't want to end up in a nightclub?

I have the basics down, i.e. attendees, date, and location: Although still nothing booked. Now just worrying about the details. I guess I just want it to be special for my friend, and to not mess it up, but I really don't feel like the best equipt person for this kind of thing...

Does it have to end up at a night club? A recent party in Cardiff was spent white water rafting in the afternoon then dinner at the Jamie Oliver restaurant - so a day time "do" rather than dinner and a club.

What do you think your friend would enjoy? Is she the adventurous type? Or more into pampering. I went to a fab hen do at The Sanctuary in Covent Garden - massages, swimming hot tubs etc etc and then dinner and drinks mid evening.

You don't have to go with the cliche!

Good luck!

I'm probably a bad person to give advice about such things as I hate the traditional sort of hen party, and I've never been to one.

However, since it already sounds as though your friend doesn't want the traditional sort of hen party ending up in a nightclub, could it then be any sort of group activity that you know she and your friends will enjoy? Baking together / cooking together / some sort of outdoor activity / some sort of making something else?

That's very trendy right now. "Domestic goddess" parties with cupcakes and you'd be right on trend!

My daughter had her hen party a couple of years ago; organised by her best friend from school.

We had to drop hints that DD did not want eg pole dancing lessons.

The final result was a posh afternoon tea in London, then the evening at a dinner / dancing club. Much enjoyed by all - including mum and an adopted-aunt.

This suggestion wouldn't work if your friend doesn't want to end up at a club. So maybe a meal at a really good restaurant in the evening, with some (non-eating or light-eating) activity in the afternoon.

Incidentally, some of the girls booked in at an inexpensive hotel and stayed over, which meant they could all adjourn back there between the afternoon and evening for some silly games.

Mine will hopefully have a catered dinner in posh frocks, followed by Hotel Chocolat sleepover kits... Probably silly board games (chain reaction, articulate, pictionary) and other sociable games (charades, who am i etc). Daytime is going to be walks, clay pigeon shooting and horse riding (+ other stuff I'm not allowed to know!)

How about something like a "black tie" 'do ... without the men at a casino

I'd always thought you were a guy. BadStrad too! (your name reminds me of Brad I guess haha). Finding out I'm wrong about a forumite's gender always shakes up my world view

Edit: Or maybe you still are a guy? I'm just gonna treat all forumite's as sexless from now on.

Sorry for the off topic post Misti I better run out of this thread before people think I'm female.

I am female. (but not bothered by people thinking I'm not) Fear not, I have guessed wrong too in the past

Misti - here are two specific suggestions that I've remembered friends had done for their respective hen parties

- customising hats
- picnic in the park (but they were very lucky with the weather and had to have a backup plan in case it didn't coorperate)

Too late.

*facepalm*

I'd suggest a group activity during the daytime and a meal together in the evening. What activity you choose depends on what your group of hens is like (outdoorsy, indoorsy or mixed) and whether they all know each other.

I've been on a few hen events, and in every case I've only known one or two of the group. In that situation, it is really good if you have an activity where you can bond a little bit without it being too "forced". Especially for shy hens, this makes having a sociable evening together a lot easier.

Good activities I've done as part of a hen event have included a high ropes course, a group colour analysis and make-up session with an image consultant, a falconry demonstration, and dragon boating.

BadStrad's suggestion of domestic goddess-type parties also sounds great!

I wondered about the image / colour session too. I did one years ago and it was just such good fun.

It can open up ideas for colours you 'd never have thought of wearing. And of course there's always that wedding coming up - chance to put the ideas into practice!

If the weather is good then a theme park is a good idea, but it may be wrong time of year?

I'm not your conventional 'club' kind of person either, so trying to think what I would want if it were me (Eep...! At some point before 2015 I'm going to have to actually think about this. Anyway...).

I suppose it depends where you want to have it. If you were based on London you could book one of the pods on the London Eye and have a night time 'flight' with some nice nibbles and cocktails or something. Not cheap, but if there's a few you it would work out quite reasonably probably, especially considering the price of a night out these days! Spa weekends always seem to be popular, or just a day at a spa with a nice meal somewhere afterwards. An adventure-type thing, like abseilling or rafting could be fun too, but it really depends on what sort of things your friend is into! Hope some of this rambling has been on use to you!

I was a best "(wo)man" at a wedding once.

One of the nicest hen nights I've been to was the one I organised for a friend a few years ago. We were all broke so had a very low budget. We had afternoon tea at her house followed by a girly makeup/pampering session then out for a meal at a local restaurant. Everyone got chance to get to know each other and we spent less than ?30 each. Most importantly it suited the bride perfectly.

My daughter was married last summer and for her hen day a group of friends, her fiance's mum and I set off in the morning for a day of luxury in a health suite/spa of a nearby country hotel. Included coffee break & lunch (fun presents for the bride at lunch) as well as 2 beauty treatments each and the use of the pool. We had a great day with lots of fun, then returned home to an evening meal in a local bistro.
After this, those who wished headed off to a night club -although not the 2 mums who'd had a smashing time but were now quite happy to head off home to bed!

Thanks for the ideas. We're planning to head to Bath for the day with an overnight stay, as since we finished uni, all the main invitees do a lot of travelling, and live nowhere near each other anymore!

So I'm thinking of a trip to the spa, maybe tea at the Pump Room (or somewhere cheaper seeing how budgets go). Currently looking into self-catering accomodation, as I'm thinking we could head back "home" in the evening to have something of an evening party in. There is also a group based in Bath that do a hen party life drawing class with "attractive male model" which sounds hysterically funny to me...

The Taming of the Shrew is also on at the theatre, which strikes me as perfect, but I know not everyone has the same passion for Shakespeare that I do. Not sure the bride-to-be would forgive me either...!

So starting to have lots of ideas. Just need to decide what is reasonable in one day, what is most up my friend's street. I know what I'd enjoy, but its harder to account for other people's interests and budgets!

Ooooooh, a forum wedding?

Bath - wow, the ultimate spa destination! It would be rude not to!


That sounds really good fun! It would be a hen event to remember, and would certainly give any hens that didn't previously know each other something to talk about in the evening.

I've no idea if it's what you're looking for, but there is a pretty good youth hostel in Bath. It's less than a mile from the town centre, you can book small rooms (so it's not all dorms) and they do a decent breakfast.