There’s quite a few of them now but Groupon certainly seems to be the biggest, with the best deals, although the likes of KGB have some good stuff. And keynoir seem to have the more high-end deals. (Designer clothes and whatnot).

It’s mad: you can end up living like a queen and doing things you would never ever normally do, with all the deals. And it’s proper high-end stuff: not ‘buy ten pounds worth of chicken from Chicken King’ and get ten p off.

It’s more: ‘If 100 people sign up to buy cinema tickets at £1 a pop, then the deal goes ahead’ Or if 100 people sign up to pay £19 for a £90 massage, then the deal goes ahead’. (Seriously). Now what has this got to do with hens, I hear you cry? Well…. You can buy multiple deals, so if there are ten of you going on a hen party, if you all get a local city treats deal which allows you to go for a spa day, you will save SO much money. With up to 50-90% off it’s a no-brainer, really.

And once you’ve put in your details, you can buy deals really easily. Perhaps a little too easily, for my liking!

So far, we’ve bought deals for teeth whitening, and for hotel stays. If I were to organise a hen I would definitely use City Treats to find all the deals. You can end up really pampering yourself properly. Not bad! Oh and another good deal to look out for is cocktails and cupcakes…. Lovely ones for the ladies.

Now I am a happily married lady and my hen party is over, I don’t need to worry about what my friends have got in store for me!

So if you want a few ideas here are some snapshots of what went on:
I went to one hen party in London which was in Bethnal Green.

The hen requested cheap cheap cheap, so we ended up having a lovely dinner at her house which was cooked by her sister (stew and baked potatoes, in case you were wondering).

The house was amazingly decorated and there was a hen book which everyone scribbled in.

Her sister requested that everyone send her the name of two songs that reminded each person of the bride-to-be, which cost absolutely next to nothing and was a really meaningful touch; the cd was on loop the whole night and everytime a song came on, the bride was so excited to hear and remember why it was being played.

There was also a loop of loads of pics of the bride to be, on the projector screen (easy – a projector was borrowed and all you have to do is stick a memory stick with a load of pics into the projector, which we hired from: )
There were no strippers (on request from the bride) but as a surprise, the bridesmaid organised for a fortune teller to come to the house.

It was such a good idea as no one had any idea and it meant that each person went away with something personal.

Everytime someone came back from having spoken to the fortune teller, everyone sat and listened to what they had been told; everyone was enraptured!
After that, it was more drinking, dancing and chatting. (Oh I forgot to mention that the theme was party dresses, which was awesome as people got to glam up but the dress code was also quite loose, so people could come in ballgowns, strapless numbers, or leggings heels and dresses, or anything really).

I stumbled into bed at about four am, having had an incredible night. It was so much fun as everyone was really up for it and didn’t have to spend loads of money.

So if cheap is the way forward, think of the small touches:
Photos
Songs
Food
Games (Each person could stand up and say one thing they love about the bride-to-be, or tell one funny story).

Ideas for presents for the hen for Mr and Mrs. Smith games:
When you are playing Mr. And Mrs. Smith, get everyone to bring a present for
Presents under a fiver:
Personalised knickers
Personalised etc find all these and link.

WEDDINGS:
Ok obviously you are reading this to get some ideas for hen parties. Well here are some other ideas for wedding presents:

Ideas for presents for the hen for Mr and Mrs. Smith games:
When you are playing Mr. And Mrs. Smith, get everyone to bring a present for
Presents under a fiver:
Personalised knickers
Personalised etc find all these and link.

WEDDINGS:
Ok obviously you are reading this to get some ideas for hen parties. Well here are some other ideas for wedding presents:

I had an absolute blast. My friends did me proud (after all, they were terrified after reading my blog; and after having had to organise ten hens myself, they knew they had a lot to live up to).

So – here’s what we did; and you should take note cos there are some top ideas.

My friend Alice, came to pick me up at midday from my flat. We drove to Covent Garden and I had specified ‘NO AMATEUR DRAMATIC’ type activities. So what do they do? They tell me that they have organised for me to do a street performance in Covent Garden for charity. I was trying to be really polite and gracious but inside I was thinking: ‘No bloody way am I doing that for love nor money’. Anyway we had a boozy lunch and ended up going to Pineapple studios to learn the ….MICHAEL JACKSON THRILLER DANCE. WOOP. It was HILARIOUS. Fifteen of us falling over each other and trying to take a peek at the teacher’s unharnessed bits. Poor sod.

We then went our separate ways and I was taken to shower, have champs and have my make up done which was lovely; esp after I was all sweaty and looking pretty rancid from our dance lesson.

I then got taken to my friend’s house where we played Mr. and Mrs. and generally drank ourselves silly, after which I got taken into another room where we were served an unbelievable three course meal.

The detail of the decoration was incredible; a load of photos were put on loop on a television; there were personalised paper plates; willy sweets; willy straws; bubbles; balloons; confetti on the tables; glitter bits etc.

THEN FOR THE UNBELIEVABLE PART. I went outside to get some fresh air (the girls had made me do shots) and when I came back, there was a hunky fireman waiting to greet me. He ripped off his clothes, made me do some unspeakable things (well not that unspeakable) and got his kit off. It was tremendous. I was whooping for joy; slapping his arse; dancing; laughing; licking chocolate off his erm. nipple.

This is the chappie himself. He had a HOT BOD and came from Dream Men.

We then went to sing karaoke next door as the girls had set up a Lucky Voice system which was awesome. I finally got to bed at about three in the morning. Was so hungover that ate a fat fat sandwich at ten in the morning when I was still drunk. Not a pretty sight.

In the next post I’ll be writing about cool indoors activities.

Expensive: For the thrill-seekers out there you could do loads of whacky outdoorsy stuff.

Depending on how many of you there are, how about something totally different, like zorbing.

ZORBING

Never heard of zorbing? it’s some mad new thing whereby you hurtle yourself, full speed, down a hill in a massive inflatable ball.

Zorbing in the south

Zorbing UK

It’s meant to be mega fun and not too expensive, either. 

GO KARTING:

Go karting is good fun because it lasts a whole day and you can have competitions against each other. It can normally be quite expensive but totally worth it as it’s hours of entertainment.

Batting cages
Batting cages are absolutely hilarious fun and somewhere in between indoors and outdoors activities. You can also do keg party batting cages whereby you can order a massive keg and every bat taken, ends with a swig from the keg. Pretty similar to rounders but more organised. Brilliant. And also quite cheap.

Other ideas: Quad biking (not for the faint-hearted) and make sure the bride-to-be doesn’t break a leg!
Zip wires, climbing, rock climbing, paintballing and blind driving.
These are quite blokey activities but some girls love it, especially if they love adrenaline seeking sports. (And you could even go the whole hog and do some paragliding or sky diving!)
more outdoors activities ideas

FOR CHEAP OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES:
For cheap outdoor activities you should try organising a massive sports day. It takes more time but it’s a free hen party and really good japes. Organise teams and you can play rounders, tennis tournaments, races, egg and spoon races, three-legged races etc. Good honest clean fun. Until you get so drunk you are running three legged without trying.
Have fun! X

If you have a limit to the amount of people you can invite to a hen party, and you have to leave a few people off, bite the bullet and speak to them about it. Especially if you know they are going to find out. (Facebook pics dangerous when you are trying to keep things secret!)

Alternatively you can tell everyone not to breathe a word! but then if people find out later on they’ll be even more upset.

Conversely, people in life are always going to be upset and you are always going to hack someone off by not inviting them to things; you can’t always invite everyone to everything. It’s unfeasible. So don’t let it worry you – BUT if you know someone is going to be ruined by not being invited, perhaps make an exception. (ie if you know that it will upset them uncontrollably). When you are feeling guilty about not having invited some people, just remember, it’s THE BRIDE-TO-BE’s night. Not theirs. Or yours.
Have fun! X

What’s worse is when your hen/ bride-to-be is absolutely hating the experience. I once ordered a stripper to come and show one of my best mates a good time. Now – this girl, let’s call her Katie, is really open-minded. I mean she’s behaved like a bit of a lush with the rest of them.

We hauled in a stripper, called Golden Devil (Really. His real name was something like Paul). Golden Devil comes through the door, armed with baby oil and 80s ghetto blaster. He then whacks on the music, sits Katie down and starts gyrating on her.

I could see she was feeling a bit uncomfortable but just put it down to initial embarrassment. Anyway – Golden Devil then gets out the baby oil and Katie goes mental. I mean literally. She stood up and told him to stop and that she didn’t want to be taken advantage of etc. (I was thinking; surely that’s the other way round?!)

Oldest male stripper

So… a word of warning – think about the stripper carefully; if you think your mate could get upset, talk it through with the company first and get them to stop at a certain point.

Or if you think your mate might be even the tiniest bit prudish, get the stripper to target his erection, oops affection, on someone else who might be a little more game.

OR you could go one step down and go with something like Butler’s in the buff I have used them in organising hens and they have all been brilliant fun and up for it. Plus they serve you drinks. Bonus. (just like the pic to the right; don’t like his face but his bod is not too bad!) 

For more ideas on great hen parties and hen gifts

Much as I love my mates, I have frigging work to do and my own wedding to organise! Anyway – stop moaning. I’ll just get on with the job and order in as many dildos and willy straws and blow up male dolls as I possibly can.

Personalised gifts and small details: If you want to buy the hen a present or get all the hens to each bring their own gifts, you should think about personalising them/ buying gifts and then personalising them.

Personalised knickers

You can then get away with spending next to nothing and it will mean a whole lot more to the hen.

For example, if you bought a g-string from Agent provocateur, it would be really nice, but much much better if it had the hen’s name on it!

You can get loads of personalised hen gifts stuff; anything really – from calendars of male hunks with the hen’s name on it (this one is a real treat) / personalised g-strings/ personalised bikinis/ personalised dressing gowns etc etc.

The list goes on and on. They are all really cheap if you order them online, compared to normal retailers; so with that in mind you can spoil your hen more, for less money. Bargain.

Balloons: 

Ok so you have already spent a load of cash on the hen party: especially if you have organised a weekend away in a country cottage or something. Wherever you decide to have the hen party, it’s going to need a bit of glitz glamour to make it personal. Here are a few ideas to keep costs down: 

Balloons and banners: You can buy absolutely loads of these; they are relatively cheap and you can either get personalised printing done OR you can get a marker pen and personalise them yourself. 

Balloons and decorations

If you are really broke and the kitty funds are starting to run low and you can’t afford to personalise the balloons, you can buy some cheapy balloons and draw on them with glitter and marker pen. (You can buy cheap balloons for about £1:29 and marker pens for £1.

Table decorations: 

Another great idea is to use sweets to decorate tables. Table decorations can sometimes be really expensive but if you buy a whole load of Haribo and Love Hearts you only need to spend a couple of quid. Scatter them all around the table and you’ll end up with a colourful looking table PLUS people can pick at them! 

Champagne glasses: You can buy these really cheaply to order:

champagne glasses and if you have some spare ribbon to hand, you can tie each glass stem with a small bow, or you can make hanging name tags with bits of card; punch a hole in the top and tie some ribbon through the hole and wrap it around the stem of the glass. Write in glitter pen each guests’ name. 

Photos: Get all of your mates to print off pics of the hen (the more embarrassing the better) and place them all over the room – if you print them off in A3 and then cut  them out you can make fun collages. 

Wrapping paper: you don’t need to spend any money at all on wrapping paper. You can design your own wrapping paper on the computer and print if off; type out the hen’s name in mad colours or something and insert pics of the hen and hey presto; your own free personalised wrapping paper. 

Music: Music is a must for any party and can literally make or break any night. Compile your list really carefully and think about what your hen would love.

Glitzy Girl Birthday Party Music - choose something fun and cheesy to which all the ladies can sing and dance! Plus normally it’s free. If you have to download music then get your friends to bring their own ipods and create their own playlists of songs that remind them of the hen.