The Hens Party

Whether it is an extravagant girls weekend away, a winery tour, a pamper day, high tea or a quite dinner and cocktails at home – the hens weekend can be anything the bride wants it to be!

Many brides-to-be are choosing to move away from the usual drinking, dancing and hens games, instead choosing to take the opportunity to indulge in amazing food and experiences with their closest friends.

Below are planning tips, ideas for the occasion and of course, the hens games. We hope that this information helps to make your hens occasion a memorable one!

Planning Tips

• Firstly, decide on a date. Generally, holding the hens party on a weekend is preferable so everyone can attend however if you are choosing to make it a long weekend – give everyone plenty of notice so they can arrange time off work. Whether you hold it a week or a month out from your wedding is up to you however it is advisable that you don’t hold it the night before your wedding to ensure everyone is bright and fresh for the big day and for all those photos you will have for many years to come!

• When choosing a date, consider planning your hens party on the same night/weekend as your fiancé. This is a great idea, as you don’t want to risk sitting at home on the weekend your guy is on his bucks wondering how they are going when you could be out with the girls. Holding both the hens and bucks parties on the same weekend is especially convenient for couples that are mutual friends of you and your partner, as they don’t have to plan for two separate weekends away and there is more chance they each will be able to attend both occasions.
  

• Choose the style and/or theme for your occasion. Do you have a favourite colour you want to style the party around or your occupation (i.e. if you’re a nurse – think naughty nurse costumes!) or keep it in theme with your wedding, for example for an elegant, classy theme how about a ‘Glitz and Glamour’ hens party theme?

• Consider what type of hens party you want to have. Do you want to celebrate with cocktails, dinner and dancing out with the girls? Take your closest girlfriends away for a spa weekend? Splash out on a degustation menu at one of the finest restaurants? Or enjoy a day at the races? Your options are endless however we suggest you think about, most importantly, who you want there with you – whether it be just your closest friends or your girlfriends as well as your mum, mother in law, aunties and grandma and then think about activities that you will be comfortable with and enjoy with those who you are going to be inviting.

• Are you going to have hens games? If you are not overly keen on a night full of brides bingo, never ending quizzes and toilet paper wedding dress competitions consider having just one or two games as it they can prove to be great icebreakers and get everybody in the mood for the night ahead.

• Are you going to require transport to get from one venue to the next? If so think ahead and arrange a mini bus or maybe even a limo to drive the girls around in style!

• Lastly, at the beginning of the hens party the bridesmaids should be in charge of confiscating the bride’s phone so she is not tempted to call her finance throughout the night. Ensure she enjoys the night rather then worrying about what the boys are doing! Also, take lots of photos for you all to enjoy later!
  

Hen's Games

Marital Bliss Secrets

 A fun, cheeky game, that can sometimes offer very valuable marital advice for the bride to be. Hand out pens and cards for everyone to write a short piece of advice to the bride on keeping a marriage fresh. The advice can be heartfelt or funny but must remain confidential. The bridesmaids or the hostess can collect the advice and have the bride read them out and then guess who wrote it. The bridesmaids can keep the cards for the bride to keep as a reminder of her hen’s party.

I Never 

This classic drinking game is great for hen’s night when you are out as a group. One person starts by saying, “I never…” and then states something that they have never done. Anyone in the group who has actually done it at this point has to drink. The game continues to the next person in line.

Banned Words

At the start of the party, come up with a list of words that cannot be used during the party. Common words are best so more people can be caught using them. The game can continue throughout the party and every time someone utters a banned word, they have to take a drink, pay a fine or do a dare. Be creative and come up with some creative “punishments” for example, having to ask the nearest guy to buy them or the bride a drink!

Make a Man 

This game requires the group to break up into several teams, pairs or even individually. The bridesmaids or hostess has a list of body parts written on index cards. The body parts, when combined, make up a whole man. Each team has to sculpt, out of clay, their assigned body part without peeking at the other teams. The bride then gets each body part and puts it together to form a whole man. This can be hilarious when nobody coordinates the sizes!

Pin the Male on the Model or Pin the Bouquet on the Bride

Everyone’s heard of Pin the Tail on the Donkey. You are blindfolded, spun around and pointed in the general direction of a picture of the donkey. You then try to pin the detached tail in the right place without peeking. The person closest to the mark wins. This works the same way except substitute a picture of a naked man for a donkey. Guess what’s used for the tail? For a more tamer version try a bride and a bouquet.

TP Dress Design

A more conservative game that everyone will enjoy at any type of hens occasion.  Break up into two or more teams and choose someone to play the “bride”. Use rolls of toilet paper to design a wedding dress for the model and then have the bridesmaids/hostess or bride choose the winning design.

A Bride Quiz

 This is a popular and fairly traditional hens night game. This is where the hostess contacts the groom prior to the hens party and asks him a series of questions which she writes down to answers to which will make up the contents of a quiz for the bride. The quiz can be as short or in depth you want it to be. Use your imagination when creating the questions!

The goal of the game is to see how well the bride knows her groom so be sure to add some obscure questions that you think are important for her to know. The game can be played just for fun or the bride can be forced to take a drink for every wrong answer. For a bit of fun guests can bet on how many she will get wrong!

Ugliest Picture

This game involves the bridesmaids digging up the most unattractive picture they can find of the groom and presenting it to the bride on the night for her.  The bride then has to spend the evening showing people her husband to be. You can either make a rule that she has to pull the photo out and show it to the closet guy when your out each time she wants a drink or otherwise at random at the guests discretion.