TIPS FOR PLANNING A HEN DO- ESPECIALLY DURING A PANDEMIC- BY FELLABY

Hello hello, how are you all doing? How incredible is this glorious heatwave! I am truly loving it and hope you are too.

Today's blog post is about my magical hen-do weekend which took place last month and was one of the best weekends ever! It was truly such a beautiful weekend spent with the most special ladies in all the land. I felt very special and very lucky to have such wonderful ladies in my life who really spoilt me rotten. Today's post is specifically how my incredible sister and bridesmaids set to work at planning the whole thing. I think planning something as special as a hen-do takes a heck load of time and love but throw in a pandemic and my goodness, do things get tough! My girlies absolutely smashed it though, they threw me a party that was so unbelievably right for me and it was so so gorgeous to feel like every decision they made had me at the heart of it.

Friday was spent at the spa with my three best friends, where I was treated to fizz and catch ups in the hot tub before a full body massage and a facial and then champagne afternoon tea... PERFECTION!
Then on the Saturday I was told to be ready in my glad-rags for 12pm. The three of them arrived looking absolutely GORGEOUS and we hopped in a taxi into town where I was surprised, not only by tipsy tapas (a bottomless tapas situation... HELLO DREAMY!) but also surprised by more of my loved ones in tow! On separate tables 'cause dems the rules ... But anyway, I'm going to hand this over to my sister Faye (@fellaby) to chat you through the whole planning process.

Planning a hen do, under normal circumstances, can be stressful enough. Throw in a global pandemic, and the most indecisive, unorganised chief bridesmaid on the planet, and you’ve got yourself a completely different ball game. Pre covid, myself & the 2 other bridesmaids, planned a huge hen do weekend, complete with 20 other ladies, a Manor House, hot tub & plenty of fizz. We paid the deposits, and I’d just collected the rest of the money from the other guests to pay the full amount…when lockdown hit. With the wedding being postponed indefinitely, I knew we had to postpone the hen do by at least a year, and thankfully we booked the hen do with a brilliant company, called Kate & Tom’s (who I thoroughly recommend if you’re looking for something similar), who were so helpful and moved the trip to another weekend the following year.

Fast forward to early 2021, & the announcement that all restrictions will be lifted at the end of June (which, unsurprisingly, didn’t happen). The date was, unfortunately, after the planned hen do, where a group of 20+ people, from different households, was absolutely not allowed under the rule of 6; we knew we had to cancel, downsize, and plan the hen do, again, from scratch. No biggie, done this before, we can do it again, only now we have to factor in rules, regulations, and everywhere being booked up until at least 2026 - but, we pulled it off, and had the best weekend ever, so here are my top tips for planning a hen do (with, or without, a pandemic):

Make group chats, and delegate within them!

We set up a bridesmaids group chat on WhatsApp, so we could talk through all of our ideas, and have somewhere to conjure up a plan of action, and get organised. Once we had a blueprint for the weekend, we created a bigger group chat with all the hens we wanted to invite; this is a great way of letting everyone know where they need to be, if they need to pay anything, etc. Planning a hen do can sometimes feel like a full time job on it’s own, so make sure you take any help that’s offered from the other hens, and use other people’s strengths to get shit done!

Trust your gut!

You know the bride better than anyone, so you should be able to plan a dream hen do in your sleep. Others will try and give you well meaning ‘advice’ on what you should be doing, and who you should be inviting, etc. but if it doesn’t feel right, and you know your bride won’t like it, then don’t do it - you’re in charge for a reason! Trust your gut, you’ll thank yourself in the long run!

Communicate with your bride!

Ask your bride what she does, and doesn’t want from her hen do, and use that information when planning, as it’ll save any upsets on the day! Keep her in the loop too; ask her what dates she’s available on, and once you’ve got the dates planned, let her know. I also made a packing/planning list for Megan, which I gave her the week before, so she knew exactly what she needed to have ready for the weekend, and saved any last minute stress.

Plan well in advance!

It’s well known that I am unorganised Annie, planning ahead is not my forté, and this is something that, in hindsight, I’d do differently next time. Both the pre covid hen do that was, and the during covid hen do we had, were planned a tad later than I would’ve liked; time gets away with you, you’re waiting for other people to respond, you spend too long dithering on the small details, when really, you just need to come up with a plan, get it booked, and worry about the minor details afterwards. We were so lucky that, in the end, everything fell into place, but save yourself the sleepless nights and get organised; bookings are a nightmare at the moment, due to Covid, so if there is somewhere in particular that you know your Bride has her heart set on visiting, then get in there early.

5. Get creative!

If you want penis straws, tutu’s, and blow up dolls at your hen do, then you can skip this tip, because everything you could wish for, is easy to find, with a quick google search. If that’s not your bag, like it wasn’t ours, then you’ll need to put your thinking cap on. Non cliche hen do accessories, and decorations, are an extremely rare breed, and they also don’t come cheap, but they’re so worth it to give your bride something to wear, to make her feel special. I found the website Gigi & Olive, via @heartzeena, who stock the most beautiful bridal accessories, and managed to buy my rainbow queen sister, a rainbow veil. I also picked up a handmade bride sash via Etsy, which, without knowing what Megan was wearing, coordinated with both of her outfits perfectly. We also got some drinks toppers made, and asked the bar we were having cocktails at, to pop them on our drinks, which was so funny! Scour the internet, find independent brands, get crafty, use your noggin’, and someone PLEASE fill the gap in the market for affordable, gorgeous hen party accessories!

I could chat hen do’s all day, as I feel very accomplished after planning my first ever, but nobody wants to read a dissertation right now, so I’ll leave it there, but feel free to drop me a DM if you have any questions, they can be so tricky to plan, but just know that after all of your planning, your bride will have the best weekend ever, and feel so truly loved, which is all that matters!

Me again 🙂 Thank you Faye for writing this post and offering your advice and of course for the most awesome hen-do! I hope you enjoyed this post and found/will find it useful with any hen-do's you're lucky enough to be planning for your babes.

Links to what I'm wearing are here for y'all, it was so wonderful to wear white all weekend, something I don't often do!

Lots of love

x M

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