The Perfect Hen Do
Last week I went to one of my best friends hen party. We haven’t spoken in a while and it’s rare we manage to see each other now, but every time we do it’s like we haven’t been apart. I’m so excited for her to get married (although it’s not until next year!) and I was definitely never going to miss her hen do.
Of course every hen party is different, it has to reflect the bride in some way, and this one suited the bride to be perfectly! The maid of honour did an amazing job!
It took place in Leeds, always a great night out, and so I drove 3 hours up the motorway with my rushed-to-pack bags and full of excitement. I stopped off in my home town (just 40 minutes away from my destination) and had a quick lunch with my mum, catching up on everything before she gave me a lift to the train station.
I was told to look for the pink that I ‘couldn’t miss’ at the station. I promptly walked right past them all, completely oblivious to the garish veil and excitable ladies. I soon found them though and we all tottered off to the hotel with me leading the way (quite how I, with no sense of direction, ended up with the map i’ll never know). Somehow I got us there, we we’re staying at the Ibis. It looked nice enough and had an amazing view of leeds from our rooms, but the rooms were very small with very awkwardly placed plug sockets. Whoever designed these rooms did not plan for girls to be curling their hair in the mirror, in fact they couldn’t have made it any more difficult. Next time I should take a spare mirror.
The view
The maid of honour brought out some amazing party bags she had put together. The bags themselves were leopard print with pink paper inside, already off to a good start. Inside was a great assortment of treats for us all!
Lip Gloss – Literally the glittery-ist lipgloss I have ever seen. It’s like a glitter ball on my lips and I LOVE it! It even tasted like cherries. Definitely the kind of thing we all wore when we we’re 12, I doubt that will stop me from wearing it though! (It’s just so sparkly!)
Terrible photo – Awesome Lips
Party Feet – I was SO happy to see this in my bag as i’d actually forgotten to pack mine! These gel cushions are such a great idea to keep everyone partying throughout the night. Such a life saver!
Bling – The bride is well known for her love of gold bling and so we all got to share in her passion with one of these plastic gold rings! The bride to be herself received a pretty little necklace. Even though this ring is obviously cheap it is a little bit of fun and I actually really like wearing it on my thumb, i think it’s looks quite simple and pretty.
Condom – Hen do’s often have the tendency of getting…messy. But at least we would all have been prepared for that eventuality, and with a smiley face!
Name Badge – To proudly show that we are with a hen do!
Fortune Cookie – To either give us hope for the future or to tear us down. Luckily mine had a very good message about promise in my career…but will that be ‘The Penguin Theory’ or the day job? I guess time will tell!
Penis Straw – Every hen do needs a penis straw. These one’s were a little more reserved than some i’ve seen, the classier spectrum of the penis straw (if that’s even possible).
Dare Card – Again hen parties need a bit of cheek (no pun intended)! My dare was to pinch as many guys bottoms in 1 minute as possible. A few of the other ones included getting a girls number, kissing the shortest/tallest guy and even rubbing your face in a hairy chest! However we all seemed to forget about these once the alcohol started flowing…
Wine – Each bag contained the start of our drinking with a mini bottle of wine! It was delicious!
Energy Drink – For a quick pick-me-up the morning after.
After we had all finished our wine, and polished off a bottle of bubbly, we tottered into town and went to Vodka Revolutions. There we had a table reserved with a food platter and drinks, and oh my was it amazing.
The platter was superb and had more food than we could manage with chicken strips, scampi, chips, mini beef and chicken burgers, pizzas, breaded cheese and a good selection of dips. It was all so yummy and easy to pick at, but it still defeated us.
We we’re also given 3 large cocktail pitchers of our choice to share, shots and some sort of bomb (energy drink in which you drop a shot into before downing it in one gulp). All we’re delicious and a great start to the night!
Next we moved on and we’re going to go to a drag show, something the bride to be loves, but unfortunately the bouncer wouldn’t let us in as we we’re a hen party and in a large group. This had been checked on the website before we went but they must have changed their policies. It was a shame but we wouldn’t let that ruin the night!
Eventually we found ourselves in a little, but lively, pub. All the furniture was miss-matching, they we’re playing old classics like Queen and The Offspring as well as newer songs and the cocktails were delicious! We got talking to some guys out on a stag do, they we’re so lovely and such a laugh! One fell asleep and we may have drawn on his face with lipstick before he woke up and showed off his dance ‘skills’. It was a lot of fun but all too soon it was time to move onto the clubs.
The gorgeous bride to be!
We found ourselves in a gay club because, lets face it, they always have the best music, best dance moves and are just generally so much more fun. There was no worrying how you were dancing, everyone just went for it. There were the best tunes to sing and dance along to, podiums, poles, so much smoke you couldn’t see (no seriously, it was a definite challenge until your eyes adjusted). It was such good fun and we we’re all having a good boogie.
We all had a picture with the veil doing the bride-to-be’s signature thumbs up!
Soon though I started to flake. I haven’t been out in such a long time that my stamina wasn’t what it once was (well I guess I did last until well past 2am!), and i had been feeling a bit ill all night, not even finishing a lot of my drinks. My self a few of the other girls toddled off back to the hotel to climb into our nice warm beds. The bride to be and the other half of the hen party carried on into the night meeting a drag queen and having a great time from the sounds of it!
The next morning we all got up early for breakfast. Our hotel did a £5 all you can eat buffet, but when we went to look we we’re not impressed. For one, there was barely any food there, 2 it was only cereal and some toast. That is not the food to cure a hang over. Instead we wandered next door to steak place and all bought various types of fried breakfasts. Just what we needed!
All too soon it was time to catch the train home.
I had another nice chat with my mum, went for a quick visit to my grandparents and then started the long drive back to london. I would have loved to stay an extra night (especially as my mum was cooking roast beef!) but I have so much to do it just wasn’t possible.
I had such a great time and I just cannot wait for the wedding!
It was definitely the perfect hen night for the bride, which is exactly what makes the night even more perfect! It made me start wondering what my hen night would be like if I ever decided to get married…I imagine it would be quite adventurous and action packed with a bit of crafting involved.
What would you do on your hen night?
The Penguin Theory 