Image by Vitor Pinto via Unsplash

Organising a hens day can be hard work and a little daunting. Essentially, the selected tribe of the bride need to come together to brainstorm and agree on ideas, a venue, the guest list, games, entertainment, cost, catering…all whilst making the day incredibly special for their beautiful bride! It can easily become an overwhelming mission, so today we have asked wedding expert (and gorgeous human being) Laura from Own Your Day Weddings to share a few of her favourite tips for creating an amazing hens celebration, in the simplest and most affordable way possible!

If you don’t know Laura, she has built her Instagram following by sharing practical advice for real couples wanting to achieve their day, their way. Whether it’s clever tips and tricks, helpful planning tools, or just simply connecting you to other couples on the same wedding planning journey – she has you covered!

Here are Laura’s top five tips for making sure you cover the essentials, simplify the planning, and create the best day possible the Hen!

1. Consult your bride.

You want to create an amazing day for your best friend that they will treasure forever – the key reason why you are organising this event in the first place. This doesn’t necessarily mean organising a typical hens party or going with the majority vote of the bridesmaids. It’s about taking a minute or two to think about your friend and what they love; then designing a day that they will genuinely enjoy! Not all girls love the idea of a stripper or wearing a skimpy costume…so it’s important to create a unique, personalised day for your bestie.

The safest way to make sure you get it right? Ask her to give you some guidelines to work within. You can still plan surprises, but this can be a really helpful way of ensuring you are on the right planning track.

2. Divide and conquer.

There are many elements to organise, so it’s important that everyone jumps in to help out! Whether it’s handling the invitations, researching catering, planning games or collecting money; it’s important that you share the tasks evenly at the beginning and everyone takes responsibility for what they need to pull together. This helps all the bridesmaids (or bridesmen) feel involved, helps everyone work as a team, and also ensures that all the planning doesn’t land with one person. If you don’t share out the tasks, it can create tension within the group, something we always want to avoid!

3. Make everyone feel welcome.

You are pulling together all of the key people in your bride’s life, but that doesn’t mean they all know each other! An easy way to combat this is by creating name tags with their name and relationship to the bride. You could even get creative with the nametags, creating some sort of fun uniform for the day. If their partner has a beard, why not create funny elastic beards for each person to wear? If their partner is covered in tatts, draw the signature tattoo on each person as they arrive! Known for always wearing backwards caps? Get one for each person to wear for the day! You get the idea. Often these cute inexpensive ideas can be a fun way to unify everyone, give them something to talk about, and make for some great photos.

4. Keep everyone full and happy

Get the catering right and make sure you pay attention to dietary requirements! Whilst the majority will be able to eat and drink everything, it can be really tough if you are required to pay for drinks and catering that you can’t actually touch. The best thing to do – send a save the date, asking guests to specify any dietary requirements in advance. That way, you can get an idea of numbers and dietary requirements before you start reaching out planning your catering. If you have non-drinkers, simply separate the cost of food and drinks in to separate packages. That way, there’s no unnecessary tension and everyone will relax and enjoy the day knowing they don’t need to worry.

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5. Tailor activities for the group

Design activities that won’t feel too cringe or exclusive of the oldies. You need to remember that this is a significant day for any mum, aunty or grandma, so have a bit of fun, but keep it tasteful! Getting your friend to do countless shots straight away is probably going to upset any mum, so far better to get a little creative.

Here are a few games suggestions you can try:

· Hang up a piñata, then ask the bride to nominate guests to be blindfolded, spun around, then attempt to hit the piñata. Always guaranteed to get laughs!

· Ask your guests to write down funny times they have had with the bride, then collect them all, and get the Bride to work through each one trying to pick who wrote them. This is bound to bring out some amazing stories!

· Think of five words your bride can’t say for the day, and they need to have a sip of champagne if they do. This can be a fun way to get everyone giggling as they watch the bride slip up again and again.

· Ask the fiancé questions on video, then get the bride to guess his/her answer before he/she does. Such a cute way to involve them in the day, and gives them an opportunity to say how excited they are to marry your bride to be! Always a crowd-pleaser.

At the end of the day, as long as your guests enjoy themselves, there is enough food, plenty of drink, and your bride is made to feel special – you can’t go wrong! Good luck with the planning and be sure to comment below with any other games ideas so you can help other bridesmaids in the future.

Image by Elevate via Unsplash 

Ms Polka says: We love sharing brilliant ideas from talented folk1 Thanks so much for joining us Laura, here is to many happy hen celebrations when we can gather together very soon! See more of Laura’s advice on her website here.