Dear All,
This week we (Sara's Bridesmaids and Best Friends) have taken over the diary instalment as we wanted to let you know all about Sara's Hen night that we organised last weekend!
When Sara first told us she had set a date, after the initial congratulations, our thoughts then turned to having to come up with an idea for the hen do! Not an easy feat to come up with an original idea especially as we have had quite a few in the past couple of years and knowing our best friend Sara (aka Bridezilla) her expectations were high!
After much deliberation and hours spent on the computer searching various hen do websites we came up with a shortlist of ideas. Initially we did look at going abroad but as the wedding is in Spain we decided to do something in the UK with an overnight stay.
As most of our group of friends were born in the 80's, we all decided this would be a good theme for the hen party to follow. So the hunt for Ra-Ra skirts, leg warmers and fingerless gloves began...
We chose London as a destination for the bank holiday weekend and began researching the different venue and accommodation options.
We managed to find a fantastic deal with an apartment chain called Marlin Apartments and we hired 3 beautiful, brand new apartments near London Bridge. All had a fully fitted kitchen, lounge and 2 bedrooms with en-suite. We also had 3 car parking spaces at the building's secure underground car park which was included in the price. A nice touch was the "Welcome Box" which had tea/coffee, chocolate and Orange juice as well as the Molton Brown toiletries in the bathrooms.
We checked in at approx 3pm and organised a buffet for the girls to ensure we had all lined our stomachs before our night on the tiles. In true 80's style we served Pina Colada, Cosmopolitans and Babycham in individual customised cocktail glasses to get the afternoon going.
During the afternoon we played pass the parcel- each member of the hen party getting either a naughty present courtesy of Ann Summers, a shot or some eighties memorabilia such as Back to the Future DVD or a slinky. Click here. We had also arranged a Mr and Mrs style quiz for Sara.
We asked Luke a selection of questions which Sara had to answer correctly to win various prizes. We presented Sara with a game to play during the course of the evening called the A-Z game. This is a great game to liven up the night where the bride has to do various dares for each letter of the alphabet and has the night to complete them all- I must say Sara swapping tops with a particularly sweaty tourist was a personal favourite of ours!
We wanted to come up with novel gift for everyone to remember the night by and came up with a great idea of giving everyone a bum bag to take out on the night. I must say it did take a while to track down a supplier but definitely worth it and went perfectly with everyone's fancy dress outfits.
We wanted to put our own special touch to them so customised them all with the girl’s individual names and designs. In each of the bum bags we included a compilation CD of all our favourite 80's songs for everyone to listen to as a reminder of the weekend, a shot, individual dare cards, novelty straws, bubbles and an 80's pick and mix selection- they were a real hit!
One of the first things we found on the internet was an 80's style Roller Skating Disco in Vauxhall called Renaissance Rooms. The venue was incredibly helpful during the planning of our party and gave us our own party booth with balloons free of charge and flashing skates for the Bride to be!!
We had such a good giggle here, bearing in mind none of us have been on roller skates since we were kids, we managed to avoid any serious injuries with just a few bruised egos from the falls!!! The music was fab and the costumes were brilliant, absolutely everyone was dressed up in their 80's finest glory.
From Renaissance Rooms we headed back over the river towards the St Pauls area where we had a guest list at our final venue; Reflex - an 80's nightclub. Again the venue was fab and as we booked so far in advance we managed to hire an area. The club was absolutely packed so the area was great. If you love 80's music you have to visit Reflex, we spent the whole night dancing and were disappointed to leave - we all kept promising ourselves we would go after the next song!
Unfortunately our feet finally told us enough was enough! A few rounds of cheese on toast back at the apartment, whilst discussing the evenings events, was a perfect end to the night.
After a group breakfast the next morning of bacon sandwiches and copious amounts of tea and orange juice the 14 of us left the apartments and headed home for some much needed sleep!!
The night was a great hit with all the girls and most importantly Sara really enjoyed herself.
Right, now let's get the party, sorry we mean wedding (!) started.....!!! Roll on June!
Love from Laura and Charlotte xxx
We won our big day in a radio competition! Click here.
Diary of a DJ click here
