Hen night

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I realised I still had not blogged about the hen night I helped to organise (with one of the other bridesmaids) for my best friend.

We went to Ladies' day on the Grand National weekend at Ascot racecourse, which was a good excuse for dressing up. I wish I had made more of an effort rather than just pulling on an old dress I had, as some girls had really gone to town! If you ever wanted to know who buys those ridiculously high heels and those dresses that only just cover the bare essentials, look no further than Liverpool (no offence to anyone from there, I think it is the culture of the event rather than the people).

We had a 'picnic' on the train on the way up from London, which included buck's fizz - a great way to start the day.

The horse racing was quite good fun and we all got in the spirit of it, betting huge amounts (ok, 1 or 2 pounds) on horses and exclaiming when we lost! The bride to be was the only real winner, gaining about 50 on one race.

We then travelled on to Chester where we were spending Saturday and meeting the mums for a more civilised time of it. Saturday morning was spent enjoying the sights of Chester, and then we went for a lovely lunch at b2b's favourite bar.

The evening was however what we had put our efforts into: we had booked out a room at another bar and organised some games, entertainment and food, plus of course lots to drink. Everyone had a badge to wear (no diy-ing I'm afriad, these were pink and tacky!) while the bride had a sash. Note though, these were purchased (and worn) with a tinge of irony!

The entertainment was booked as a kissagram, but ended up doing the full monty! For a few minutes myself and the other bridesmaid thought we were going to be disowned by b2b, as I have never seen such abject shock on anyone's face. I don't think she thought we would do it, but her hints earlier in the organising process led us to believe that she would feeel she had missed out if we didn't do something outrageous. After all the shrieking and giggles, we all (even b2b) decided it had been worth it.

The game we played was great fun too, and it ended up with the b2b in quite a state. It's a Mr & Mrs style game with shots of your chosen tipple for incorrect answers.

ASK THE GROOM
Instructions
Before the night, ask the groom for his answers to 10 (fairly tricky) questions

e.g. what is my favourite food?
where in the world would I most like to go?
what animal does b2b remind you most of?

Record the answers
On the night, give everyone (except b2b) one of the questions/answers.
You take it in turns to ask the bride what the groom's answer would be.
Cue hilarious answers and worried looks!
For every one they get wrong they have to drink a shot! And the person asking the question has to drink it if they get it right
Great fun

Everyone finished off the night dancing away at one of the local clubs, having had a great weekend! It was very satisfying to have organised something like this, having not done anything like it before. It taught me some valuable planning lessons.