Planning the Hen Night

With such a great selection of options available to hen night groups these days, picking your favorites can be a tricky task. There’s everything from comedy clubs to karaoke bars and everything in between. The best way to look at the hen night is to have plan, the last thing you and the girls will want is to end up in the usual Saturday night bars and nightclub, the hen night has to be something special and something the hen will remember for years to come!

The top hen night options are –
Comedy Club — heading to a comedy club is the perfect start to the evening and will have the girls in stitches. With 3 fantastic acts to perform followed by a late night disco, the comedy club is a great option. Starting the hen night with a visit to the comedy club is perfect if members of the group don’t know each other as it’s the perfect ice breaker!

Karaoke Bar — the karaoke bar is certain to bring a barrel of laughs as you and the girls sing along to your favourite songs, but don’t worry about any on stage embarrassment, as you and the girls will be in your own private room for the evening where you can choose your song to sing on a touch screen. “It’s raining men” anyone?

Boogie Bus — this is something special for the evening, you and the girls get collected early evening where you will hop on board the boogie bus! The bus will take you and the girls around 3 great bars finishing with VIP nightclub entrance. In between bars you can enjoy the fantastic sound system on board!

Hens Hosts — an evening with some hen’s hosts will be something extra special for the evening; you will have a hot butler on hand who will greet your hen night guests and serve food and drink to the group! Ladies, sit back, relax and enjoy the service!

VIP Nightclubbing — every hen night should end with a fair amount of dancing, with so many fantastic nightclubs in the UK and Europe, the places for you and the girls to dance the night are unbeatable! Don’t forget your dancing shoes!

Hen Parties in Ireland

In Ireland, a Bachelorette party is known as a Hen Party. This event usually takes place a few weeks before the wedding. The party is normally organized by the chief bridesmaid or maid of honour. While the format varies widely the event usually involves alcohol. Many Hen parties include some daytime event or activity like paint-balling, makeovers, bowling or other fun pursuits. There is nearly always a meal in a restaurant followed by a night of drinking and dancing.

The typical Irish Party includes the mother of the bride and the future mother-in-law. Irish parties vary in size but are usually made up of between 12 and 30 girls often wearing outlandish outfits. The peak time for Hen Parties in Ireland is between April and September. You will often see large Hen Party groups roaming the streets in the popular Hen Party towns of Kilkenny, Kenmare, Galway, Limerick and Carrick-on-Shannon.

An overnight stay in a Hotel is the norm although some Hens take place in the home town of the Bride to Be. Pink Hats and printed “T” shirts are a pretty common sight on any Irish street on a Saturday night. Most parties involve some form of fancy dress or wild costumes.

Strippograms and Kissograms are sometimes used to add extra entertainment to the evening where allowed. Most Irish pubs are easy going about girly Parties but some will not allow Large groups of women intent on having fun. All in all the Hen Party is part of the wedding tradition in Ireland and it is very unusual for a future bride not to have some form of Hen Party to celebrate her last bit of freedom. Most Hens Nights are planned by the girls themselves but there are Event planning companies that specialise in organizing the whole process.

Of course while a Hens Party is an important event in Ireland it is an event that takes place in some form in nearly all cultures.

Other options include — booze cruise, cabaret, casino, fire engine limo, medieval banquet and murder mystery and many more. If you and the girls have got your fancy dress on, got your games ready and have your hen night entertainment planned you will be in for a fantastic time!

Fancy Dress For Hen Parties

Dressing up for a hen party can really add to the occasion. It marks the group out as special, a group celebrating a landmark occasion. Hopefully it will be the Bride to Be’s first and last hen party. So why would a group of women actually want to go to the trouble of pulling on fancy dress costumes and drawing attention to themselves

The answer to this question is quite simple. It is basically because they can. For the fun loving amongst you the opportunities to don a hula skirt or a nuns outfit without fear of embarrassment or ridicule don’t come around that often, so most hens are more than happy to take the opportunity to dress up and have some fun. It is the thrill of cutting loose that sparks the imagination and interest in fancy dress.

Costumes are also a great way of grabbing attention. Walking through a pub or club in a sexy sailor suit is sure to raise a few eye brows. The attention that a hen party attracts adds to the sense of fun and occasion. It is not for the faint hearted but the additional attention generated by fancy dress costumes all adds to the sense of occasion.

When there are large numbers attending a hen party and by that I mean more than 20 there can be a tendency for the party to fragment into smaller groups. When fancy dress is part of the celebrations there can be no escape. A fancy dress helps keep the hens together and if one or two go missing it will not be hard to spot them.

Having outlined all the benefits of getting dressed up for a hen party I must point out that it may not the best choice for all hen nights. There are just as many reasons why fancy dress should not be worn, the main one been the wishes of the Bride To Be.

Some hens just don’t like been the centre of attention. They are the quieter types who would die of embarrassment if they were paraded around town dressed in a 70′s wig and flowery shirt. if that is the case, her wishes should be respected and a more suitable form of entertainment organised. It does not mean that guests will not enjoy themselves but it will help ensure the Bride To Be enjoys herself and after all that is the main purpose of the evening.

The other main reason some hen parties go “gearless” is that the venues they are visiting do not cater for hen parties at all or do not admit patrons in fancy dress. The rules of the venue should be respected and the dress code altered accordingly. If you are in any doubt about the acceptability of fancy dress gear then a quick call to the restaurant or pub will sort it out in no time.

In my opinion the inclusion of some form of fancy dress in the celebrations adds a great deal. It helps people relax, mingle and have some fun. The most important factor to take into consideration when making the decision is what the Bride To Be wants. It is her big night out and everything possible should be done to ensure she enjoys herself thoroughly.