Hen Night (Bachelorette Night) Party Ideas

Adopt A Theme For The Hen Night

Having a theme for the hen night will make the evening fun and memorable. Adopting a theme for the evening is quite simple to organise once you have chosen the style to use. For example, doctors and nurses, cowgirls, retro 60's or 70s, Mafia or even brides! It's fun and is guaranteed to get you noticed as celebrating a hen night in the bars and clubs that you visit.

Hen Night Ideas

Stag Night Ideas

Alternative Stag Parties

The Nightclub Hen Night 

This is one of the most popular Hen night activities. Parties often start with dinner at an elegant restaurant, followed by drinks and dancing at popular nightclubs. Hiring a limousine to drive everyone together from destination to destination is a great idea. First, it allows all the women to travel together and party whilst in transit. Second, it adds a touch of class to the evening and, perhaps the best reason, is to ensure that everyone arrives safely at the destinations. 

The women in the hen party will often buy or create a veil for the bride to wear on that night. The style of the veil isn't important, so long as it is conspicuous and calls a great deal of attention to the bride. It's also typical for this type of party to send the bride on a scavenger hunt. The other women get together ahead of time to create a list of activities for the bride to accomplish or objects to find. This type of hen party is a great way for the bride to enjoy a night of dinner, dancing, drinks and fun with her best friends.

Exotic Dance Lessons 

A little more risqué, but lots of fun, is exotic dancing lessons. These parties are becoming more common now that pole-dancing classes are beginning to spring up in health clubs. For these parties the women gather at a private home or a dance studio, and a professional dancer comes in to teach them the art of exotic dance. This can be a great way for friends to let loose and have fun. It's a great starter for a hen night out in the bars and clubs, where you can practice what you have learned.

Hen Party At Home

If the hen party is to be held at home, entertain the guests with games. They don't have to be adult in nature but novelty shops sell a wide variety of adult games just for Hen parties, such as Pin The Hose On The Fireman. Novelty supplies can include car decoration kits. For those in a hurry, some novelty stores sell kits, a complete party in a box, complete with gifts and decor.

Get some CDs of theme music by female artists, such as a Diva Collection with songs like Aretha Franklin's Respect, or It's Raining Men. You can even pick up a chick flick or an adult movie.

Gifts with romantic and adult themes are perfect for Hen parties. Try lovers' collections of massage cream, scented oils and lingerie, or body decorating kits.

Hold The Hen Party At A Spa 

Spa retreats have become quite a popular hen party idea. The bride-to-be and her friends get together at a spa to enjoy relaxing massages, facials, manicures, pedicures and other treatments. A steam room, sauna and/or hot tub adds an extra element of relaxation. 

Some spas provide great meals from a selection of healthy dishes. This type of hen party lets the bride relax and connect with her friends while leaving behind the stress of planning a wedding. Many brides get so caught up in the details of wedding planning that they forget to enjoy the wedding. A spa retreat hen party is a great solution.

Hen Night Jokes and Novelties

Joke gifts abound for Hen parties, including items such as necklaces of condoms and anatomically-correct (!) stir sticks and drinking straws. But before making preparations, the most important thing is to find out what the guest of honor likes! If she appreciates the adult humor so often displayed at Hen parties, by all means go out and buy a box of gag gifts. But if she is a shy person who values modesty, such items will just embarrass her. There are many other themes beside Adult for these parties, such as Hawaiian or Romantic. A theme party takes a little extra work but is usually worth the effort. Fancy dress based on your theme is another option to consider. 

Plan Ahead For The Hen Night

In preparation for the party, make sure that invitations go out at least a few months ahead of time to give out-of-town guests the opportunity to make travel arrangements. 

Don't hold the party the night before the wedding. Big weddings are exhausting in themselves, and the bride to be probably doesn't want to go out for a wild party the night before her wedding. Red eyes and vomiting from a hangover as the bride walks down the aisle are not what she hired the photographer to capture for posterity.

Just because the party is being held at one person's house, or hosted by one person, does not mean that individual should have to pay for it all. Calculate the expenses ahead of time and ask each guest to pay a share. It's wise to collect the money before the party to avoid excuses such as "Ooh, I forgot my wallet!" by guests walking in the door.

Write a short speech and present it as a toast to the Bride-To-Be to remind her of all the special events she has enjoyed with her friends. Make sure to take pictures of the event and present them to her afterwards in an album. Just make sure not to take pictures of anything extremely embarrassing since the guest of honor and her future husband probably won't enjoy them a few years later. This includes flirting with other men or excessive drinking if the party is held in a bar.

Actually, despite the reputation of some of these parties for last-fling debauchery, it is a good idea not to ply everyone with too much alcohol. Drunks can become obnoxious and drunken parties degenerate into fights, verbal and otherwise, which is not the kind of memory you are trying to create for this event. Make sure the party is something the bride-to-be remembers with a smile, not a sense of regret!