Hen weekend fun

I did it – I managed to get away! The kids were still a little poorly however Paul moved into his parents for the weekend so I knew all would be OK.

Emma will be getting married next month in Cornwall so all the girls headed to Bristol to a Gothic Mansion for the weekend, she is one of my oldest friends, I’ve known her since leaving school – she was in my husbands friend circle so I’ve known her for as long as I’ve known him, around 15 years.  She is the friend who you may not see for a while but instantly pick up where you left off.  She is amazing and also Emmy’s godmother.

This is where we stayed.  It’s a Gothic Mansion – a grade 2 listed former convent in the heart of Bristol.  It has 13 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms and sleeps up to 50 people.

We were a party of 27 by the end of the weekend with most arriving on the Friday night.

We had all planned and paid for Emma and her other half Pat to do sky dive on Friday morning, all of our plans were kept secret until that morning when all was revealed much to Emma’s surprise.  We aren’t that mean – it has been on Emma’s wish list for a while (so I’m informed) and she was thrilled if a little worried.  Unfortunately the jump was cancelled on the day due to the weather and has been re booked for next Saturday.

Emma was then ferried from Cornwall to Bristol to meet us all.  During which time the house was transformed and decorated with bunting, fairy lights, a HUGE amount of alcohol which never seemed to stop appearing as well as a Tesco’s delivery of food and with thanks to some major organising a mountain of Lasagna arrived for Friday nights dinner – everyone had been very busy planning and plotting and I would like to thank them all – I just paid my money and arrived, I feel I slacked in any duties what so ever! Sorry girls.

Emma arrived on the Friday night to her all time favourite music playing – ABBA – I’m being ironic there, Emma HATES it with a passion and it took her a whole 3 minutes before she demanded it was turned off and banned.

We had a lovely sit down meal of home cooked Lasagna, salad and garlic bread accompanied with lots of bubbles and a getting to know everyone. 

On Saturday we had booked for a group of us to do the Urban Adventure Challenge which was described as “The Crystal Maze meets the Krypton Factor meets Challenge Anneka” – basically were were given a booklet full of clues and puzzles and a map, put into 4 teams and we were competing against each other to solve the clues, puzzles and search for places and items.  It was good fun although it was pouring with rain and we all got soaked – it’s a great way to see parts of the city you may not normally see and to see just how competitive your friends are.

Saturday night was party night!  We had a fancy dress party back at the house, the theme for this was “E is for Emma” – quite a hard theme to work with but the variations on this theme were amazing – we had an Ewok, Emmets, Egyptians, ET, the Eiffle tower, Escargo, Emma, Eminem, Explorer, the very English Queen, Essex girls, Elves, Eighties Exercise Eccentric (we kept adding different titles to her outfit), Edward scissor hands, Elvis and an Engineer – I apologise if I’ve missed you off the list, there were a lot of us.

We had pre-ordered an Indian buffet and once this was finished there was a Mr & Mrs Quiz then onto a party.  We all had a great weekend and fun was had by all!  I now really can’t wait for the wedding.

I also need to say a big thank you to www.henstuff.co.uk who gave me a budget of £40 to spend on decorations and accessories for our weekend!

The money stretched far and we managed to get:

• A fibre optic tiara
• Straw glasses
• A bag
• 10 Jaeger bomb shot glasses
• Table confetti x 2
• 4 helium ballons
• normal balloons
• Caution hen night police tape
• Bride to be sash

There was a huge selection of hen night items available on this site however we kept it clean and tasteful – there are willy straws and forefeits should that be your cup of tea (there were plenty of those on my hen do 6 years ago!).  Once the order was placed delivery took around 6 days and was delivered in 2 parts.  The value for money was good and our favourite item had to be the shot glasses – these are amazing value for money at £10.99 for 10!  They can be reused again and again…..and they will be.  This site has everything you could want when planning that hen night from dressing up outfits to games and decorations.  You can find Hen Stuff on Twitter and also on Facebook.

I know I had an amazing weekend, it was very nice to leave the kids behind, hang up my Mummy apron and get my dancing shoes on again (well my costume didn’t require shoes so I styed barefoot which was even better as no sore feet from killer heels for a change).  Thanks so much to all who organised it, you did an amazing job – see you all at the wedding in a few weeks.