How To: Organise A Surprise Hen Party For Your BFF
Sharing my top tips on how to organise a surprise hen party for your bestie!
A couple of weekends back myself and my GALS threw a surprise hen party for our BFF who gets married this Sunday (JEEEEEEZ tissues at the ready!!), it absolutely couldn't have gone any better if we tried, from her reaction to the decorations, music, goody bags... oh it was just the best night EVER! Naturally I wanted to share with you all my top tips on throwing a surprise party for your BFF, lets DO THIS!...
1.) The surprise! First things first, the bride to be needs to get the date in her diary then no NOTHING. To be honest, we had an absolute STINKER with this! So, a few months back I sent out a text to the girls like 'oh my parents are away let's have a girly sleepover' - of course everyone was there with bells on (I mentioned Prosecco and Pizza and that was all it took!). Everyone told me they actually had the day off so we could make it a daytime thing, including Sam (our bride) which was SO fab. But then her shifts had changed at work and she wasn't able to arrive until 6.30pm, we tried everything (including going into her work and begging haha!), but nothing worked and we knew that we'd all have an amazing time regardless of what time she arrived. So first tip I would say is pick a date, fool your bride into thinking she's coming over for a girly evening and get planning!
2.) The what's app group! We had a what's app group for Sam's surprise hen with 7 of us in, but we also have a Vegas what's app group for our trip next year with Sam in so be super careful when you're messaging! Our girls were so good and no-one slipped up but ohhhh it made me SO nervous! It was so handy having the what's app as we could brainstorm ideas for decoration, drinks and games - it also meant that everyone was involved!
3.) The decorations! I have to say that the decorations were one of my favourite parts of organising the hen, we stuck to a colour scheme of mint green, white, pink and gold and decked out my dads kitchen with balloons, sequins, banners and SO much more! I have to say that Boohoo was amazing for decorations; we bought Sam's 'Bride To Be' pjs from there, along with our 'Bride Squad' pjs for myself and all the girls!
We also bought Sam's sash, napkins, paper cups, balloons and goody bags from there - they all fit perfectly with our colour theme and looked SO cute on the table! We ordered the 'Miss to Mrs' wine tote bag from Rooi, it's by Kate Spade and is the perfect table centre piece for just £17.95! For the rest of the table decorations, we ordered the gold and pink marble paper plates and all of our balloons (here and here) from eBay and the table confetti from Paperchase! The girls were amazing and we all chipped in to cover decorations and alcohol - it's much easier to spread the cost!
Whilst I was flying back from Boston four days prior to the surprise hen I had an absolute brainwave (or maybe I was delirious as it was 2am in Iceland during our stopover), but I got thinking how it would be super cute to get polaroids printed of Sam and James relationship and create a timeline of their snaps (they've been together 11 years so they had quite the selection to choose from <3), I took to twitter and ask for the best printing company with a quick turnaround/shipping and was recommended Cheerz - quite a few people had said they were amazing!
So there I was at 2am at the airport saving down images of Sam and James and sending them off to print! Once they'd arrived I absolutely knew it was the perfect finishing touch that the party needed! I ordered some pastel garland from Northstar (which fit in SO perfectly with our colour scheme), and we bought some mini wooden pegs from Wilko to pin the to the garland and onto the wall! Sam loved it so much that she's using it for the wedding!
4.) The goody bags - As I mentioned we ordered our goody bags from Boohoo (they were £5 for 6 which I think is amazing value!), the goody bags was something that I wanted to do as a treat for all of my best girls and of course our hen; Sam. It's not an essential but I'd definitely recommend it if you can stretch to it within the budget. I'll be completely honest with you all and say that I'm so VERY lucky to have some incredible friends in great places, I sent some of my best PR girls an email and asked if they could send over any mini/samples and was so, so chuffed with the response! We had some lovely products from Clarins, Loreal, Kiko, Too Faced, Gielly Green and Gabriela Peacock Nutrition - I didn't tell the girls I was putting them together and it was such a nice surprise for everyone! I would definitely recommend checking out beauty deals in Boots/Superdrug and also places like the £1 shop!
5.) Food & Drink - As I mentioned before we all chipped in with money and this covered all of our food; we opted for picky bits such as crisps, pizza, sausage rolls as we wanted quick and easy party food! One of our girls made slutty brownies which were SO good! With drinks the budget covered four bottles of prosecco and I dug out a bottle of Captain Morgans from the cupboard, everyone bought a bottle (or two) along which covered us for the night!
6.) The SURPRISE - OHMIGOD the BEST part - the actual surprise! We pulled down all of the blinds in the kitchen and were crouched down waiting for Sam's car to pull up, the second she arrived we switched off the music and waited for her with poppers in our hand, we were all SO excited and it was just the best moment ever! Her little face! <3 She's been so stressed and busy with the wedding that she absolutely had no idea, she cried, then we all cried and it was the best moment!
7.) The party - A hen party wouldn't be a hen party without *some kind of Penis, amiright?! We didn't want it to be tacky or go overboard but we knew we needed a lil summin summin, so we ordered to hilarious games; Stick A Dick (which we stuck a picture of James face on the poster - it was HILARIOUS), and we also ordered Penis Hoopla which was quite possibly the funniest game. Our hen party went from 0-100 real quick, it started out so civilised but just ended up being carnage and I have a whole camera roll full of completely innaproptiate images and videos which I absolutely WON'T be sharing LOL.
Have you ever organised a surprise party for your best friend before? How did it go? Is this something you'd like to put together for your BFF?
*A HUGE thank you to the WONDERFUL brands and PR's who kindly sent over products for our goody bags; the girls & our bride LOVED them! A massive thank you to Cheerz for also helping to make Sam's party so wonderful! :)
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