Tips for Planning a Hen Party
Whether you’re planning your first hen party or you’re an old hand at it by now, we’ve gathered together our top tips and best-kept secrets for easy hen party planning to make yours as stress-free as possible.
How to plan a hen party:
Speak to the Bride!
Get the guest list
Define the budget, date & location
Invite your guests to the hen party
Start collecting money
Book your hen party activities & accommodation
Send the information to your guests & and an invitation to the Bride!
Plan any games and smaller details
If you’ve booked a house, plan your food delivery. Consider how you’ll minimise waste over the hen weekend
Party!
Tips to plan a stress-free hen party
Get feedback from the Bride about anything she’d like for her hen party. You can send her our Bride Survey in the Hen Party Planning Kit to ask the important questions.
Your Bride should provide you with a list of her friends she’d like to invite. Ask her to provide everyone’s phone number too so you’re ready to contact them.
Don’t give your hen party guests choices. This might seem odd, but when it comes to date, cost, activities and location just tell them what they’re getting and they can choose if it suits them. If you give options you’ll never be able to please everyone and the planning can become really challenging. This is also where our Bride Survey can come in really handy because she’ll give you some ideas.
If you do want to give guests options for dates, the easiest and fairest way to do this is with a Doodle poll. Set up a poll proposing some dates for the guests to choose from. The date that the majority of guests can attend is the one you go for, simple :)
Don’t feel frustrated if some people choose not to come to your hen party. It’s easy to assume because they’re invited they’ll be there, but these events can cost a lot and if they have to attend more than one in a year it can get expensive. Others may have things going on in their own personal lives like falling pregnant, being a new mum or just having a different commitment on that date. Hen parties are a beautiful time to spend together but it doesn’t always work for everyone and that’s OK. Accept it and focus on all the people who are attending!
How to manage a Hen Party budget
Ask your Bride how much she feels comfortable for her friends to spend - she might not have an opinion but some Brides do. This question features in the Bride Survey in our Hen Party Planning Kit.
Decide if the hen party will be covering the cost of the Bride amongst those of you organising. Some people choose to do this and others don’t - whatever you feel comfortable with is the right choice. It’s important to decide this upfront so you can include her costs to divide by everyone else as you go along.
Try to decide a budget at the start and commit to it. This way you can tell all your guests how much you expect it to cost when you invite them - some people might have to factor the cost into their decision to attend.
If you can, set instalments for the hen upfront. Giving your guests dates and amounts to pay in advance means they can plan for when they need to save up and they don’t get any sudden surprises. If they know it’s coming this’ll make it easier for you to collect the money as well, instead of having to nag for it.
Decide how you’ll manage the money. Keeping everyone’s money safe and well-tracked is essential. You can use the Admin Document in our Hen Party Planning Kit to track who’s paid what and when. To collect the money we recommend:
PayPal Money Pools - This is a great and super easy way to collect money and keep it safe! And the best part is everyone can see who contributed what and when, so there’s full transparency
Use a spare bank account - If one of the organisers has an old bank account they don’t really use anymore you could keep the money there. Make sure this is an option and a bank that all the organisers are comfortable with.
Get Your Free Planning Kit
The Hen Party Planning Kit helps you manage your guests, budget and itinerary. Over years of planning hen parties we’ve gathered our useful documents that will help your hen party planning run smoothly and keep you organised.
How to communicate with your hen party
We recommend choosing an option where your hens will be the most responsive, which is likely to be the one they use the most. The most common choices are:
WhatsApp Group: Does it need any explanation? Probably the one they check the most and the easiest to set up once you’ve got everyone’s number. Make it cute by adding a group icon with a photo of the Bride or a fun picture.
Facebook Group: Useful if you have a very large group and want to send more than just quick messages. On here you can run quick polls if you need to get feedback from the group, and making individual posts for info about the hen party makes communication easier to manage than WhatsApp.
Facebook Messenger: Kinda like having a WhatsApp group, but useful if you don’t have everyone’s number. Remember that if you’re messaging someone who’s not your Facebook friend the message will go to their requests and they might miss it. You may want to ask the Bride to tell everyone to expect a message from you.
How to take the stress out of the hen weekend
Plan the itinerary down to the hour! It’s important not only to plan what activities you’ll be doing but also when you’ll do them, and what you’ll do in between. The last thing you want to a group of hens sitting around staring at each other unsure of what’s happening next. You could print some itineraries for the hens to refer to over the weekend, too. We’ve got an itinerary planner in our Hen Party Planning Kit.
Give everyone designated bedrooms in advance. If you’re planning a full weekend, decide who’s staying in which room so there’s no confusion or disagreements on arrival. You can even stick up room lists on the door of each bedroom!
Create a shared Spotify playlist. You can ask all your hens to add songs to the playlist to make sure everyone hears their favourites over the weekend:
Make a playlist like normal
On your phone, tap the 3 dots top right to open the options
Tap ‘Make collaborative’
Share the playlist with your hens and they’ll be able to add songs too!
How to make sure your hen do runs smoothly
Check with your accommodation what amenities are available 2-3 weeks before you go. This gives you enough time to arrange for them if need be. Our essentials to check are:
Music speakers & what connection is available for them (wireless, iPhone cable…)
Are bath towels provided for all guests? Don’t forget to remind guests to pack one if not!
Are there enough plates and glasses for everyone? If prossecco is going to flow, you’ll want enough flutes! Rather than buying extra plastic cups that’ll get thrown away (not very HWH) you can hire extra glassware from Majestic.
Send a packing list to your hens for the things they need to bring. This could include the basics but also any special outfits or props you’ve asked your hens to bring for the weekend. There’s a template in our Hen Party Planning Kit.
Send the address to your hens. Make sure they know the general location in advance, especially if they’re booking trains or planes. Advance train tickets are usually released 8-12 weeks before the date. Give them the full address at least 2 weeks before so they can plan in detail how they’re getting there. Send the address by WhatsApp on the morning of the hen party - you’ll be asked for it several times that day, trust us.
Tell everyone what time to arrive. This might seem obvious, but if your hens will be booking time off work they’ll need to know in advance what time you’re planning to start the festivities so they can arrive in good time.
Make a WhatsApp group for the weekend. If you weren’t already using one in the planning phase, you’ll find this the easiest way to stay in touch with everyone over the weekend.
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