Organising a stag weekend or hen party – straight from the horse’s mouth.

The in’s and out’s to organise the perfect stag weekend or hen party

You would have thought organising a stag weekend or a hen party would be like a walk in the park, an easy process of simply calling up your favourite hotel retreat and restaurant call your friends and that’s it job done.

If this is the case then read on, you’re going to need a little help.

First off it’s for your best friend, it’s going to be one of their best memories, and if you get it right they will be forever grateful. The stag or hen party will live eternally alongside the wedding itself, one of blissful happiness.

Think of the party or night as a starter course, the main dish is the wedding and eating the dessert is of course the rest of their lives together. Ahh nice…

Ok, what happens if the starter is awful, distasteful and is a struggle to swallow? The rest of the meal…. hum, well let’s all cross our fingers.

So the pressures on! Don’t worry we will tell you exactly how to do it.

Great events take great planning

First off get a list together, honestly getting a little anal never hurt anyone and precision is essential, remember a couple of sayings, ‘p**s, poor, planning, prevents, poor, performance,’ more commonly known as the 5p’s, (you get the idea). The second little gem is ‘keep it simple stupid’ or ‘kiss’ for short, which I prefer.

So the golden rules to organise a stress free stag weekend or hen party are…

Setting the goals

1. Set the end goal from the start – what do you want to get from this stag weekend or hen party? – Memories and fun usually come out on top for the people attending and glory for you, it’s a great feeling when all your friends genuinely say thank you for a great weekend away.

Who are you organising the party for?

2. What’s the bride or groom actually like, characteristics, lifestyle? It’s their party so they should be right at the top of the list of important people. Next who else has to come? And finally don’t forget all sides of the family, after all you want to make a good impression.

Stag and Hen – finding the perfect location

3. Where do you want to go, which destination? A city offers party options on your door step, however getting out into the country will offer a relaxing atmosphere, if you pick the right location it shouldn’t take too long to drive too, (there’s nothing worse than driving for hours when you only have  a couple of days). Think location location location. Very important, spend some time on this one.

Making the memories

4. This goes hand in hand with number 5, now you know where you want to go, what do you want to do? This is the memory maker, one of the key components to a successful weekend or night out.

Stag and Hen Party Ideas – write it down

5. Budget budget budget, be realistic, when you start perusing the interweb for stag or hen ideas, jot down costs. You have to decide which way the events going to go, novel, original, traditional, unique, themed, refined, tranquil, the list is not exhaustive and it’s not meant to be, you’re the best man or maid of honour it’s up to you. You don’t have to decide straight away, so now its surf time.

Jot it down: Spa in Brighton: £65, champagne flight on the London eye; £440 per capsule, sailing from Brighton Marina £149 per person. Write down all the details, and then you can have a vote for the best option with your friends, a little pressure off your shoulders. If you do not write it down you will forget where you saw such and such.

The illusion – do your homework

5a. A picture paints a thousand words and a good website will purvey the quality, but do your homework, websites can be ambiguous, how do you know they are the best available, are they competitively priced for their services. Search for sailing in Brighton on the google machine and you will have a host of websites to choose from which one would you choose?

Now you have found a raft of  Brighton marina sailing webites, and within the cache there are hundreds of yachts, which one should you charter? They will all say they are the best, which one should you trust? Which one has the correct insurance offers an impeccable service and high quality equipment, this goes for every activity, hotel and service available on the web? Well if you’re doing your homework you need to do your research (sorry more work for the party organiser), you need to do a reccee or at least get a recommendation.

Cost conscience parties

6. Lets’ now focus on the budget, you have done your homework got some great ideas and costs. Add it up, start with your dream stag or hen weekend, does this match your stag or hen, is this what they would book for themselves? Yes? Job done get it booked. Need to tweak it, well that’s not going to be a problem as you have your list and you can swap and change, you do have a list – don’t you!

Plan for a Plan B

7. Now to throw a spanner in the works, you do know prices change, particularly hotels. Be the knowledge, when you see the price on the interweb for a date, does the website display how many rooms it has left, if they have lots then no problem, busy weekends and you would think hotels would be happy to sell the last rooms, alas to the contrary they will hold their prices high even put them up until the week before when they do drop. But when your organising a stag weekend or hen party it’s simply not an option you need to make sure your booked and double check it and I will tell you why.

Party Hotels gving you hassle

8. Hotels are a little tricky, they will double book rooms as not everyone turns up so they do not want empty rooms, better to have a few customers over and gamble. Think about it that’s 100% profit they make and no outlay, it makes financial sense to them, perhaps not to you standing at reception without a room though. Additionally hotel prices will and do change from day to day and sometimes minute by minute it’s all down to demand.

Big priority, when you book get a reservation number, take the person’s name, and write down the time and date you booked make sure you receive written confirmation from the hotel. Call the hotel the week before and double check it. (do you know we call the hotel a minimum of 4 times for every booking we make on a clients behalf).

Know your terms and conditions

9. So now you have a good idea, the costs, you have put it to the vote and finalised the plans, now for the invites. As a suggestion take some money from people, you will have to outlay a deposit (check companies terms), don’t get caught, if your friends say they want to come along then they will be happy to give you some money. A flexible company will have a user friendly booking system, not all though. Know your consumer rights, if you pay via a telephone or online then you’re entitled to a 7 day cooling off period – responsible companies will have this displayed.

A word please, when your friends give you the money say ‘ this is for a non refundable deposit, I will not be able to give you this money back if you decide not to come, or even if something really bad happens, is that ok’. Also give them a deadline for the rest of the money, the balance. Make sure you allow time to collect and you will always have stragglers.  Tell them straight from the start and then they understand the situation. Be fearless otherwise you will be accountable.

So there you have it, of course this has taken some time maybe, and yes you will have made a few phone calls to people that say one thing one day and something else on another day (a little frustrating). The prices may have jumped up a little and you will have read about 15 different companies terms and conditions, different payment and deposit structures and you will have received oodles of correspondence to wade through and finally you will have to call the activity providers, night clubs, hotels a few times just to make sure it’s all booked and double checked. But in the end think of the memories.

Your preparing the starter, better get it right!

You now have the process, some advice, now go to it and have some fun!

A word from our sponsor…

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Talk to us, one call, 100′s of ideas, one set of terms, your own dedicated mini website and email brochures to send to all your friends. Superior tried and tested database of the hotels, activities and events that make memories – and help towards dessert, we all love dessert! 08708 007 007