A Serial Hen - Part 1

Always the bridesmaid never the bride, is an adage that might make some girls feel uncomfortable but not me. At 31, I’m still happy to be an extra, part of the ensemble, I don’t need to be the star, well, not quite yet anyhow. And yes, while I like weddings (God, I’ve been to enough of them to be a fully paid-up member of the Wedding Planners Association), what I really enjoy is the build-up, with my absolute favourite being the Hen Night.

Between last Christmas and the one just gone, I have been to — wait for it — eight hen nights!  I consider last year to be the apex of my hen night career, beating the year before by five weddings alone. This year though, I have my sister Loraine’s wedding in September in Barbados and that’s it. Quite simply, I’ve run out of marriageable friends but never one to be daunted, I can already see my new career as a Baby Shower supremo beckoning.

So, last year the wedding dates went like this: - May 2 (Amanda & David); May 30 (Caitlin & Henry); July 11 (Lesley & Phil); August 2 (Clare & Simon); August 15 (Gino & Gabriel); September 19 (Lisa and Ben); September 26 (Stella and Michael); December 12 (Rolf and William). The corresponding Hen dos (all held in the UK) went like this: - April 17 -19; May 15-17 ; June 20-21; June 26-28 (UK) ; August 8 (UK) ; September 5-6; September 20; December 4-6.

So what is it about Hen Parties that I adore? Well, I’m just sorting out my photo albums and I’m going to relive my ultimate year of hen nights just for you.

1.Amanda & David

Wedding May 2

Hen celebration: Friday April 17-19

I have known Amanda since we were at university as we shared a flat in the Halls of Residence, and it was at University that she met David. They both live and work in London but had their wedding back at Amanda’s parents home where she grew up in Kirby Lonsdale in the Lake District.

Of all my friends, Amanda is the most alternative. She is a non-fish eating vegetarian, is really fit and works as web-designer and a yoga teacher. She’s also a great cook and I have often spent long lazy Sunday afternoons eating fantastic food and drinking gorgeous wine at her and David’s flat.

I was the maid of honour at her wedding that meant that not only was I fully engaged in wedding preps but it was also my duty to organise the Hen Night!

Amanda’s is my most favourite Hen Weekend ever and from it I got the reputation as being the event organiser amongst my friends.

For Amanda’s Hen Weekend, 16 of us, including Amanda’s mum Janice and David’s step-mum Valerie, all wanted to do something different and memorable. While we wanted to wanted to eat great food and have maybe stylish cocktails, we wanted to do something more than just dressing-up and sitting down at a large table in a restaurant on a Saturday night. We wanted fun but do something that we could all enjoy and learn together.

In the end, after a great deal of research, and the help of a stag and hen specialist, we ended up booking a huge country house for the weekend down on the South Coast, enabling us all to arrive at various times from the afternoon onwards on Friday.

We all decided that we’d like to chill-out on the Friday night - and have a really great pyjama party! We designated cooks for the evening and everyone contributed food and drink. Then, on Saturday after lunch, two mini-buses came out to get us, and took us to a recording studio, where we dressed-up, danced and made our own absolutely brilliant pop video.

If you’ve never been to a pop-video party you don’t know what you’re missing! It was absolutely the best fun ever, and once everyone got into the spirit of it, helped by the champagne on arrival, it was amazing to see the hidden talent that lurked within - especially Amanda’s mum - who could do a really mean hand-jive. I don’t think any of us have ever laughed as much. The pop video party really bought us together as a group, as not everyone knew each other that well.

With this particular pop party, what we got with the package was the exclusive use of a studio, a camera man and sound engineer, a choreographer plus a professionally edited DVD that we got a couple of weeks after the party, which, I might add was played at the wedding much to the delight of everyone there (including David who until that moment hadn’t seen what we’d been up to during our hen celebrations).

Once we’d decided that we were going to book the pop-video experience, we then had to between us decide on the music we wanted to sing along to, and then what costumes we would use, as clients have to provide their own make-up and costumes. We decided that we’d like to do reinvent the musical Grease and dress up as the pink ladies that was pretty easy to do. All we needed was for everyone to dress-up in 1950s clothing, and we all wore pink cardigans that we had digitally printed with the Pink Ladies logo.

It was an absolute hoot, not least because the night before in our PJs, we all watched the movie together to prepare ourselves for the day ahead. So expectations were high as well as a fair amount of trepidation.

The whole hysterical experience lasted for just over two and a half hours  which might not sound that long, but believe me, it’s absolutely sufficient. We were exhausted but elated, I just felt sorry for the mini-bus drivers who collected us afterwards who had to endure our collective singing/screeching all the way back to our country house in our pink lady outfits!

Back at base, we all settled into serious cake eating as we had all bought amazing home -made cakes to munch- mostly of the chocolate variety. Then much needed rest time, baths, showers and then dressed-up to the nines we were picked up again by our mini-buses at 7.30pm to be taken to a fantastic restaurant recommended to us by the stag and hen specialist, where in a lovely private dining room we ate really tasty modern European food and drank far too many delectable cocktails.

On the Sunday, we were all pretty exhausted, and so we were really thankful that we had booked a relaxing spa session. We had pre-booked Amanda a surprise Indian head massage and aromatherapy body treatment, but even if you hadn’t booked any specialist treatments just resting on recliners round the pool area, reading the glossies, visiting the Jacuzzi, steam room and sauna, and enjoying a lovely healthy light lunch was just what we all needed.

Some went straight on home from the spa, while some of us returned to the house, to pack and clear before we set off home, totally relaxed and delighted by such a fantastic weekend of friendship, fun and celebration, and excitement in the knowledge that within 14 days we’d see ourselves like never before, as bonafide pop stars!

Till next time…

Adventure Connections Registers Unprecedented Amount Of Enquiries For Next Year

Adventure Connections; Sussex; December 2009: Is it you or is it us? We’re not quite sure but what we do know is that 2010 looks all set to be a year full of dynamism as Adventure Connections, the South’s favourite Stag and Hen Party Weekend specialist has reported an unprecedented amount of enquiries for the New Year and beyond.

So what is it with all you Stags and Hens out there? Are you simply being far more organised? Has the credit crunch forced you to be more efficient with your finances, making you plan ahead and make your money work harder for you?

Justin Sayers MD Adventure Connections has his own theories. “Recently we have noticed far longer lead times on bookings for our stag and hen weekends and believe that customers have readjusted their attitudes - they are not leaving things to the last minute and they are putting arrangements in place far earlier to help everyone budget more easily.”

Sayers continues: “We believe we are also witnessing the fruits of our labour. This summer we totally revamped our website making it so easy for stags and hens to plan fantastic weekends online. We have also refined and added to our extensive portfolio of superb activities and entertainment and we have put lots of effort into marketing our ultra special bespoke weekends.

“We have been in this market for a decade now, and we have an enviable reputation for our service and going that extra mile for our customers. There is a real momentum about our company and we find that we are getting many enquiries and bookings just by word of mouth, ” he concludes.

For more information on fabulous, different and discerning stag and hen weekends please call Adventure Connections on 08708 007 007.

Adventure Connections, after all fun is a serious business.

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Hen groups also have a real vision

When it comes to organising a Hen Night women go about it very differently from their male counterparts.

Hens are usually brimming full of ideas and often run the danger of trying to pack too much into a weekend. Hen groups also have a real vision of what they want to do and start thinking about the organisation of their Hen Weekend or Hen Party much earlier than stags.

But despite this in-built talent for organisation and multi-tasking, Hens can  - and do - really benefit from the services of a Specialist Hen Party Agency like Adventure Connections which can really put that extra polish and know-how into your Hen Weekend creating a seamless rhythm which represents real value for money.

Booking a weekend for a group can be a serious headache but by using a hen party agency you can save a massive amount of time, effort and hassle especially if you are going away from your usual locale.

At Adventure Connections we have a whole host of nationwide accredited accommodation from the simple through to luxury plus superb quality, day and night-time activities on our books. We offer a number of fabulous off-the-shelf hen weekend packages suitable for a variety of budgets, or we can work with you to create unforgettable tailor-made events from the traditional to the fabulous, and believe us, we have done it all.

We have been making hens really happy since 2000, that’s quite a few years of research, recommendations, negotiation, feedback and reviews. And we have personally road-tested a number of venues and activities, so when we recommend a particular activity, club, show or hotel you can trust that we know what we’re talking about.

At Adventure Connections we live and breathe Hen Parties and Hen Weekends, and as an independent agency we get great deals and preferred status availability that are simply not available to individuals who book similar hotels and activities direct. And then there’s the all-important little details that really make your weekend special and seamless like VIP nightclub passes that transform you and the rest of your hen party into beautiful birds of paradise.

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One of your closest mates is getting married and as best man it’s down to you to sort out the Stag ‘Never To Forget’ Weekend. Amongst the guys you may well be regarded as the Life and Soul of the party, or perhaps you’re more of a Thinker and Philosopher, but wherever you sit on the sociability scale, the question is are you an organiser? Can you actually put together a fun-filled, memory-rich day and night extravaganza for you and a group of friends? And even if you could, do you have the time to research fresh and unusual daytime activities? Then of course, there’s exciting nocturnal entertainment, all group accommodation as well as transportation.  And yes, we know you’ve all decided to stay in the UK for your three-day pre-nuptial Stag break but you’ve still got to be mindful of your overall budget.

There’s no doubt that organising an extra special weekend trip for a group of males can be quite tricky, but that’s where a specialist agency like Adventure Connections can assist.

Established since 2000, Adventure Connections has helped hundreds of stags enjoy fabulous ‘out of the ordinary’ weekends. An independent agent specialising in exceptional Stag Parties and Stag Weekends, Adventure Connections has built up its own database of superior, unusual and ‘I’ve always wanted to try that’ daytime activities plus a whole host of really fantastic night-time enjoyment, much of which has been road-tested by ourselves, so we know what’s good and what will suit your particular group of guys.

“The Stag market is big business and there’s lots of venues, activities and clubs that cater for stags,” says Justin Sayers, MD Adventure Connections. “But there’s also lots of room for being disappointed and ripped off. We work closely with many, many venues both day and night, and when we recommend something you can be sure you’re getting what it says on the can. We are always refining our lists, checking out new places, getting feedback from our stags who have been on weekends through us, so upcoming stags can rest assured.”

Adventure Connections offers weekend packages to suit all budgets and tastes and also offers a bespoke service, specific to your particular stag group. It also works with many grades and budgets of stag-group friendly hotels and because it books accommodation day in, day out, we can offer good discounts and wider availability - deals that are simply not accessible to individuals when booking direct.

“There is a common perception that using an agency to book your stag weekend is expensive but that’s a complete myth,” continues Sayers. “We’ve done all the legwork so we know what’s good and what works. We sort out all the details; all the time-consuming hassle so you don’t have to spend your valuable time worrying about anything. We know what will suit your group, and we can give you a good idea of what to expect when you get there. We can add extras - such as VIP nightclub passes, little touches that really make a difference to your big night out.  So much of the feedback we get is how smooth and enjoyable weekends are, and also what good true value we represent. We’re here at the end of the phone, so give us a call, and we can make sure you have a stag weekend to remember for all the right reasons.”

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Christmas Connections the personalised corporate Christmas Party specialist

Christmas Connections: Sussex: What better way for corporates and organizations to celebrate Christmas than by organising an office Christmas Party that reflects the ethos of the company in hand?

For many companies the ‘Christmas Do’ is regarded as a highly significant event - one in which its highly valued employees and clients are treated to a large thank-you for all their loyalty and efforts over the year.  Many companies really push the boat out to ensure a memorable event, and that’s where companies like Christmas Connections really come into their own.

A specialist in bespoke office and corporate party planning, it works with larger companies to create a whole range of stunning and unusual bespoke Christmas Party events from intimate and exquisite dinners to huge extravaganzas.

“At Christmas Connections we understand everything that is involved to produce a major corporate event not just in terms of the logistics but also with the corporate message.,” says Christmas Connections MD Justin Sayers.

Christmas Connections, part of the Connections Group based in Sussex has been offering superior independent events management since 2000, and has a wealth of experience and knowledge in Corporate events from conferences to team building and everything in between.

For superb customised Christmas parties, Christmas Connections works in partnership with companies and offers an arsenal of wonderful ideas and true value for money prices. For example, Christmas Connections can arrange  unusual and atmospheric Christmas events in a castle for a medieval banquet or a suspense-filled murder mystery. Gorgeous themed events where dressing up is de rigeur is very popular and really brings with it a sense of anticipation and excitement in the days leading up to the event.

Christmas Connections can book whole venues with accommodation so there is no need to worry about driving, and obviously as it does this day in, day out can offer fantastic discounts especially on midweek prices.

It’s not too late to go that extra mile and organise an Office Christmas Party that is all about your business.  For more information please call Christmas Connections on 08450 251 251.

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