If I asked you to describe your perfect weekend, would any of the following activities get a shout out? Line dancing, making a music video, salsa lesson, knicker embroidery? No, me neither. So why, oh why, have they all somehow become credible hen party pursuits?
Let’s all agree now that organised fun is painful at the best of times. It’s one thing spending the weekend with a random group of women you hardly know but it’s another entirely when you have to do so in Edwardian fancy dress on a climbing wall in the Yorkshire dales.
Having organised two hen do’s myself, I am sympathetic to the many stipulations involved. You have to please the bride as well as 15 women you don’t know from Adam while curating a fun, unique weekend that doesn’t cost the earth. It’s a tough gig. But I do not understand why people insist on planning such deranged activities as garter making. Who wants to spend their Saturday afternoon making a garter, for god’s sake?
The problem is that we have lost sight of the point. A hen is meant to be a fun way to celebrate your friend’s upcoming wedding while giving some members of the wedding party a chance to get to know each other a bit better. Let me remind all sisters, besties and maids of honour out there that all of this can be achieved over a nice dinner and a glass of wine. Learning how to make sushi or taking a Zumba class under duress does little to help the process along.
At risk of sounding too bah humbug about the whole thing, I will concede that a certain amount of creative planning is required to break the ice in some situations. But I maintain that a picnic in the park or night out dancing can do the trick. You might think you’re being clever sending a group of grown women zorbing down an English hillside but you’re wrong. If I want to zorb, I’ll do it on my own time, thank you.
