This week the lovely Laura F shares her EPIC hen do with us. I won’t spoil the surprise but wow her girls spoilt her. How much fun she must have had :-) Do leave her some hen love, what are you planning for your hen or is it a surprise? Spill the beans Laura… hehe XOXO Lou

So, last time I blogged, things were all moving along very nicely. These last few weeks, as the wedding gets scarily closer (I still can’t quite believe our weekly countdown has hit single figures!), have been insane with wedding activity – there are lots of bills to pay, lots of final decisions to be made, and a million and one little bits that need sourcing/buying/decorating. Craziness. To be honest though, so far it’s been surprisingly drama-free and apart from a little wobble over our florist who has sadly had to pull out, things are coming together really well. We’re heading up to our venue for our last ‘planning’ meeting in a couple of weeks, and after that we will be in full on wedding countdown mode. Oh. My. God.

I did however, manage to find the time in my mental schedule to take a couple of days out of planning to celebrate my hen weekend – a couple of days away with some of my favourite people, the odd gin (or 8) and, erm… some sumo-wrestling?!

I had known absolutely nothing about what was in store for me which was exciting – but pretty scary – and was just instructed to get on a train home to Wiltshire one Friday morning. There I was greeted by my oldest friend in the station car park, wearing nothing but a wetsuit and a woolly hat – and was presented with a banana and a doughnut (apparently these were ‘clues’ but I was way to nervous/excited/slightly tipsy from a bottle of train wine to make much sense of it at this point…)

I absolutely needn’t have worried though, because we soon pulled up at an amazing campsite in Reading, set up with 2 amazing big bell tents, a campfire area, posh loos and showers (phew!) with fairy lights and heaters and bunting too. Exciting! It really was exactly what I’d have planned had I arranged it myself, so I was over the moon, and we soon settled ourselves in, poured a gin and tonic or two, and waited for the rest of the hen party to arrive. We had an amazing first night (erm… not that I can remember huge amounts of it – I may have hit the gin a little too hard!) and before long I was fully dolled up in a sequined veil, zebra print onesie, with a blow up man with a wig attached to his face under my arm (this is basically what Mr C looks like in real life – it was uncanny…). My amazing friends also presented me with a mini-Hayley doll in honour of our amazing friend who’s currently on an Australian adventure and so really really sadly couldn’t make it. We had a barbecue, and of course played Mr & Mrs – which I was doing brilliantly at, until I unwittingly revealed a little too much information to my poor friends (I blame the gin!) – before heading out to the local pub where we demolished a bouncy castle, lost our blow up friends to a local dog and drank ‘special’ gin. It was pink, that’s all I can remember.

I have to say, a highlight of the whole weekend was when my friend whipped out her guitar and played me MY VERY OWN SONG – at which point I may have come over all emotional, cried, and told everyone how much I love them. It was amazing, slightly embarrassing, and included some memories I’d rather forget of course, but there aren’t many people who can say they had their own hen-song performed to them around a campfire, right? We finally rolled into bed around 4am and it was lovely lovely lovely – I had SO much fun – the opportunity to let my hair down and have fun with my friends in the middle of nowhere doesn’t present itself very often and was exactly what I needed. Yay.

Despite all the odds, the next morning we all managed to make it up in time to take our sore heads to an activity lake nearby where I was promptly shoved into a HUGE sumo-wrestlers suit – possibly one of the most surreal moments of my entire life. I was rubbish but it was one of the funniest things I have ever done, and after much rolling around on the floor (have you ever tried standing up in one of those things?) and tummy ache from laughing so much, I admitted defeat and we were on to the next activity.

Which involved putting on a wetsuit. Eeek.

Before I knew it I’d been shoved – literally – onto a banana boat and was being towed around a huge lake at ridiculous speeds, holding on for dear life. Needless to say we fell in. A lot. It was freezing (which helped to wash away our fuzzy heads) but totally worth it to see my sister fly 10 feet into the air with amazing grace, or my friend Kim yet again falling off the end while everyone else managed to stay on. After a few rounds, and a go on doughnut dinghy too (remember the banana and the doughnut at the train station? Genius!) which rendered my arms useless from holding on so tight, we were just about ruined enough to head off for dinner and drinks and to recharge before the night’s activities.

We got back to the campsite, and against all the odds (and thanks to my friend Rachael’s amazing campfire skills!) we warmed ourselves up and go dressed ready for a night out in Reading. The veil was back out in force, and we had cocktails in teapots, champagne, far too many ‘Russian bride’ shots, and danced on the most jam packed dance floor EVER before buying a shameful amount of noodles to take home with us.

Fun.

It was amazing, and I still can’t quite believe just how spot on my friends were to arrange it all for me. These guys are amazing and I am absolutely honoured to call each of them my friend. I’m still really sad it’s over, so am busy plotting to organise another girls night in that my littlest girls can be a part of too.

I can’t wait to hear all about Kelly’s hen which I know is coming up VERY soon – eeek! I’d also love to hear all your hen stories – are you having any say in what you get up to for your last single celebrations, or are you taking a deep breath and letting someone else take control too?

I’ll be back soon to chat all about the final touches and perhaps a few little words about a very special Oh My Honey delivery which arrived last week?!?! Eeeeeek!

Laura xxx

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