PARTY PLANNING: Throwing a Rose Gold Hen Party

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Throwing a Hen Party (or Bachelorette Party if you're in America) is such an honour and exciting event to be part of; the love and thought that is poured into the planning makes this one of my favourite parties to throw. At the end of this year my sister-in-law is getting married, so this summer we threw her a very special Rose Gold Hen Party and it was just incredible. The planning process was very much a team effort amongst her friends and family, which was such a lovely way to do it and meant that it didn't all land on one person's shoulders. 

WEDDING: Hen Party Photo Album

I'm a Bride in only a couple of days now and I had a lovely send off into married life at my Hen Do. If you're interested in reading about what we got up to on my Hen Do then read this post and this one. If you're not in the mood for reading then here's a much easier way of checking out what we did...

What did you do or want to do for your Hen Party?

Feel free to leave me a comment :)

Helen x

WEDDING: If I'm the Hen then what are you? Part 2

After a quick 'get ready' we went down to breakfast, don't you just love hotel breakfasts? Unfortunately I was so full from dinner the night before that I couldn't take full advantage of the breakfast. I had a small beans on toast, a strawberry yogurt and a pot of tea - delicious. We then went for a wander around Marlborough, nipping in and out of the lovely shops and enjoying the sunshine. The only thing I bought was a travel size sun cream for our honeymoon - wild, I know! Tom's Mum and Sister's arrived mid morning and joined us on our discovery of Marlborough's shopping scene. At around 12.30pm my auntie revealed the next part of the hen party - afternoon tea at Polly's Tea Room in Marlborough. I'm obsessed with afternoon tea at the moment, there's always so much to eat and I love 'nibbly' sized food. The afternoon tea was delicious - they were aimed for two people but we shared it between three and there were still leftovers! Everything was so tasty and certainly filled us up for the rest of the day.

Next, we headed back to the hotel room to freshen up again - the hot weather does nothing for that horrible 'I'm so hot' feeling. The next part of the hen party was a surprise again, we got into the cars and drove around 15 minutes to this gorgeous old house/hotel set in stunning countryside. I was baffled, we already had somewhere to stay so I didn't have any idea of what the next activity could be. Then we arrived at a craft and pottery shop - pottery painting - for me this was perfect! I love doing creative things and I haven't been to a pottery painting shop in such a long time. Though a slight panic did set in because every time I've been to one before I've done some research before about the kind of thing I wanted to paint. But this time I was going in cold - just me and my love for things creative. We were met by the most friendly lady called Claire, who showed us the different items we could paint and how to choose the colours. I decided to go for a teapot, as I had been saying earlier how much I wanted a teapot. It was perfect.

As for the design, I had seen a strawberry pattern on a teapot in a shop back in Marlborough (that was far to expensive to buy) so I decided to try and copy it from memory. After many hours of us all tentatively painting our different chosen items we were all finished and so relaxed. It is such a relaxing activity and one I can't recommend enough. As the items have to go into a kiln you usually have to go and pick them up a couple of days later. My auntie kindly offered to pick them all up for us, so we'll all see our masterpieces on my wedding day - I'm so excited!

We drove back to the hotel, had more time to freshen up and get changed, before going for dinner at the hotel's restaurant. Little did I know, that everyone would decorate the table with a Hen Party banner, balloons, cake, a veil and gifts. I really do love my family, their thoughtfulness is always so overwhelming. We had a lovely meal, played lots of funny games (including a Mr and Mrs game about Tom and I - I was rubbish), put moustaches on, laughed a bit more and ate the delicious cake my auntie kindly bought.

I really am so lucky to be surrounded my such lovely people. Now, it's the days countdown until our wedding day - ahhhh!

Feel free to leave me a comment :)

Helen x

WEDDING: If I'm the Hen that what are you? Part 1

Back in January my close and extended family went for a lovely meal for my little brothers birthday. There was plenty of delicious food and funny moments, then on the way out of the restaurant my auntie pulled me to the side. Do you ever get that really nervous feeling wash all over you when someone says they want to speak to you? I certainly did. My auntie asked if I was having a hen party, which at that point I wasn't planning on having one. Its not that I didn't want one but I've seen so many friends plan other hen parties and it always seems to cause a lot of stress and arguments. I didn't want that to happen to my friends and family, so I had decided I wasn't going to have one. But when my auntie asked me and said that she really wanted to plan one for me, I was so touched that she'd want to, I said yes! I asked for it to be a complete surprise and I'm so glad I did. I wasn't involved in any of the planning process but I knew that conversations had been had between my best friend, Tom and my auntie. It was so exciting to try and guess what we might be doing!

Fast forward to the 24th July 2014 and it's the morning of my hen party. My best friend came and picked me up at around 11.30am, ready to drive to my aunties. She had put bunting on her car, saying 'Helen's Hen Do' - those little touches always mean so much. After a good journey down to my aunties, I was excited to find out the plans for the hen party. My (rather heavily pregnant) cousin was also at my auntie's, so we all set off for a picnic next to the river. I absolutely love picnic's but I don't really have them, I'm not sure why because they're super easy and right there I made it my mission to have more picnics over the summer. (Tom and I have already had one picnic since my hen party!) My auntie had gotten lots of Marks and Spencer treats, I hadn't had food from there for a while and boy do they do tasty food! *Hello rekindled love with M&S food*. We chatted, laughed, drank healthy smoothies and ate tasty food, all while enjoying the beautiful river view and sunshine. The perfect way to start a hen party if you ask me!

We then head to our hotel for the next couple of nights, after battling with rush hour traffic (every time I'm on holiday I completely forget that most other people are still at work and therefore rush hour continues) we arrived in Marlborough, Wiltshire. If you've not been to Marlborough, then you should do, it's a quaint market town with plenty of lovely shops, tea rooms and a fantastic market on Saturdays. My kind of place.

We checked into the Castle & Ball Hotel on the high street (I say high street but everything is on one street!) and had a bit of time to freshen up/rest. Am I the only one that wants to take a photograph of the hotel room before anyone puts anything down? The bed never looks as nice after a bag has been put on it, just me? I hope not. The rooms were lovely - think dark beams, wonky floors, grand beds and comfy armchairs. It was old (but definitely not shabby) and had character, two things I always look for in a home or hotel.

After time to freshen up we went out for dinner and guess who had to decide where we go? Yep - me! Anyone that knows me, knows I'm useless at choosing where to eat, mainly because I love food and would go everywhere if I could! After a lot of umming and ahhing we settled on Pizza Express, mainly for their Padana pizza. We sat in the garden at the back of the restaurant because it was still so hot, despite it being  almost 8pm. British weather, you baffle me. Dough balls, a massive Padana pizza and chocolate fudge cake with ice-cream were all consumed, fair to say I was full! We chatted and chatted and chatted, to the point where we were almost the only ones left in the whole restaurant and it was nearly 10pm.

I shared a room with my best friend and we both slept so well, despite the heat! Due to our jobs we both usually wake up pretty early, so it was nice to have someone to chat to at 6am rather than Tom who is usually asleep until 11am. We chatted for an hour - it was one of those hours that just disappear, it felt like we had only just woken up and then suddenly we were almost running late!

....to be continued...

Feel free to leave me a comment :)

Helen x