Some months ago a very lovely reader Monica submitted her Hen Do to Rock My Wedding. Now the images are not professional but the details and planning behind this occassion were so clever and well thought through we decided it would provide great inspiration to all those brides out there who are struggling for Hen party ideas.

Monica’s theme was “Alice in Wonderland” and good gracious was it 100% true to Mad Hatter styling – no half arsed attempts here people.

We’re talking full blown eat me /drink me/ polka dot teapot/ blue caterpillar fabulousness.

Over to Monica ( THE Mad Hatter) to fill us in on the Topsy Turvy Tea Party delight.

For my hen weekend I was quite adamant that I did not want any traditional hen clichés. No pink (well there was quite a lot of pink but it wasn’t on me), no L plates, no stripper and definitely NOTHING shaped like a penis! So after a lot of thought I decided to host a ‘Mad Hatter’s tea Party’ dressed as the mad hatter of course. I did not want to invade any member of the public’s evening with our festivities so I tracked down a cottage big enough to fit my lovely friends, with enough to do for an entire weekend.

The only male of the occasion is my best friend and I have known him since I was 10, we shall call him flamingo. We were friends at primary school, attended the same 6th form college and spent a year together during our art foundation at Portsmouth University. We studied for our degrees at separate unis but stayed very much in contact and saw each-other quite often. We were never romantically connected, as you may have guessed by his costume that I am not entirely his type!

So flamingo is my unofficial bridesmaid and agreed to be the honorary chef at hen cottage. The food was fantastic! He sent me a list of ingredients that he needed and I did a tesco’s order the week before and had it delivered to the cottage for our arrival. Flamingo is currently working at a cookery school in that big place called London and makes the best pistachio and lemon cake in the world. So 4 hours later and all of the food and drink for the weekend was ordered, divided by 16 and actually a very reasonable price for a weekend of luxurious food and drink. Italian was the chosen menu consisting of Mushroom Lasagne, Aubergine Lasagne, Meatballs and Spaghetti, Courgettes with mint and garlic, Green beans with Capers, Tomato, Basil and Red Onion Salad and for dessert Lots of Cake!

Hen Cottage was found of cottages4U. It was situated in Barnby moor (just outside of York) with 7 bedrooms which slept 15, an outdoor pool, hot tub and a long dining room for the desired tea party. Perfect. The price was good too. The most important thing for me was that my closest friends could be there and I didn’t want to organize anything that would exclude people due to the price. It could have been costly enough just to travel to the north as most of my friends live in the south. The total cost per person for the entire 3 night weekend including food and drink was £86.

Not bad at all.

I was so pleased when everyone made such an effort with their costumes, it was so much fun waiting for people to come out of their rooms all dressed up for tea.

Friday was a day of collecting people and organizing the cottage. First stop leeds Bradford airport. My sister (maid of honour) ‘Alice’ and my friend from school ‘Bling bunny’ were arriving from Southampton. There I stood at 8.10am with an oversized wooden teapot made and painted the weekend before so they wouldn’t miss me. Gesture was appreciated. We then drove to my house for breakfast and catch up. Next stop lunch with hen number 4 ‘White rabbit’. Wife of H2B’s school friend, (hairdresser for my wedding) someone who was very welcoming when I moved to the north and friend who’s wedding we attended in Vegas last year, oh yeah!

After a seasonal pumpkin risotto and 2 cars full of hen paraphernalia the drive to York commenced, next stop York train station to collect hen number 5. Hen 5, ‘Green Pixie’ was the reason me and H2b met, she had a house party in Brighton (where we both used to live) h2b was the friend of a friend and we just talked all night. It wasn’t that night that we got together, 6 months later we recognized each other in a pub with the same connecting friends and that was indeed THE night!

The drinks began to flow and we all decide that that it was a great night for a hot tub. Overriding the rules of ‘do not stay in the hot tub for longer than 35 mins’ 3 hours later we were nicely poached and greeted the next 4 hens at 12.00, ‘checker board’, ‘Dormouse’, ‘Caterpillar’, and ‘Flamingo’. I have known the ‘checker board’ for about 8 years, she is my cousins’ fiancé and we spent many a uni day together. I used to live with the ‘dormouse’ and the ‘Caterpillar’ at university for two years and have remained very close friends.

I blame the hot tub.

That morning felt like I was a teenager again, (nothing to do with the inability to pace myself where alcohol is concerned) throughout the morning people were piling into the room talking, giggling and telling embarrassing childhood stories, numerous cups of tea and biscuits for breakfast. We reminisced about our younger sister who died 3 years previously, she would have loved the weekend and I felt like the discussion brought my older sister and me closer together. I’m so glad that she was remembered and was part of the weekend. It was amazing how many of my friends had been affected by cancer and it was such a rare opportunity to speak so openly with a group of such fantastic people.

The afternoon consisted of DVD watching general relaxing, food preparation and table decoration. The table was very important. I had very luckily found the perfect setting with a long narrow dining room that was set 3 steps lower than the rest of the cottage, we were literally stepping down into wonderland, the window looked out to the courtyard but only 4 inches from ground level. In the weeks prior to the hen event, with the help from a certain flamingo’s mum, I, and she separately trawled the local charity shops in search of crockery. Together we collected 14 teapots 17 cups, saucers and side plates, 1 two tier cake stand (this was actually courtesy of my lovely gran), 1 metal cake stand and one tiny cupcake stand.

For the ‘eat me’ treats I sourced some coconut mushrooms from ‘The olde sweet shop’ in Pately Bridge, put a few in a tealight holder for each individual and attached a hand stamped tag to a HobbyCraft sparkly wire, and inserted. The teapots were filled with long island ice tea, 3 tablecloths were donated by H2b’s mum, along with a selection of yummy cakes. My sister produced personalised place settings which we set on each chair and ‘checker board’ produced flamingo table decs. Ta-da. Table complete.

Hen 14 and 15, ‘cat’ and ‘Queen of Hearts’ arrived that evening as everyone was dressing. We all enjoyed the evening of AMAZING food, various drinks and possibly the best company in the world (excluding partners of course). The entire weekend was better than I could have imagined, everyone got on so well, there are newly formed friendships and all are looking forward to a reunion at the wedding. It was so worth all of the planning.

Monica x

Ah ha and guess what! We have the wedding too!

Monica’s lovely wedding will be gracing our blog next week so be sure to keep an eye out.

Big Wonderland Love

Charlotte xxx

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