Hens Party Ideas

One of the first decisions a Maid or Matron of Honour must make about the Hen's party is the location. Discuss this with the bride. Do you want it local or are you planning a weekend trip with the girls? Regardless of what you choose, the most important thing is to have fun with the bride.

It is a good idea to hold your hens night at least one or two weeks before the wedding. If you live near wine country, why not try a day of wine tasting with your bridesmaids instead of the usual pub crawl. Local wineries are happy to suggest itineraries. Choose a designated driver or arrange for a car service. Depending on the number of wines sampled and the generosity of the pour, each tasting can easily add up to one or more full glasses of wine.

For the more adventurous at heart, you might want to plan an afternoon of parasailing or learning to rock climb. Perhaps try your hand at scuba diving.

Why not take an entire weekend for a spa getaway rather than a one-night event. In that case you have plenty of options. Consider whether you want a weekend filled with pampering beauty treatments or perhaps one that caters to the soul with refreshing hikes, meditation, and exercise. Sites such as Red Balloons have some ideas available.
LOCATION IDEAS

For a list of great location ideas, access our Bride Online directory and click onto your relevant state.

If you already have plans for a night of bar hopping, spice up the event. Start the evening at your favorite restaurant, and move from club to club, choosing a different atmosphere for each stop. Perhaps after that, a mellow jazz venue. Finish the night at a quiet neighborhood watering hole where you and your bridesmaids can squeeze into a cozy booth and share memories over a bottle of chardonnay.
Some other suggestions:

    Nature Lover - Rough it in tents or enjoy cozy cabins, go hiking in or take in a scenic route.
    Slumber Party - Why not stay in and have the girls/guys over for a slumber party? Mix your own drinks with DigitalBartender.com.

ENTERTAINMENT IDEAS

    Restaurants - Have a lovely meal with the girls and enjoy a fun night telling stories and jokes.
    Clubs - Enjoy yourselves at various venues around town including bowling clubs or night clubs
    Male Reviews - Take the girls on a fun night out at a male review club for exciting entertainment

Need more idea's ?

    Restaurants
    Night Clubs
    Tin Pin Bowling
    Slumber Parties
    Male Revues
    Amusement Parks
    Girls Night In Parties
    Fortune-tellers
    Theatre/Concert

    Weekends away
    Hot Air Ballooning
    Horse Riding
    Hiking
    Camping
    Winery tours
    Parasailing
    Rock climbing
    Scenic walks

Staying close with family when you're far apart

Whether you get married, relocate for a job, or are going to school, most people have family members who live far away. But even though you're apart, you can stay close to your immediate and extended family by simply putting a little more effort in staying in touch.
The following are a few things you can do to stay close with family when you're far apart.

Make family a priority.
You can still make keeping in touch with family a priority when you're far away. Schedule times to call family members on the phone to chat; for example, maybe you want to call your brother every Sunday, or your grandmother every other Tuesday. If you have a hectic schedule, making time for phone calls is important in ensuring that you stay in touch with family. This will help you to stay close to each other even when you're far apart.

Remember important events.
Get a calendar and write down important events in your family and extended family, such as birthdays, weddings or graduation dates. Then, when that date rolls around, be sure to make a phone call to let them know you are thinking of them on their special day. It's also a good idea to send a card a few days before. This is a great way to show them that you care about them and are mindful of them even when they are far apart.
Start a blog.
Many people have jumped on the blogging bandwagon, and blogs are a great way to keep family members updated on what's going on in your life and your family's lives for free. Sites like www.blogger.com are free to start up. Make it a point to blog once a week about you-what's going on with your kids, trips you've taken, and other things family will want to hear about. It's also a great way to post pictures. Send your family members links to your blog and encourage them to start their own.
Plan visits.
Traveling is expensive, but if you're planning family vacations, make it a point to try and do things in areas where you can see family. This is a great way to catch up face to face when you are living far apart.

Take advantage of phone plans.
Many cell phone carriers allow you to make unlimited calls to a certain number of people, even if they do not have the same provider as you. This is a great way to be able to keep in touch with family without having to worry about keeping track of your cell phone minutes.

Get kids involved.
Even if they don't see them very often, make sure your kids stay in touch with family as well. This could be coloring a picture for an aunt for her birthday, or sending thank you notes to family members who have given them gifts.

Send packages.
If you have a family member serving in the military or living overseas, sending care packages now and again is a great way to keep them up to date on what is going on at home, as well as show them that you love and care about them.
Moving away doesn't mean you can't stay close to your family. These are a few things you can do to stay close to your family even when you're far apart.

Strengthening family relationships when you have a hectic schedule

Families now are busier than ever. With hectic work schedules and other extracurricular activities, sometimes it can be difficult to keep your family a priority and strengthen your family relationships.
But neglecting your family for work can result in marital problems and compromised relationships with your children. But there are still plenty of ways to strengthen your family's relationships even if you have a hectic schedule.
The following are a few tips to help you make sure you are balancing your home business and family:

• Identify your priorities. The first step to making sure your family stays a priority even though your schedule is hectic is to actually identify your priorities. Make a list of what you think is important in life, and then work to divide your time accordingly.
• Eat together. Strive to eat as a family together at least one meal a day with no interruptions. This could be at breakfast before school, or in the evening at dinner. During this time, keep the TV, cell phones, and other devices off and focus on the family. This is a good time to catch up on each others days and the activities that are going on in your family's lives.
• Involve your family in daily tasks.Strengthen your family relationships by including them in your hectic schedule! For example, if you have to run errands, bring the kids. Or, spend a Saturday morning doing chores together as a family and then go out for ice cream together. If you work from home, set up a "desk" for your little ones to "work" with you too.
• Make a date night. Stay connected with your spouse even though you have a busy schedule by having a date night every week. Make it a must during the week, and don't answer any work-related phone calls. Focus on things other than work while you are on your date.
• Delegate your work. With some responsibilities, especially if you are in a management position or you have a business and you have a specific idea about how you want things done, it can be easy to take everything on yourself. However, this allows other important things, like your family, to take a back seat. If you have work you can delegate, do so. This will allow you to strengthen your family's relationships.
• Schedule alone time with your children. Another way you can make sure to strengthen your family relationships is to make sure you spend a little time alone with each of your children each day. This could be as simple as letting them help you with chores around the house or driving them to school each morning.
• Take care of yourself. In making sure your family stays a priority, it is also important that you take some time for yourself. A hectic schedule can be very stressful, so make sure you get enough sleep, exercise, and down time for yourself so that your family will actually enjoy your company when you're with them.

These days, most families have hectic schedules that make it easy for more important things, like family relationships, to take a back seat. However, neglecting to strengthen your family relationships will result in more serious problems later on. These are just a few things you can do to ensure you are strengthening your family's relationships.

Minneapolitan Mallwolf

Music: Horror fan, piano man and werewolf Mark Mallman takes back the night.

  You heard it hear first: Mark Mallman is the Mallwolf. He also screens his calls because, apparently, there is a Beckinsale-esque young lady packing a snub-nosed .38 loaded with garlic-tipped silver bullets lurking in the fog. Or just a superfan—but maybe that’s splitting hairs.

“I forgot it was Thursday,” he laughs, explaining sometimes fans get his number, otherwise he’d have answered City Weekly’s call. Just in case there is someone out there looking to rid the world of a shape-shifting, flesh-eating, howling piano man, it warrants mentioning that Mallman is cured. That is to say, he got over the common cold that morphed into lycanthropy.

“That’s something I did for a while,” Mallman confesses of his wolfen ways. “I got really sick one time, and I lost my voice. This was about five years ago. So I went out, and I bought werewolf mask, and I did the show that way ’cause my voice was [mimicking] all scratchy. Then I just kept on doing it, ’cause you know, it keeps it exciting.”

Now the admitted horror fan (“I’m fascinated with that; horror is my real passion”) only whips out the latex, spirit gum and dog hair headwear for special occasions—benefits instead of, say, cyclical lunar occurrences—playing classic-rock covers for a good cause. As for excitement, he’s pretty good at making his own.

Although he’s a piano man, a term that shrieks either milquetoast or Billy Joel (who ceased to be even sorta cool when he started that fuckin’ fire), Mallman is very much a rocker, purveying high-concept ’70s piano-man classic rock with the high-toned hunger of a werewolf, the passion of a vampire and the unrequited—even if he could articulate it—love of Frankenstein’s monster. And the sum total of that Universal Legacy monster orgy is evil genius.

From the first two songs (“Death Wish” and “Tell Me How a Man Gets Close to You”) of his fifth album Between the Devil and Middle C (Badman), the Tin Pan Alley-meets-Madison Square Garden melodies and triumphant arrangements seize your attention like Bela Lugosi’s gaze. Mallman’s prisoners, we’re jacked into his sinister 88-key instrument of death-by-music. He holds us rapt with his unironic, workaday themes, like we’re all Mary Tyler Moores who are gonna make it after all. Indeed, this is the sound of an average Joe’s big dreams—inspiring, exhilarating, crammed with all the false hope and resignation one needs to keep getting up in the morning. Yet, this is eeeeee-ville: it gets better (or worse).

The songs are sheer drama, phantoms of the rock opera, which those averse to showy tunes can read as “death.” But if you’ve ever loved Meat Loaf (or Queen or Billy Joel or David Bowie), you’ll gladly ride a bat straight up the devil’s middle C just to hear Mallman play one more song—because they’re exciting.

Sometimes that’s not enough for Mallman. Although horror is his true love, and music has just been “something I’ve done since … I was 3,” his behavior betrays a porphyrian craving to play. He’s good for an album a year—a once-reliable schedule to which most bands and artists adhere—and he overcame a bouquet of mental illnesses (including dysthymic disorder, a form of depression that inhibits or blocks the ability to feel pleasure) in order to play longer tours—not to mention longer shows. “Regular” ones reportedly stretch two to three hours. His “marathons”—two concerts in his Minneapolis hometown that lasted 26.2 and 52.4 hours, respectively—nearly got him into the Guinness Book of World Records (or would have, if it hadn’t been for semantic quibbling).

“Music is just kind of my being,” he maintains. “It [feels natural] for me to think about monsters because I’ve gone through so much wrestling psychological things. It’s almost like, to not be a monster, to be just happy, would be really cool.”

In that way, Mallman is a classic monster. He didn’t choose to be a creature of the (figurative) night; he just is. He fights it by day and flaunts it after hours, when he’s playing—or riding or standing upon—his electric piano and singing about struggle. Music is one way he keeps the beast within at bay; he self-medicates by tapping into his inner goodness and writing all those good songs.

“Really, for me, it’s just like a vision quest. Like, can I ever write that amazing tune? I’m always trying to do better and better and better.”
The day he gets it right is the day he’s really cured.

“I think once I do write that tune, there’s no real point to continue. I’ll just move on and do something else. This music thing is my life, it’s my reason to live, but at the same time, if I stopped tomorrow I’d find something else to do. If I do write that amazing song, fuck it. Even if nobody ever hears it, I’m done.”

Hen’s Party Dos and Don’ts

Otherwise known as a bachelorette party, the hens party is a celebration held for a young woman who is about to get married ,fashioned in much the same style as the bachelor’s or stag or bucks party. Historically though, the bachelor’s party has been around for much longer, with the hens night evidently stemming from the sexual revolution of the sixties.

Despite its attempts at equality, those trademarks of the bachelor’s party: drunkenness and the antics of a stripper are not necessarily a part of the hens night. In fact, a trend of late has been the notion of female bonding often in the form of a ‘pamper party’ where the bride-to –be is gifted with luxurious pampering items (or, for the more daring, a range of sex toys)

Often all guests are invited to a morning of salon style pampering, which can run the range of massages, manicures, pedicures, facials and aromatherapy. In this way the bride and her entourage can spend quality time together.
A few simple things to remember...

For those who are arranging the hens night, there are some very specific dos and don’ts.

    It is essential that the bride is never exposed to or expected to participate in anything that will make her uncomfortable. This includes those on the list of people being invited (ex-girlfriends of the groom are a no-no)
    Finances should be dealt with discretely. Costs should be covered by all who attend the hens night and the bride should not be expected to contribute.
    On no account should this event be too close to the wedding date. The bride needs to look at her best on her big day
    If there is a range of ages present, make sure that the entertainment is tasteful. Leave anything risqué until after the oldies have left.
    Remember that it is the bride’s day. Any game or prank should not leave her looking bad or feeling embarrassed. She must remember this evening as a highlight in the run-up to her wedding day.
    A token of remembrance for each guest is a great idea. There is such a choice available online, so spend time making a tasteful decision.
    A wonderful opportunity exists if you start a Facebook page for your planning. This allows everyone to be involved and able to give input into all aspects of the party.
    On the hens night, make sure that everyone lets their hair down and has a great time!

Take plenty of pictures and post them onto your Facebook site... well maybe just some of them!

What Every Bride Should Know about the Buck’s Night

Known by a variety of terms, ranging from a stag party to a bull’s party, is the buck’s night or bachelor party, which is a party arranged close to the time when a young man gets married (and can no longer engage in some of the activities his partner disapproves of). Traditionally this party is arranged by the best man, or by a friend who has extensive knowledge of partying.

Activities differ from country to country, but usually involve a night – or in some cases even a whole weekend – spent in the company of his male friends, accompanied by the consumption of copious amounts of alcohol and in many cases, a stripper. There are no hard and fast rules, however, and variation occurs depending on the personality and inclination of the groom. A very popular trend of late has been an entire shift away from the debauchery of past buck’s nights, to an evening or more ( even a weekend) of men enjoying men’s pursuits, like a hunting trip or a fishing expedition or white water rafting together.
So, what does the bride need to know about the buck’s night?

It is going to happen, so your attitude will go a long way towards making it a memorable, but guilt-free event for your groom. Don’t believe everything you hear or have been told. Trust your man and allow him to enjoy the bucks night. It is, after all, a way for him still to show that he is ‘one of the guys’ even though he has committed to a married way of life.

Inevitably, there will be more than the usual amount of drinking and quite possibly a stripper. Your negative attitude to this can ruin the evening for him. He wants to make you happy – he has asked you to marry him! So, imposing unrealistic expectations or limitations, will mar what could just have been an evening of exuberance and letting off the steam of pre-wedding jitters. However, it is a good idea to spell out your limitations in terms of his behaviour (within reason).

The worst thing that you can do on the bucks night is to stay at home and fret. Possibly this would be the best time for your own hen’s night, but at the very least go out with some friends for a meal or a movie. Stewing about what is happening is going to be far worse than anything real.

Ultimately, remember that he has chosen you above all others, so let him have this last evening of not being accountable.

The Right Tuxedo

The most popular choice for modern grooms is the classic tuxedo. There isn't a man alive who doesn't look great in one of these. However, when deciding on attire, keep in mind the formality of the event. Create a look that fits your personality and complements the bride.

Black Tie

Becoming increasingly popular is the black tie wedding. However, this doesn't mean that you have to spend a fortune on a tuxedo. There are plenty of different labels with a wide range of prices. Renting is always an option, but if you plan to wear it more than once, it would be a good investment to purchase your own tuxedo.

Shirts

If you though the range of tuxedos was wide, wait until you see what shirts you have available to you. Shirts will usually come in one of the three types of collars: the wing collar is the most popular and allows you to see the whole bowtie; the laydown collar reveals only the bow and knot; and the band collar, with which no tie is worn -- instead, a cufflink-like fastener closes the shirt at the throat.

Ties

Formal silk or satin bow ties are timeless and will look great 20 years from now. You might choose to wear a gray or black satin classic tie instead.

The Right Tux For You

• If you are tall and slender- you're lucky! Almost any style will suit your body type. Thin men will look best in double-breasted jackets and the shoulders should be padded a bit more than normal. This gives the appearance of a more muscular build.
• The trousers should be full with a higher rise in the waist
• Men with a tall and solid build should opt for a single breasted jacket with only one button. You should also make sure that the jacket you are wearing is long enough for you. A good indication of this is to relax your hands at your sides. If your finger tips reach the bottom of the jacket, this is a good length. Shirt cuffs should sit about 2.5 cm beyond the jacket sleeve. This rule applies to any good suit.
• Collars and ties need to be carefully selected. If you have a wide face or a thick neck, you don’t want to look like you’re being choked!
• The jacket should be a little loose to allow easy movement
• Trouser legs should be slightly wider if you are sporting large or muscular thighs for the sake of comfort and looks.
• Avoid double-breasted jackets as the buttons will focus eyes on your mid- section making it look wider. Short and stocky men should steer towards jacks with plenty of shoulder padding and pleated trousers. Your torso will appear longer and leaner if you choose a single breasted jacket with the button around the belt line. The shawl collar is best for short and stocky men
• Avoid wing-tip collars and very small ties if you have a large face or neck.
• Heavier men might consider a vest over the traditional cummerbund
• If you have a short and slim build, choose a single breasted jacket with a low single button and this will lengthen the lines of your look.
• If you'd like to appear broader, a notched or "peal" lapel is a good choice. Create the same effect with a double-breasted jacket.
• The trousers should be pleated with reverse double pleats, and the trouser legs should break just above the shoes, angling slightly downward in back.
• Smaller bow ties are the best choice for your frame, as are vests with an elegant, understated pattern.