Hi Girls,
Happy Friday!! Its been a week since I headed off on my sisters hen party to Vilamoura and I already have the holiday blues :(
I got so many questions whilst away that I thought it would be easier to put all my hen party tips together in one post that I could refer people too.
If its that time in your life where all your friends are getting engaged, then it must seem like there is a hen party every week!!
Like me if your lucky enough to be a bridesmaid, its hen party planning time :)
A wedding in Ireland means its the perfect excuse to plan a getaway. Any excuse for a mini holiday, right?
When you are planning a foreign hens there is no such thing as too much notice. Create a facebook group, invite the gals and let them know where you are thinking of going. Planning a hens can be stressful to say the least, so if there is a couple of bridesmaids let them take charge of one thing each. For example, one person sort accommodation another sorts activities etc.
My sister Sarah is having 4 bridesmaids, myself, my little sister Victoria and her two best friends Ingrid and Ciara. A hen party whatsapp for the bridesmaids is perfect for bouncing ideas off each other and getting creative!
We initially decided on Marbella as its somewhere Sarah always said she would have her hen party. We gave everybody 10 months notice which was more than enough time. We nearly spent every year in Marbs as kids and loved it. Before finalising anything we had another look at different destinations and it was actually our dad who suggested Vilamoura in Portugal!! We had a closer look and decided to change the location and I'm so happy we did.
Vilamoura was beautiful and I couldn't fault it. I booked our accommodation on booking.com. I always book through this website as they do some great deals. I booked 2 villas as I felt having everyone together instead of separate apartments would be more fun. We stayed at Laguna Golf resort, Vilamoura and it was gorgeous. It was a taxi ride of approx 3 minutes to the marina where we spent all of our evenings. It was also only 25 minutes in a taxi from Albufeira. I was in Albufeira 2 years ago and loved it. We didn't venture there at all this time though as I knew my sister wouldn't like it as much as the Marina but its definitely a place to check out if you are looking for a wild party night out.
Doing what the bride wants is key, as after all its her last hurrah :)
Sarah is quite easy going so we knew she wouldn't want any fuss and would want to sunbathe and enjoy the sun during the day. This was the perfect reason to source the perfect sunbathing spot and where better than a beach club!! A word of warning, a lot of the beach clubs need to be booked in advance. We had a lovely chill out day at Purobeach and although the service wasn't great it was exactly what we needed for topping up our tans :)
Most hen partys choose to book restaurants and organise set menus which can keep the price of meals down. Again we decided not to do this as we didnt want to be tied to times etc and we had a few fussy eaters going including myself! Having the choice of the full menu was ideal. All the restaurants we went to around the marina were fab and nobody had any complaints about any of the meals.
Summer season was really only kicking off when we arrived so late June to Sept would be the busiest time to go.
Our last stop every evening was a bar called the Irish pub. It had live music every evening and was basically the best atmosphere around the marina. If you are lucky enough to get a night "the Bandits" are playing you are in for a good time!
Last but not least, the finishing touches:
1. The t shirts... We got t shirts printed by robes4you. These are a nice idea for the airport.
2. Hen party survival kits...Ciara done up these bags which we gave out on the first night when we had a little party in the villa. She put in 2 painkillers, a facemask, chewing gums, a bobbin basically what you need to survive the madness of a hen party.
3. A keepsake...Lovethemugs kindly gave us personalised mugs for everyone. These were a lovely surprise for the girls as they all had a little keepsake to take home with them.
4. A reminder.. Ciara also done up a gorgeous memory book for Sarah. It was totes emosh and is such a lovely idea for the bride. Include some old pictures, along with new ones and definitely a few cringe ones thrown in for fun.
Hope this guide helped anyone thinking of planning a hens abroad.
Dominique
xoxo
This fashion post was sponsored by Primark
