Hens Night Help Please!

I am helping to organise a hens night but we are all stuck for ideas so thought I would ask here!

The bride is very low key and isn't into any of the traditional ideas but we also don't want to do "just" a dinner and drinks as looks like we have put in no effort.

As its going to be in Dec, everyone is on limited funds.

We looked at a winery tour but the cheapest is $60 but even that is too much for most people ....

So any ideas?

I was thinking maybe a picnic type thing but have no idea where to go?

For mine we went bowling, laser force and had pole dancing lessons... Was a great night, my sis and cousin hired a van so we could all go together...
I am trying to organise one for a friend for dec too, but she wants to just do dinner so am trying to work out something fun we could do at the resturant or after. Its tough work!!

I was very lucky and got two Hens Nights (one here and one in NZ) and one afternoon too actually

Here I wanted to keep it VERY low key but still fun so we had a spa day first with a couple of close friends and then dinner with a bigger crowd at a v nice BYO that did a set menu for us (so people knew in advance how much $$ they were up for). Then we carried on to KBox for some karaoke

In NZ my sis and her friends threw me a surprise high tea one afternoon. They all brought a plate (although my sister made most of the food) and a bottle of bubbles and we just chatted and played a couple of silly games.

Then my "real" NZ hen's party was a cycling tour round some vineyards. It worked out really cheap as it was Good Friday so we had to have picnics at most of them

The Groynes is great in Chch for a picnic, if your friend would be into something like that. Or the Gardens maybe? That way if anyone wanted to go into town for drinks afterwards you're not too far away. Everyone could bring a blanket and some food to share and a bottle of wine. Good way to keep costs down

Games - I didn't want anything too silly as I had family at mine so we did a quiz where I had to answer Qs about DH, wedding charades and something else I have forgotten

I wasn't keen on strippers at all but we organised a hotel suite in the city and invited the girls there before dinner. We had two man waiters - they wore no tops but had bowties & pants on - very cute and not tacky believe it or not! They poured our drinks and handed around nibbles that my Mum had made. Was great fun! This could easily be done at someone's house instead of other venue to save $ but it all depends on whether the bride would want this kind of thing I guess!

My sister had everyone bring one thing that I could use as a 50s housewife and to not spend more than $10. It was interesting to see what everyone brought along!

We then went out for dinner at a lively restaurant.

Do a quiz on the hen and buck?

Good old fashioned truth or dare, depends if everyone is close friends for that one.

The Peg Game

Give all members of the hen’s party two pegs. They must place them somewhere conspicuous on their clothing. Choose two words that are the ‘banned’ words for the day (such as ‘wedding’ or ‘dress’) and whenever someone says these ‘banned’ words, the person who hears it first can steal a peg from them. Whoever ends up with the most pegs at the end of the day wins a prize!

You're marrying THAT?

Find the ugliest photo of the bride’s husband-to-be that you can. Even the best looking men have ugly photos – perhaps taken when they are intoxicated or asleep! The bride must keep this photo with her throughout the night, and when a codeword is yelled out, she has to show a stranger the photo and announce that this is the man she is marrying! The person who yells out the codeword must buy her a drink if she does it with a straight face successfully.

Pash the Pic

All you will need for this one is a big picture of the bride’s favourite movie star, a scarf, and a tube of lipstick! Stick the picture up on the wall and get all the girls to put some lipstick on. Use the scarf to blindfold each participant, spin them around and then get them to try and ‘pash’ the picture of the movie star! Write each person’s name next to their lipstick mark and whoever gets the closest to ‘pashing’ the movie star on the mouth wins a prize! This game is best done with some butcher’s paper behind the picture to ensure no lipstick gets on the wall, or else you can also stick the picture to the fridge as the mislaid lipstick will wipe off easily.

Saint Clara

Saint Clara / Clare / Claire has long been considered a patron saint of good weather because her name in Spanish (clara) means clear, like the brightening of sky after a storm. The patroness’ link with eggs came about as her name (clara [de huevo]) is the Spanish for 'egg white'. Well, in any case, someone, somewhere along the line thought it would be a good idea to offer eggs to Saint Clara in exchange for good weather on the bride’s wedding day! So get creative with it. Print out a large picture of Saint Clara (here's one), grab a plastic drop sheet, and get all of the hen’s party to throw eggs at Saint Clara from a few metres away, trying to hit her square on the face! This game is a very fun one and you could go through many more eggs than one per person, because everyone always wants another go! Whoever gets the egg closest to the target (Saint Clara’s face) wins the prize.

I'm not a club or drinking person, so I had afternoon tea at home. We had bubbles and wine and cute little sandwiches and tiny cakes and the like. I didn't play games either.