S&B Wedding – Part 2, the Hens Night

yes, yes… a long time between posts, I know….!

The nice thing about my blogging slackness is that this whole wedding series might be wrapped up just in time for the 1st wedding anniversary at the end of November – I’ll get a guest submission from the happy couple to see what married life has been like.

…but for now, be satisfied with Part 2, The Hens.

Being Maid of Honor meant that myself and my fellow bridesmaids, Schmoorsy and Emma Z, had to keep the bride sane, provide support, help with the preparations, but most importantly of all – organise a killer hens night.

Despite having many friends who have gotten married I’d only been to one hen’s night prior to this. (I like to think that that is due to me being in the wrong country every time one happens, but perhaps there is something more to it now I reflect on it?! oh dear…). But I generally know what is expected of a hens night – drunken frivolity, penis shaped paraphernalia and a selection of saucy activity – be it pole dancing classes, going to see the male strippers, etc. So we started the planning down that route and realised pretty quickly that it didn’t really fit with the Shan we all know and love, so pole dancing/strippers got scrapped and we restarted by figuring out what Shannon loves most of all and what she’d do on a dream day out. We concluded that Shannon’s top 3 favorite things were:

1. Drinking

2. Op-Shopping

3. Cheesy Glamour photography such as…

(in theory if you click the image it will take you to the original gallery I nicked this pic from in case you’re after a little extra entertainment)

So with all our ideas compiled we decided on a day-plan of pre-drinks, an op-shop mission to find fabulous outfits to be photographed in on bearskin rugs with vaseline smeared lenses then on to dinner.

Schmoorsy took the planning of the Hen’s and ran with it, being our girl on the ground. She opened up her home to a mix of friends and strangers, booked buses, found op-shops, organised a glamour photography studio and made reservations at a nearby Mexican restaurant with a convenient 2 for 1 Margarita happy hour.  That woman has a promising career in Events should she ever choose to change jobs. Also, what a great opportunity for further embarrassment to the bride to be by using the fabulous glamour photos Shan had taken when she was 18 as the invite!

Shannon’s day started with a champagne and a hairdressers appointment, attempting to detract attention from her recently broken wrist

Now appropriately styled Shannon and the other Hen’s descended on Schmoorsy’s beautifully decorated house covered with photos of Shannon and Brendan at their best

After a quick champagne toast the hen’s all shared the story of how they met shan – the tales bringing tears, screams, mimed reenactments and many, many laughs.

Deeper friendship bonds were forged during the banana game. Pairs of hens raced to see how fast bananas could be consumed when fed to each other.

a winning pair was crowned

and Shannon learned some important lessons from her grandmother

Schmoorsy directed the Hen’s onto the bus where Shannon was met by her cardboard substitute for the absent Kyoung and off to the Op Shop we went…

To keep things extra glamorous every Hen was paired up so that they would have a personal fashion advisor to help them choose their glamour outfit. The Hen’s descended on Good Sammy’s in Perth and began the frantic rummage for a winning outfit.

With outfits selected and donned it was on to the glamour photography studio – but not without strutting the hot new looks through the city streets and jelly shots on the bus

The glamour photos involved bear skin rugs, red velvet, thrones and calls of “you’re a tiger! you’re a tiger!”. Solo, group and even boudoir sessions were completed under Shannon’s demure supervision

All too soon, the night ended at the local mexican restaurant where we finally got to the obligatory penis paraphernalia which included penis straws

…and Shannon and Colleen’s favorite – the 6 foot inflatable penis. A great way to end a fun and unique Hen’s night and a great way to start of the wedding party calendar