Pre Wedding Extravaganza Eleganza

What would a hen do if a hen-do do a hen?

I don´t know to be honest. What would a hen do? Why are they doing anything about it? And why the heck are hens even involved at all?

A HEN is a name given to the female of any species of bird, and ´bird´ is a "complimentary" word used for female humans, and the DO after the HEN is a party or other social event.

So, what came first, the hen do or Eleanore Roosevelt? You are absolutely right; It was the First Lady. She was the one who used the term ´hen party´ when she threw a Christmas party and only invited her gal pals.

Beloved child carries many names (Swedish saying) - Hen-do, hen party, bachelorette party, Junggesellinnenpartynnenparty (try saying the last one fast 4 times) and has been around since the mid-19th century. People during this time felt the need to start partying differently (with people, I mean men). They wanted to spend even more time with other men than they already were.

The women, however, weren´t hoopla-hoo delighted over this, but being the adoring wives they were they did not speak ill about this. Instead, they kept it bottled up inside till they could not take it anymore, gathered the hens and passive-aggressively started their own do's. 

And how they partied... I mean, both sides went full throttle, no turning back kind of "whoop, whoop"-ing.

We are talking fishing, magic tricks and drinking tea.

They did this all the way into the 1960s when the "do" became forever intertwined with pre-wedding celebrations. Only now the women had become completely exhausted from all the frolicking over the century. Hen parties at this time were for the bride-to-be to say goodbye to her co-workers, leaving her job to become a housewife and a mother... Charming!

It was the loose era of the 70s that made the hen-do celebrations get to the groom's level and gives a clearer explanation to my very own hen-do.

Being sort of kidnapped and taken out on the streets looking like Barbie, with genitalia around your neck, AND carrying aow-up mini version of your future husband... It was as it sounds... totally bonkers bananas but oh, so much fun.

I actually ended up having 2 hen-dos (a standard duchess thing to do)... No, I´m only kidding.

My darling maid of honour knew that I had one wish for my do, and that was to dance with drag queens and drink champagne. 

My wish was granted on hen do day 1... at the 3 arena. Ru Paul had sent his ladies to perform their most fab show ever AND being VIP guests, we got to meet the queen's beforehand for some photos. The atmosphere was mixed with sexuality, bitchiness and COVID fear... My maid of honour tried to sit down for a picture and was hastily chased away. Apparently we had missed the yellow line on the floor and that it was not to be crossed. So we "squeezed" together the best we could while an employee took a shot at shooting us with the camera... it turned out.... well, it turned out.

The stadium was packed with people of all ages, young and old and the energy was to the maximum. It had everything: the tunes, the moves, banter, sex appeal, lip sync battle, acrobats and a time machine. 

Following that epic night was Saturday with Italian dinner, couples quiz and of course,  Champagne. To my surprise a secret extra guest waited at the table when we arrived; a blow up doll with my husband-to-be's face glued on it. I love him and he will come to good use as a pool buddy and bed bestie for any lonesome night ahead.

The night moved along by finding a pub with that good ol' dance music for us fab four to get our freak on... unfortunately, we did not expect some super, duper mega football match to be on TV... at every single pub in town. Not a single glance my way with my pink hair and blinking tiara... all eye's were glued on the wall mounted TVs wherever we went. 

Slowly, we started giving up the hope of "Shake that ass" all of a sudden bursting through the speakers and so, we became - hen do footballer fanatics (and "our team" lost). 

But with one match ending, another one started... the Dance-off match. In the neon strobe light, we owned the floor... the few inches we were confined to, but boy did we show off our moves. I even had beer spilled all over me, pushed from all directions and having people screaming in your ears something of no interest what so ever, so the night finally got up to ladies night standard.

With sticky feet and turned half deaf, the night ended at home, in the sofa with a jar of chocolate spread watching Jackass 3 with my 2 favourite peeps - my Prince Charming and my bestie/maid of honour.

What an amazing 2 days of hen do's and how blessed I am to have been given them.