“I can’t believe we’re celebrating me getting married!” I exclaimed, as my friend Rachel whipped a flashing hen party badge out of her bag and handed it to me to pin to my top. We were sipping champagne (through L plate straws) and tucking into a generous serving of cakes, scones and sandwiches over afternoon tea in a central London hotel last Saturday – which, excitingly, marked the first of my hen celebrations.
Check out my straw!
We dubbed it my mini hen. And what a mini hen it was! Rach had taken me out because she’s not able to come on my official hen – a long weekend in Marbella starting on Friday – and although I’m super sad she won’t be joining us in Spain (particularly because we met while we were both living in Madrid) we more than made up for it in London.
I’d even banned Sean from contacting me for the duration. That’s what you’re supposed to do on a hen, right? Well – he failed spectacularly! I heard off him when Arsenal won their match, and again when it emerged they were top of the league. Hmm.
YUM
Anyway. I was thoroughly spoilt. “All the stress of wedding planning is finally paying off!” I remember thinking, as we ordered another bottle of fizz. Rach had gone above and beyond with prezzies too – presenting me with a goody bag that contained everything from the practical – vitamin C (can’t be getting ill before the big day!), hairspray, underwear and party feet – to the touching, including a gorgeous jewellery box, a bracelet, and a beautiful home made scrap book containing photos of me and Sean and words from this very blog, that moved me to tears as soon as I opened it.
We gossiped, we laughed, we fell over, and we had a stab at some dares. It was an amazing, memorable day.
Afternoon tea, fizz and an old friend. Lovely.
I enjoyed it all the more because pretty much everything is sorted for the wedding now. I went home last weekend and mum and I ticked off most things we had left to do. We bought flower girl dresses and wedding rings, we picked up the champagne (very important), we trialled a brilliant hair and makeup artist, I ordered presents for my bridesmaids and stationery for place settings and table plans, I sorted out our honeymoon visas and travel insurance, booked our trains home for the wedding, I visited our family friend Lesley to organize the music (she’s playing piano for us during the ceremony) and we visited the venue to run through the order of the day, tell them our final numbers and suppliers and choose table cloths etc.
Most our jobs are now done. Including picking up the champagne…
Everything is pretty much sorted – so now, with just over one month to go, we can breathe a sigh of relief and get down to celebrating. Finally!
