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Being asked to plan and organise a hen or stag party for someone you love is a wonderful privilege that can be a great deal of fun. Needless to say, an event such as this is also a huge responsibility so if you are feeling the pressure – don’t worry, we have got your back!

Start At The Beginning

The very first thing you need to do, in to pinpoint a suitable date for this event confirming availability with the most important guests, starting with your bride and groom!

Sounds simple enough, but believe it or not, this task alone can be frustratingly time consuming in reality. For the majority of us, the process of taking time out for a stag or hen do involves a great deal of negotiation. Pets, children, partners and work are just a few examples of the commitments we have to consider before agreeing to disappear on a jolly for a couple of days!

The most logical option is to set up a round robin email to discuss possible dates with the group who are to be invited. Be warned; it will invariably take some time to pin point a date that you can all agree on. The more guests you invite, the more complicated the task will become.

With this in mind, it is crucial to start planning as early as possible, so that you are able nail a date that suits the majority.

Agree Your Budget

Before you can proceed with any planning, the next big decision to tackle is the budget for this event. This is another fine balancing act, as you need the budget to be sufficient to allow you to plan an astonishingly good party, whilst being mindful to avoid creating any financial barriers that could make it difficult for some guests to participate. Discussions about money are invariably a little uncomfortable, but this is a key step before you reach the fun planning stage , where you get to indulge in exploring your ideas and options…

The Search For A Fabulous Group Venue

Finding a great venue for a party is one thing, but finding a great venue, which offers the perfect facilities for your party and sufficient accommodation on site or nearby, will take a little more effort.

The Big House Co have a great selection of venues for a stag or hen group, where you can enjoy your re wedding break in the most indulgent surroundings. If you are stuck for ideas our experienced and helpful staff can assist you with everything from your catering and activities, to providing inspired solutions and ideas to help you put together a completely awesome package for your group.

Structure & Organisation

Some careful organisation at the outset will give your hen or stag party the structure it needs for everything to run smoothly. Here are a few key tips:

 Plan & Print Your Itinerary

Have the plans and activities arranged in advance and give each guest a printed copy. This way everyone knows what they are doing and all guests, including you can simply relax and enjoy.

This info should be emailed to each guest– but bring some paper copies along so that you can hand them out to everyone in person. Be sure to factor in plenty of down time around your activities and shenanigans!

Provide Useful Guidelines

Let everyone know about any must have items well in advance so that they are able to pack effectively for the trip. Try printing this information on your itinerary, keeping everything in one place.

Collate & Share Contact Info

Collate a list of up to date contact info for each person who will join you on the stag or hen do. This will serve several important purposes. First and foremost it will enable your group to stay in touch prior to the event to share the excitement and finalise the little details, but this list will also help you to look after one another during the event. If for example one member of the party is separated from the rest of the group or has not arrived somewhere on time, you will all have their number, making it easy to check where they are and ensure that they are OK.

Hen and stag parties are frequently the foundation for new and long lasting friendships. They provide time for bonding whilst having an absolute blast together! So, finally yet importantly, this contact info will help your group to stay in touch in the run up to the wedding and beyond!

In our previous blog, we looked at the benefits of team building as a tool for pulling your ultimate dream team together. Here are some suggestions for individual team building exercises that you could incorporate into your next event. ..

Introductions

Jumping straight into activities can be a little awkward, especially for staff who do not know a great deal about each other. Help your team members to drop their barriers by asking them to take turns in introducing themselves and giving one fact about themselves that most people in the room don’t know.

You can expand on this exercise, by using it to tie all other activities together nicely, by using it in between each new activity. Rather than asking for a random fact, choose a specific question such as “If you could have one super power, what would it be and why?” or “You’re going to be turned into an animal. Which one do you want to be and what is your reason?” This simple activity will get people engaged and encourage them to let down their guard, have a giggle and share some of their qualities, contributing to the bonds within the group.

Willow In The Wind

Ask your team to stand in a circle. Choose one member to stand in the middle, fold their arms across their chest and then, once the group is ready and focused ask the central person to fall backwards. The objective is for the person behind them to catch them and then push them sideways to the next person in the circle and so on. The group can pass them around, spinning them until they return to facing in their original direction. This trust building exercise relies on a focussed and mature group as allowing a co-worker to fall is not acceptable!

Towers

For this exercise, you need to split your team into smaller groups and give each group a large sheet of paper and a pack of drinking straws. Give your teams a time limit and ask them to build the tallest structure they can. This is a fantastic problem solving exercise as your team will have to debate possible options and rethink as they encounter design issues, which will be inevitable with such flimsy building materials! Award a prize at the end for the tallest tower.

Minefield

For this game, you could do with some blindfolds but can equally make do by trusting your team members to close their eyes! Choose a large indoor or outdoor space and scatter the area with obstacles to play the part of the “Mines”. These could be office chairs spread around; you could use balls or books – whatever you have to hand.

Split your team into pairs – one will be the blind and the other will be the leader. The objective is for the blind team member to get from one side of the space to the other without touching any mines. The leader needs to stand outside of the obstacle area but close enough to be able to hear. You can up the ante for this one by finding a way of creating things for a person to step over or duck under.

Get Involved!

Lastly, be sure to get involved yourself, as this is an important part of developing your own relationships with your team. Feedback in the workplace is invaluable and team building exercises can create a culture of peer-to-peer feedback. Getting involved in your own events is an effective way to build a foundation on which you will find it easier to give future feedback as a leader, and on the flip side your employees are more likely to feel able to approach you with their own concerns and ideas.

Happy team building!

Before I start talking about Team Building as a tool to transform your workforce, if I may, let me tell you a little story. When I was a teenager, I learned to rock climb. The outdoors, the exhilaration, and the self-mastery were fantastic for my self-confidence, but I took something else from it too. Many years later, even though I don’t climb any more, some of my closest friends are those same people I scaled cliffs with. We built strong bonds because in our chosen activity we had to do something which pulled us together – we built trust. We learned to intuitively know how to make the most of each other’s strengths and weaknesses and encourage each others’ greatness – when to let the other take the lead and when to take up the slack (sometimes literally in this case!) We learned that having someone catch you when you fall, tens of meters above the ground is a great way of fostering trust! Thankfully, while rock climbing is certainly an option for your team building event, there are many other ways we can build trust and mutual understanding within a group of people, and many fantastic reasons to do so.

Fostering A Shared Purpose

This is the premise behind the team building concept. In any given business, your staff may be working together on tasks or projects, overlapping their efforts or even working alone, but their activities always contribute to the strength of the whole and a sense of this shared purpose is an important thing to foster. The collaborative nature of team building activities will allow your team members to develop better communication, improve their capacity for organization and problem solving, bring out leadership skills, foster mutual support, boost morale, and make your team feel valued. A team building event provides a great opportunity for you to observe your team and discover strengths and weaknesses within the group that you may not otherwise have seen, better allowing you to manage the group.

Choosing Appropriate Activities To Suit Your Team

When planning an event, consider the different characters within your team, and whether they would enjoy a physical challenge or whether mentally focused activities would be more appropriate. Ensure that the event is well planned and engaging – activities need to be fun as the goal is to build positive association with working cohesively. If you have a higher budget, there are fantastic companies that offer all-inclusive team building events but if your budget is lower, you can always run the event yourself.

Change Of Scenery

While you can organise events and activities in the workplace, it’s great to get your team out of their work environment if possible. Putting them somewhere new will encourage conversations that are more personal rather than work related chat and create a relaxed, open atmosphere in which your staff can step out of their comfort zones and new dynamics can flourish.

Consider investing in a Team Building book or spend some time looking at team building websites to research ideas that will help you to organise an unforgettable and highly successful event!

Without a doubt, New Years Eve is one of the most exciting nights on the calendar, and hosting a party is fantastic fun but can also be a little daunting. Why not use some of our ideas to create a buzz that will make your New Years Eve party so memorable – that your guests will recall it for many years to come!

1. Initiate A Cocktail Competition

Encourage your guests to each bring the ingredients of a cocktail. Not only will this spread the cost of the evening but it will also mean varied interest throughout the night. A huge diversity of cocktail ideas can be found on-line and not all the cocktails need to be alcoholic, which will allow your guests to pace themselves as the revelry gets under way. It can be fun to create a festively decorated cocktail bar in the main area of your party. You can hold a vote for the best cocktail at midnight by putting names in a hat, and award prizes for the best creations!

2. Make Your Party Sparkle

Glitter is very trendy at the moment and can create a fantastic aesthetic for a seasonal party. Gold or silver are traditional for New Years Eve get-togethers, but you can choose any colour scheme you wish and use it to subtle or dramatic effect. Create a twinkling party environment by scattering glitter on surfaces and table tops, decorating your party space with glittered Christmas ornaments of your chosen colour, or getting crafty and using glue to make just about anything sparkle! You can up the ante by purchasing some edible glitter, which can be sprinkled onto deserts, mixed into the Champagne for the midnight toast or added to a festive Punch. Complete the look by using low lighting and adding candles, which will allow the glitter to catch the light and create a glamorous atmosphere.

3. Make it a Mad Hatters Party

All that is required for the makings of a Mad Hatters Party is that your guests wear some kind of eccentric or unusual head-attire. Some may already have something perfect in their wardrobe and crafty types will embrace the opportunity to make something unique, but getting in the spirit of this idea doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. A few decorative feathers in the rim of a normal hat can make it into something really fun and the headwear offered in fancy dress shops make the options endless. Gather a few spare hats for those who didn’t have time to get something together! You will be amazed how wearing something a bit different brings out the party spirit in your guests…

4. Choose A Food Theme

From cuisine of different countries, to different eras, the possibilities are vast when it comes to themes for feeding your party guests and using a theme will make the dining experience part of the entertainment. For example; a Midnight themed menu could be governed by blue and purple tones, and might involve blue cheese based recipes, squid ink pasta and berry deserts. You could even serve this theme as a midnight supper! Another fun theme is miniatures, which could include miniature vegetables, which are often available during the holiday season and miniature style canapés.

5. Set Up A Photography Station

If you or a friend is handy with a camera, you can set up a photography station to create some entertaining memories. Choose an area that won’t be in the way of the celebrations and perhaps put out a few chairs for your guests to use. Prepare some amusing props such as masquerade masks or some retro or vintage fancy dress items. Once the party mood is well established, encourage your guests to pose and capture them on camera to share in the New Year so everyone can remember what fun they had!

Saying goodbye to a friend or family member in anticipation of an upcoming new chapter such as a move to a different part of the country, or another part of the world is never easy.

A farewell bash is the ideal platform for saying goodbye as a group, allowing you to have a fun filled experience, sending your loved one off with plenty of happy memories.

The following tips will provide you with some great ideas and insight, helping you with the task of planning a farewell party that everyone will remember for a long time to come…

#01 Choose The Perfect Venue

Your choice of venue will depend on many factors, but primarily you need to consider the convenience of any location, making sure that it has a suitable capacity to cater for your numbers comfortably.

For a longer, weekend event; look for a great venue with sufficient accommodation for groups; for example a large manor house, where you can enjoy a luxurious and intimate environment in complete privacy.

Whether you are planning an evening event or an extended celebration, be sure to choose a venue with plenty of parking for all of your guests.

#02 Select Your Theme

Themes tend to be a fairly easy choice for a farewell party. Whether the guest of honour is retiring at the end of their career or heading off into the blue yonder you can choose a suitable theme taking inspiration from any given situation, career or destination. You could alternatively choose a more random theme that celebrates that individual’s passion. This could be absolutely anything from unicorns or star wars, to something more expected – such as maps and aeroplanes for a travel theme.

Choose a theme that reflects the individual’s personality best, after all, the point of this celebration is to demonstrate how much they mean to you all!

#03 Get Your Invites Out Early

Be sure to get your party invites out well in advance, as this will ensure that the majority of those invited will be available to attend.

A well designed physical invite is always lovely to receive, however you could consider sending a digital invite and you could also back up by creating an event on Facebook.

#04 Dec The Halls!

Decorate your venue choosing a variety of items that compliment your theme. This coordination will help to tie the whole look of the event together, creating a professional and utterly gorgeous looking background for your farewell party.

Again, you want to make this as personal to the star of the party as possible, so look for ways to incorporate the story of their past, present and future for a truly personal touch.

#05 Catering For Your Party

Planning and executing the catering yourself is likely to prevent those responsible for the organisation of the party from being able to relax and enjoy it all themselves. Look for an option that will involve minimal fuss, such as hiring a professional catering team or arranging for a fish and chip van to rock up unexpectedly!

Take inspiration from the individual’s favourite foods, or the cuisine at the destination they are moving to… Alternatively, you could give them a lasting reminder of a local favourite – such as Cornish pasties, or cream teas, to give them a pertinent reminder of something they will miss terribly once they move away!

#06 Dedicate A Skit To The Guest Of Honour

Personalise a little skit for the guest of honour, drawing on the creative skills of your group to come up with a fitting piece! This can be a great way to entertain all attendees, particularly when the skit is injected with personal anecdotes and humour. A great starting point is to begin with a famous song, story or poem, inserting your own content to personalise and entertain.

#07 Celebrate Your Stories & Connections

Invite all guests to contribute something personal in writing and use this content to create a very special farewell gift for the person who is leaving. This could be as simple as asking all guests to complete a short sentence, such as; “The thing I am going to miss about you most is…”, a short paragraph sharing how the guest met the guest of honour, or the invitation to divulge an amusing memory.

Collate these little gems in a book, to be read aloud at the party. This book would provide an incredibly special memento for the leaver to treasure.

Customised photo boards and books also make a great focal point for any farewell party. Get creative and encourage all guests to dig deep for their most precious images to illustrate their relationship with the guest of honour. The resulting compilation is sure to entertain all and what a marvellous way to demonstrate your love and appreciation of that individual at their farewell bash!

Halloween parties can be so much fun for adults and children alike, but the garish mass-produced plastic decor that fills the shops every autumn is no use to anyone planning a glamorous and sophisticated event to celebrate Halloween…

Hosting a more sophisticated Halloween bash will require a little imagination and creative flare, but with the fantastic tips we share below – you are already half way there!

Less Is More

Rather than go over the top with a whole ton of Halloween themed decorations, take a ‘less is more’ approach, adding subtle details that will give greater impact. For example:

• Add a single delicate bat or spider to a frosted celebration cake for decoration.

• Use squid ink creatively to add a Halloween edge to your dinner menu. Something along the lines of spaghetti al nero would be an awesome choice!

• Chalk paint is easy to purchase and can be applied to glasses, bottles and surfaces creatively. Try adding it to bottles or glasses before applying your guests names or ‘drink me’ in beautifully formed italics.

• Place settings will also look fantastic in a monochrome theme, simply apply guests names, (or fun alternatives) using a calligraphy pen, for an elegant and ever so slightly eerie look!

Create The Perfect Halloween Atmosphere With Candles

The last thing you want at any Halloween party is bright overhead lighting. Dim lighting created with multiple flickering flames will be far more conducive to setting the scene. Be resourceful, using recycled bottles and jam jars, old candelabras and candlesticks, or metallic tea light holders to create the look you are going for.

Keep in mind that it is crucial to place your candles carefully as you don’t want any of your guests wigs or capes getting singed, (or worse), accidentally.

Decide On A Suitable Colour Theme For Your Event

Decorating the venue where you plan to host your event is so much easier once you have decided on your colour palette. Orange is the most obvious colour to spring immediately to mind when you think of Halloween, (thanks to pumpkins and autumnal hues), however for a stylish look this should be used as an accent colour; perhaps with a few well-carved pumpkins and some seasonal, orange toned floral arrangements on the table.

Working with a monochrome backdrop, your accent colour will pop out effectively. Try dressing your dining table with a black tablecloth and black crockery, then bringing it to life with some shiny cutlery, antique look candlesticks and your chosen centrepieces for a colour pop.

Create A Wonderfully Eerily Focal Point!

Choose a key area to serve as a focal point for your Halloween celebrations, and go all out with the creativity in this particular spot.

A cocktail bar is a fun choice for an adult party, with plenty of scope for creativity.

Create a cocktail menu with a variety of bright green, blood red or slightly gross themed cocktails for a bit of fun and curiosity.

You can also get incredibly inventive with your glassware. Think along the lines of laboratory experiments and get your hands on some laboratory style, glass beakers for mixing up your drinks. Small glass vials would be a fantastically good choice for an ominous serving vessel too!

Use skulls, mirror glass, masks, obscure antique finds to add mood and mystery and a spooky vibe to your cocktail bar. The more random and weird you can make it, the better!