Nicole's Hen - grab a cuppa, it's a long one!

As promised here are some of the pictures from Nicole's Hen at the weekend. There are a lot more but I think I'd get kicked off Blogger if I showed them here lol.

For some strange reason Nicole wanted a Burlesque theme...I've never heard her utter the word before but if that's what she wanted that's what she was going to get. Originally we had booked a Burlesque show in town but it got cancelled which got us in a bit of a panic. Then I remembered my neighbours DIL used to be a Burlesque dancer so contacted her and she gave us some great hints and tips and fab websites to look at. We booked a dancer to show the girls some of their moves (apparently this is very big in the Hen world these days!) and a bartender to make the drinks but also to show how the girls to make them. At 11:15 a bus arrived to take us all into town to a club called Sugar Cube.

The venue ended up being at the Tennis Club in my village because when other venues heard the booking was for a Hen they said no!! I was going to have it at my house but with 25 girls and a Burlesque dancer there wasn't enough room. Unfortunately our tennis club bears little resemblance to Wembley but once we cleaned it and put up the decorations it wasn't too bad.

It was an extremely busy day starting early with taking the dogs a walk, picking up Alanna and Ciara, Costco, Tesco, Off License, venue to decorate, drop girls off for lunch with Nic, hubby and I picking up balloons and dropping off at venue, picking up girls and dropping Nic off then back to venue to finish decorating and me home to cut up fruit, make up h'orderves, cook pizzas, take food to venue, get changed and run up to venue in time to see Nic arrive.

I'll let the pictures tell the rest....

Alanna...Nic's best friend and bridesmaid decorating the tennis club

Ciara...Nic's cousin and chief bridesmaid. She definitely wasn't impressed with the venue lol

Nic and friends on her balcony just before getting ready

Girls waiting for Nic to arrive

Nic didn't know where her Hen was going to be so we blindfolded her...hubby was the chauffeur but didn't speak so she didn't know it was him. She asked one of her friends if the driver was 'hot' rofl

Surprise!

Getting dressed

Ciara putting on the flashing garter

All dressed and ready

Bartender's set up and ready

Luciana and Nic getting a cocktail lesson

French Martini's...my new favourite drink...they were fabulicious!

The cake..the sparklers fizzled out by the time I took the picture

Ciara bought Ben's mom and I MOB & MOG sashes to wear

Not sure who she is lol

Learning a few Burlesque moves

Ciara bought these heart shaped wish lanterns. You wrote your wish, lit them and once they expanded with the heat you let them go and watch them float away

At one point you could see little lights floating away

There were only a dozen lanterns so each one was shared by 3 girls and we all wrote our wishes on it. Unfortunately ours got a hole in it and didn't float away ... I hope that doesn't mean our wishes won't come true :-(

Me and Nic's friend Deniz in Sugar Cube. She is a personal trainer and is partly responsible for my MOB transformation. I'm disappointed there wasn't a picture of just me and Nic...maybe one her friends has one so will keep my eyes peeled as pictures are popping up on FB all the time.

 The club was fun but I don't think I'll be rushing back lol. It was so loud (surely it wasn't like that when I was younger???!!) and dark and the girls wore the skimpiest clothes I've ever seen! I definitely wasn't dressed for clubbing lol. Anyway it turns out one of Ryan's teammates was there and text him to say he'd seen me. I was mortified because I know Ryan would be in for some stick when he went to training on the Monday (for some reason I embarrass him with his teammates??). Sure enough when I spoke to him the next day he'd already gotten a few texts about me being in Sugar Cube. I also got a message from Steven who is back in Milan asking if I'd been in SC the night before!!!! Oh the shame lol.

I managed to get a taxi with Ciara and Penny and arrived home about 4am...I am so rock and roll lol. For some reason I was wide awake at 8 so went up to the tennis club and cleared up then took Ciara to the train station and Alanna to the airport. By evening I could barely keep my eyes open and was tucked up in bed by 10...a record for me lol.

It was a fantastic night and I'm glad I just have one daughter. I'll proabably be 80 by the time the boys get married and I'll definitely not be fit for Sugar Cube then lol.

Thanks for letting me share these pictures with you. I've still lots to do before the wedding...I've started on the favours and I'm going to start on the place cards and Order of service soon. I've seen a couple of pairs of shoes that I've fallen in love with...one in particular but will need a small mortgage to get them lol. There's always the lottery ;-D

Have a great day

Catch ya later x