Weekend in Derbyshire - Cottage based mini hen do

On the Saturday evening of our weekend away, we threw my friend Sarah a mini hen party. She's getting married in October but I can't make her hen party in June, so we decided to incorporate a mini hen party into our weekend. I asked the others, and we decided we would:

a) have cocktails (always)
b) have hen party favours and so on
c) eat penis shaped pasta
d) watch wedding themed films
e) play stupid games

We each got changed and sent Sarah upstairs while we stuck up ballons and banners and decorated the table. I bought the gift bags on eBay, which is a treasure trove when it comes to hen party stuff. They come flat packed with a few things to put in each, so I did that at home and brought them in a box. I added some sweets and stuff too. They were fun bags.

The bags on the table

Balloons

And banners!

 

Me waiting to go upstairs to give Sarah her bride-to-be sash

And Sarah looking surprised! Haha

eBay is a wonder.

Do you like our super classy penis straws? This cocktail had blue curacao in it and god knows what else. It tasted nice though.

I love this photo of Steph

Me and Jacqui blowing bubbles

And I love this one of Steph and me. 

Jacqui before she actually was drunk

I also bought penis shaped pasta on eBay and Jacqui and I made a sort of lasagne bake with it. We had it with garlic bread and salad and afterwards we had cupcakes. again. Last year for my birthday Jacqui bought me this huge bottle of prosecco which is two standard bottles. I hadn't drunk it because I couldn't drink it all by myself, so I took it with us so we could share it. And it was lovely! 

We took lots of selfies and silly pictures and I think Sarah had a good time.

Oh yeah, glowsticks. I bought loads, I'll be wearing them forever.

But aren't they fun?! We brought the feather boas, too. They shed everywhere and we were careful to clean them up before we left on Monday!

Wearing a crown of glow sticks.

Then I made it a necklace. I reall like this photo of me and Jacqui

The hen! She had a tiara and a sash!

Sam brought these deely bopper things, I loved mine

I was channelling Lolly in these glasses, they're fabulous!

Sam brought a streamer cannon thing, we went outside to do it. You can just see the streamers on the right

Me and Sarah

This is what happens when you throw someone a surprise mini hen party

Cheers!

Afternoon Tea and What I Wore 5th February

On the second day of Stacey's hen party we met in the Grand Arcade in Leeds for afternoon tea at Just Grand. I've been there before but never for afternoon tea. It was really nice - unlimited coffee or tea, four types of sandwich, scones with jam and clotted cream, and cake. All for the bargain price of £12.95 each!

The waiter kindly took this photo of us:

Everything in Just Grand is vintage, down to the cups and saucers and the menus, which are made out of records! The food was really yummy and I'd recommend the place for a special occasion like this. 

I wore this Asos dress along with a New Look cardigan and Evans belt. I haven't worn the dress in ages!

I mostly wanted to wear a greenish dress to match my new green shoes. They're from Clarks and they were down to £30 in the sale! I bought them with some Christmas money. They're quite narrow so if you have wide feet they may not fit. They're so beautiful! 

I took an outside photo to show off the colour better. I'm so in love!

Here's a better view of the pattern on the dress. Lee says it looks like a china pattern, which it does, and I love it! It's just a swing dress so it looks better with a belt to pull it in on me.

Hen Party in Leeds

At the beginning of February was my friend Stacey's hen party, held just a week before her beautiful wedding in Haworth! We went to Leeds. Stacey's maid of honour Shelli organised everything and she did amazingly. I had such a good time.

We met at 2pm at The Maven in Leeds. It's a prohibition style bar and it has a secret door, so you can't get there unless you know about it! Haha, actually it's the black door next to Pagan Piercing near the Corn Exchange, so do go because it's lovely.

This gorgeous tile will reassure you that you're in the right place!

We were booked into a cocktail masterclass and it was only open for us. There were two members of staff and we each made three cocktails. First of all was a mojito, which is one of my favourites - deliciously sweet and sour and refreshing. We each had the chance to go behind the bar and make one - I've never been behind a bar before! (In my uni years I worked at Asda, not in a bar like many people did - I firmly believe everyone should have to do SOME kind of job like this when they're young).

The bar

Shereen and her mojito

My mojito made by my own fair hands!

Carol mixing hers up

Me and Stacey, the bride... And a willy straw, apparently!

She was told to wear red while the rest of us wore black. You'll see my outfit in the next post, but doesn't Stacey look stunning?

The next cocktail was raspberry based and I didn't get the name of it, but it was foamy due to egg white being shaken into it! Unfortunately mine wasn't very foamy (my shaking action must be wrong)

Beth and Shelli separating their eggs. I'm never much good at it but I managed it perfectly!

Beth and her raspberry whatever it was. It had gin in!

Me shaking it all over

Not much froth on mine.

The last cocktail was called a Gin Garden and was a speciality of the bar. It was gin, elderflower liqueur, lemon juice and apple juice, I think. It was really yummy and the flower was fresh!

Carol doing her wet shaking

Shereen and I mixing it all up

And here's mine! 

Kielly made this for Stacey. It had a few dares for her to do, it was fun!

Here I am in the mirror near the loos. Like I say, the bar is really nice and I'd recommend it if you like secret places, cocktails, and gin!

After the cocktails we went to Jamie's Italian for food, but I didn't get any photos in there. Lee picked me up soon after that although most people stayed out a lot longer!