My Manchester Hen Weekend

My Manchester Hen Weekend

A Hen weekend is one of the most amazing things you can be invited to. I was fortunate enough to be invited to my best friend Lucy's hen party and to, of course celebrate her upcoming wedding! Time flew by and before I knew it, the hen weekend rolled around. to be honest I was a little nervous, but also excited – after all, I was getting to have a girls weekend away leaving mu hubby and baby at home and get away from it all to celebrate with my friends. A proper party, a girls weekend and much needed after being up to my elbows in dirty nappies and covered in baby food for the last year!

FRIDAY

Manchester was our hen weekend destination of choice, and most of us were all coming from the same place, approximately two hours drive away. We all met at a local café at about 11am to grab a late breakfast, before we all piled into our cars and started our drive. In our car, the journey quickly became all about singing along with ridiculous cheesy songs on the radio, usually adding rude words into the lyrics, a game that I am quite familiar with (and very good at!)

It felt like no time at all before we had arrived in the city and found our way to our home for the weekend, our Manchester party apartments. And very nice they were too – we had two apartments between the 28 of us, basically we had the whole building, which was amazing as we had access to the hot tub on the lower floor plus the outside space and it was great having so much more room than you’d get had we stayed in a normal hotel. While most of us took the opportunity to unpack and have a glass or two of wine, a couple of the more sensible girls popped down to the nearest supermarket and grabbed some bits and pieces so that we’d be able to make ourselves breakfast in the morning, every group needs friends like these!

Pretty soon the last stragglers of the group arrived (who had travelled from elsewhere), and we all got ready and met up in the the downstairs lounge of the hen’s apartment. With everyone introduced, we popped open some prosecco and had a toast, before heading out to our first activity the Nude Life Drawing. Apparently we given the option to do this at the accommodation, but the general consensus was that we wanted to head out into town as early as possible. The venue was perfect it was hosted in a hotels function room and we had plenty of privacy and didn't need to muffle our laughter plus we had the bar which was just outside the door so our glasses were seldom empty!

When the model arrived I was not disappointed, the shrieks from the rest of the group when he disrobed told me they weren't disappointed either. He brought all the equipment we needed for it, including easels, pencils and pads, all we had to do is top up the wine. Tom, the model, was brilliant, his smile was infectious (not that we were looking at his smile!) and he interacted with us all and we had a right laugh with him, he was an honorary member of the hen party! and the look on his face when it was time to show our drawings was hilarious! We totally wanted to bring him along with us for the evening, but, alas he couldn't as he had another gig across the city. Personally I don't think he could handle us!!

Following the life drawing we walked into the city and it wasn't long before we found a bar we liked the look of. One round of cocktails quickly followed by another before a decision was made that we should start walking gently towards a nightclub. I was a little disappointed, That bar was perfect, I could have stayed in there all evening, 2 for 1 cocktails helped! I can't remember the name of it but if I ever go back to Manchester, I'd find it again! All part of our fantastic Manchester party hen do package,

Of course this gentle walk got delayed by trips into a couple of interesting looking bars on the way, but it wasn’t long before we found ourselves in an amazing club, dancing the night away as the local ladies looked on in jealousy of our amazing dance moves, and their lads having that jaw dropping moment, after all we’re amazing!

SATURDAY

We got back to the apartments in the early hours, most of the group headed straight to bed but myself, the bride to be and a few others thought we'd get in the hot tub. We didn't run the bubbles because of the noise and we didn't want to upset the neighbours, but we sat in there and chilled out with a glass of prosecco and had a really nice catch up. It was a lovely way to finish the night (or morning!) When we woke the next morning nursing various different levels of hangover. Thanks to Katy and Gina (love you ladies), we all had breakfast food available, so we were able to spend the morning slowly recovering form the hen weekends late night (early mornings!) festivities, eating what we wanted and drinking a lot of water and orange juice to try and get back to feeling normal again!

It took until late morning, but we were all starting to feel back to our normal selves, when there was a knock at the door, Gina ran off excitedly and before you knew it, there was equipment being brought into the house, first came some massage beds, then boxes of kit and three therapists arrived to give everyone a mini treatment. Wow, what perfect timing, i remember thinking I could do with a back massage right about now! I remember we had something like this booked but it had slipped my mind so it was a fab surprised. everyone had picked from a selection of mini treatments and whilst 3 of us were getting pampered the rest of us cracked open a bottle of bubbles and played some games whilst we awaited our tun. It was amazing and the perfect way to start our afternoon. These relaxing activities were part of our fantastic Manchester hen party package.

We had a bottomless brunch booked early afternoon, which kind of makes it a 'linner' rather than a brunch but it works just the same. Held in a cracking chain bar in the city centre, we were spoilt rotten for the second time that day. The food was superb, a mixture of sandwiches and cakes and the bubbles kept flowing, we were there for an hour and a half and I ate and drank my body weight in all manner of treats!

Afterwards we headed back to the amazing apartments to chill out before we were due to head out into town again, however we decided that we would take it a little easier this time and rather than head out until the early hours we'd stay in the accommodation enjoy each others company. Some of the group had brought some games to play so we topped up our supplies from the local supermarket and took full advantage of the amazing hot tub and bar area, giving the members of the hen party an early night if they wanted, but no one did though, we were having too much of a great time.

SUNDAY

We all felt a lot better than we did Saturday morning and after a hearty breakfast, we started to pack up slowly reminiscing about the weekend and laughing at some of the highlights and then after giving the apartments a quick spruce up, got bac into our cars to head home again – leaving this amazing Manchester hen do behind and heading back to normality.

Lucy’s hen do was an amazing experience, and I was so glad to be a part of it. I’ve made some friends for life and Manchester is an amazing place to visit for a girls weekend. Thank you so much to the Stag and Hen Experience for helping to arrange the Manchester hen weekend of a lifetime.

Inspired by this Manchester hen weekend? Explore our full range of Manchester hen party packages and ideas, including hen party apartments and houses. If you're looking to plan a hen weekend anywhere else, browse our other amazing hen do locations. Or, to discover more about how we create unforgettable hen weekends or to speak to one of our expert hen do organisers, get in touch today!