Steph's Hen Weekend

This is a photo of Steph's hen party at Studio 25 in Manchester. We have just completed an 80's dance class with music from Fame, Flashdance and Madonna. It was a lot of fun, and as you can see we got dressed for the occasion with neon and tutus!

It was an early start to the day getting up and heading to the airport to fly over from Dublin, but I got to Manchester Piccadilly at around 12pm and met with the others at around 1pm.
We all walked in the glorious sunshine to the studio and got ready for the dancing.

Once the class was completed we changed and walked to our hotel near Bridgewater Hall. Katie and I were sharing a room and it was lovely and spacious with a big bathroom. We had a bit of time for a quick cup of tea before we all met up to go to the Costa Coffee shop before getting ready for our night out.
I enjoyed a lemon tart and an iced latte to give me an energy boost for the night ahead and it was nice chatting to the girls and getting to know them.

We got back to the hotel and showered and got ready with make-up and hair styling taking over. Both Katie and I wore little black dresses and Katie opted for the sensible shoe and wore cute black flats. I wore heels and was jealous of Katie's comfort and good thinking!

Once all the girls were ready we met in the lobby and took photos all together. The maid of honour, Rachel, gave Steph some Disney princesses to allocate to each of her hens and had to choose the one she thought best represented that person. I was given Cinderella because I have my prince charming! Rachel said that throughout the night if she blew her whistle we each had to re-create our princess pose to match the character.

We got a taxi to Pizza Express where we sat opposite a crazy cave woman hen party with at least one woman who we think actually might have been pre-historic! We laughed and had a tasty dinner of dough balls and I chose La Reine pizza with olives, mushrooms and parma ham. We shared bottles of wine and enjoyed chatting together. Before our mains arrived we each had to go round the group and say how we knew Steph and who we were, it was a nice ice-breaker. I was very proud to say that Steph can call me her sister, as we are almost sisters-in-law.

After dinner we taxied to the casino where we had lessons in roulette and blackjack. Katie and I stuck together and found that we could manage roulette, but the minute we swapped tables we were hopeless at blackjack! We just couldn't get our heads around the fact that our hand depends on the dealers hand and you can bet on other players' boxes and so on, very confusing! Needless to say we didn't play for real!

Finally after the casino we headed to Tiger Tiger club at the Printworks. We had VIP entry on the guest list and went to the top floor or the club for drinks. Katie and I had Cosmopolitans which were pricey but delicious. We all gathered together for photos and there was a guy taking photos and turning them into key rings for you, so I bought one for me and one for the bride as a little memento. We then moved into the 80's Wonderland room and spent the rest of the night dancing to some great classics, we also had a chance to show off our newly honed dance moves! Apart from a few leery men and a couple of spilled drinks, we had a great time.

At 1am we called it a night and caught a taxi back to the hotel. It was super fun spending time with all the girls and meeting new faces, but after such an early start it was definitely bed time!

Today I am grateful for the maid of honour for organising us all such a well-planned and fun night out, well done Rachel!