Leanne. One of my best, best friends in the entire world since we were about 12. We have journeyed through many a cringeworthy childhood phase together, a few teenage heartbreaks, an almost-sickness-inducing solitary cigarette behind a shed (sorry mum), lots of school discos and lots of lovely, happy, the-kind-you’ll-never-forget moments. Some which spring to mind in our grown up lives have been…

1: the moment I shared my pregnancy news with Leanne, as well as the time she came to visit me and my two-day-old baby in hospital.

2: the moment Leanne told me she was engaged (to the very lovely man who now happens to also be the Treehouse Keeper, Matt)

3: Leanne’s amazing (surprise) hen party in Paris.

4: Leanne’s beautiful Bridal tea party (read on for more details…)

5: Leanne’s wedding day. Truly amazing.

So, for this blog feature I’m going to share with you some lovely pictures from number 4. Leanne’s beautiful Bridal Tea Party.

Big thanks to all the amazing local businesses who contributed their talents & services to help make it an extra special afternoon:

Stationery & Styling: In the Treehouse (you’re already here!)

Photography: Maggie McCall 

Magazine Feature: You & Your Wedding

Venue: Odds & Suds, Tavistock

Flowers: Odds & Buds, Tavistock

Cupcakes: Little Home Bakery

Vintage China: Devon Vintage China

Morning all, hope everyone’s well and getting some sunshine this week wherever you are.. I’m writing this from sunny Dubai – we’re here for a week visiting family & having an incredible time. I’m still managing to snatch some moments to catch up with work though and wanted to share this hen / bachelorette party fun with you – given the amount of stationery leaving our studio for summer weddings in the next few months, I’m  guessing many of you are about to embark on the hen weekend – is playing this game on your schedule?

We’ve put together this little quiz for you in our Free Printables Library. The classic game of ‘Mr & Mrs’ is great for hen/stag dos particularly – have a laugh finding out who really knows who better! We’ve designed it as a Microsoft Word document so you can alter the questions and add in names at the top. (You’ll notice our example questions are somewhat less raunchy than you might find on the average hen/stag do, so no doubt some of you will customise it accordingly).

There are loads of different ways to play this game, but what we recommend it that both the Bride & Groom fill out a copy of the quiz, (either a printed version, or electronic to type over – it’s up to you). So for example, on the Bride’s copy, she will complete the pink section with her own answers to the questions, and the blue section should be what she thinks the Groom’s answers would be. Then, during the hen do – get everyone together and read out the questions, score how many the Bride got right about the Groom and vice versa. Whether or not you want to include a forfeit for incorrect answers is entirely up to you!

We’ll also be adding soon some ‘Mr & Mr’ and ‘Mrs & Mrs’ versions so there’ll be one for everyone.

We also recently designed this hen party invitation for Chelena, one of our lovely Brides-to-be – it’s a ‘Sex & the City‘ themed design featuring a pretty cocktail, the New York skyline & some fun dancing figures. Contact us if you’d like to chat about some hen party invitations at £2 per postcard & envelope…

Finally, have you seen our previous feature on the brilliant KNICKERS GAME – perfect for a hen do?

Why hello & happy Friday to you all! I hope your brain is feeling a little more intact than mine at the end of the week, and that you have something nice planned for the weekend? Perhaps some of you are having your hen/stag do this weekend? Much like the evolution of wedding culture over the last decade or so, there’s now a massive amount of scope to have a hen/stag do that’s a bit different. A bit more ‘you’. That’s not to say that the tried and tested rowdy nights out, with all manner of naughty blow up things, fancy dress and tequila slammers are a thing of the past - more that there are plenty of other options to consider too. When Jessica at Red7 Leisure contacted me asking if we’d like her to contribute a guest feature on alternative hen party ideas, naturally we snapped her up on the idea! Red7 are a group of Party Experts (sounds like a pretty nice career hey?) who can organise a bespoke package for your hen/stag weekend, which will reflect your personality and the kind of party you want. You’ll have your own dedicated Party Expert, who’ll advise you of the hottest destinations to visit, and what to do while you’re there. They’ll even  do all the hard work booking you and your hen or stag group into a great hotel, get your names on the VIP guest lists for the hottest nightclubs in town, and million other stressful tasks you don’t want landed with. All you have to do is remember to pack your toothbrush! To help spread the cost, they also offer free monthly instalment payments of as little as £6 per month, which will definitely take the pressure off…

Big thanks to Jessica at Red7 who has taken the time to provide this exclusive list of hen party ideas, just for our readers. I hope it gets you excited and inspired to try something new on your own hen weekend…

It’s likely that you’ll be providing wine at your wedding so why not enjoy tasting some wines for your hen party and choose your favourites to have on the big day? It can sometimes be difficult to choose a hen party idea which will appeal to older members of your group such as your mother and mother-in-law however; a wine tasting is a relaxing, fun all rounder.

It’s impossible not to feel happy when you’re dancing, especially to gorgeous Latin music.  Become a true “salsero” learning the bold and beautiful dance that originated from Cuba. It’s both a fun and unique dance to learn and will leave you and the girls feeling utterly uplifted.

Fancy something a little different? It might not be a combination you’d thought of before but that’s what makes it so great! Cupcakes are delicious and who doesn’t like a cocktail?! In this session, you’ll get to decorate cupcakes with all sorts of pretty decorations whilst sipping on a delicious cocktail. Plus, at the end, you’ll get to take away a pretty little box of cakes (if you haven’t eaten them all before you leave!).

Sometimes all you want to do is have a decent catch up with the girls over a cup of the old favourite English brew, tea. With an afternoon to spend purely relaxing, chatting, drinking tea and nibbling on delicious cakes, pastries and sandwiches, there’s really no better combination.

You can’t go wrong with pure relaxation especially before the big day. Book in for a spa day and relax in the sauna, steam room and Jacuzzi followed by an Indian head massage or a manicure. You can catch up with the girls too and leave feeling revived and happy.

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Big big thanks to Jessica at Red7 Leisure for these great ideas – do hop on over to their website to learn a bit more about what they can do for your stag/hen weekend. Don’t forget to also check out some of the other features on hen parties on this very blog.

A great weekend to all… Don’t forget, the first ever ‘In the He House’ – our new man blog is coming on Monday. x

(quick double take – yes that’s right, knickers!) THE HEN PARTY KNICKER GAME – (is that its official name?! – not sure, but we’ll go with it for now).

Ladies – I urge you not to miss out this great game when planning your best friend’s hen party. It’s simple – everyone invited is instructed (in secret) to buy a pair of knickers for the Bride – they can be as funny, silly or saucy as you like. Ask people to wrap them anonymously and on the weekend, get everyone together and get the Bride opening each pair individually – she has to guess who gave them to her. If she gets it wrong, there’s a forfeit for the Bride (I’ll leave this up to you)… It’s a funny game to play and the Bride gets to take home loads of new knickers – what’s not to like?!

Last weekend, it was my lovely, beautiful and blooming brilliant friend Leanne’s hen weekend -We were an intimate little hen group of 4, all being good friends from our school days which made the whole weekend so easy and relaxed. Day one was spent in Bristol, being served Champagne & Canopes by a ‘Butler in the Buff’ -(I was pretty terrified about the concept beforehand, but it turned out to be a good laugh).

The evening was spent circus style (Leanne’s wedding stationery followed a Circus theme) – it was refreshing to break away from the kind of  fancy dress that looks provocative, and embrace the looking-like-a-right-wally way of doing things. I certainly achieved the objective anyway in my clown outfit!

On the second day, unbeknown to the Bride-to-be, we had an amazing suprise in store for her! Whilst telling her we were on our way to aftenoon tea (suitcases, passports etc. smuggled in the boot) we drove to Bristol Airport, and as we approached we gave her one of our very own Paris style invitations. Leanne was utterly speechless, and watching her reaction will remain one of the most special moments for a long time to come…

After the craziest 20 minutes ever (arriving at the airport at 3:40pm when your flight takes off at 4pm is not good!), the pilot let us on the plane (yes, he actually had to be consulted as the doors had closed) – we set off and arrived in Paris an hour later. That night, we had the most lovely, quaint and authentic French meal in a little restaurant we stumbled upon in the Parisian suburbs followed by drinks in a little bar afterwards.

The next morning we got up early (might I add, even after we only got back to our hotel at 5am! I didn’t know I still had it in me!) to see the sights – Leanne has always wanted to visit Paris, so we made the most of our one day there and saw the Sacre Coure, Arc de Triomphe & the Eiffel Tower and they did not disappoint…

We ended our visit to beautiful Paris with a lovely (not to mention well deserved) afternoon of high tea at the world famous Laduree on the Champs Elysees.. The traditional tea house is exquisite inside and houses (probably) the best macaroons in the world! So very exciting…

This probably reads like a very expensive hen weekend, and although it wasn’t the cheapest, it was made affordable by staying at Sophie’s (one of the hens) house in Bristol on the first day so saving on accommodation, flying with Easyjet (tickets can be purchased for around £70) and staying in basic & reasonably priced accommodation in France, which was actually really lovely.

All in all, it was a weekend I’ll never forget with so many special moments, funny times and lovely memories made. I simply cannot wait to see Leanne walk down the aisle on 17.9.2011, to marry her Groom-to-be…