Do women put too much stress on themselves before the wedding?
- March 15, 2016
- John Strachan
Traditionally the bride tends to take on the responsibility of wedding planning. After all it’s more than likely that she’s had it all mapped out in her head since she was 10 years old. However, planning the biggest party of your life and negotiating tenuous family ties to get the perfect seating plan doesn’t come without a good dose of stress.
We’ve conducted some research, which shows that 76% of men and women agree that the Bride takes on the most amount of stress when planning a wedding.
So why is it that the women always end up with the “sensible” hen party?
Our research showed that British women aren’t fans of doing something different for their hen do. Over 40% would settle for going out to a restaurant, followed by a few drinks, and a third of women just fancy a relaxing day at the spa.
However, when you compare this to the men we surveyed, their answers were spread right across the board! A pub crawl was the most popular (and obvious) choice, quad biking soon followed (18%), along with clay pigeon shooting (16%).
Our surveys clearly showed that your average stag party appears to be about having the time of their lives, whilst the Hens sound like they are in dire need of a break from all that wedding planning.
All of the Hens we see here at Mad Max Adventures are in high spirits, and absolutely love the opportunity to do something different; such as blasting clay pigeons into hundreds of tiny pieces, or driving our 4x4s with utmost precision. They find it releases plenty of stress, particularly if they’re pretending to aim at some particularly difficult in-laws!
So in order to raise awareness surrounding the importance of making your Hen Do a day to remember, we thought we would do a bit of digging to find out why 70% of the UK’s Hens are opting for more “traditional” celebrations. We spoke to some awesome bloggers who shared their Hen Do experiences.
Alexandra suggested that the Hen Do is an opportunity for women to relax:
“Sometimes the quieter and more relaxing hen party can help the already stressed bride relax before the big day – rather than a night on the town followed by more stress – a 3 day hangover and last minute wedding plans that need to be organised!”
And Lucy seems to agree with her:
“We all dressed up as Disney princesses in this beautiful lodge in Yorkshire. We stuck the stags face onto a blow up doll and played all sorts of Hen night games. It was the best weekend and such fun with my fellow bridesmaids and the bride.”
We’re not quite sold on the idea of the Bride having to shoulder all the responsibility and make sure that the wedding plans don’t fall to bits, surely the Stags can take over for a couple of days? With the average cost of a wedding standing at over £36,000, we don’t think that the responsibility should lie with just one person.
So ladies, put your foot down and fellas, give your girl a break and make sure she gets the Hen Do she deserves. Don’t let her put it off until a week before the wedding, meaning she can’t go for a weekend away, and has to settle for a “quiet one” with her bridesmaids.
If you are planning to let your hair down on an activity weekend, maybe you should take a few tips from some of the other, more adventurous bloggers we spoke to!
Hannah doesn’t recommend hiring a stripper:
“The whole thing was just really embarrassing! The hotel wouldn’t let him in so we had to sneak him into our room, then he got oil and cream all over the walls and left half a banana somewhere that we couldn’t find… We were so worried we’d lose our deposit. Plus, the Hen was opposite her mum the entire time which was very awkward!”
Rebecca can’t wait for her Hen night:
“I’ve just received details about a murder mystery evening that has been written entirely by one of my hens!! We’ve all been given modern Disney character roles and have to turn up in costume on the night (which, for me, means a 3 hour journey in the car as Tinkerbell). It’s so thoughtful, with so much time and effort put into it and I’m ridiculously excited – I have a feeling it’s going to be an incredible hen do.”
We don’t recommend you take Leyla’s sister on your hen night, if this story is anything to go by…
“I went tank driving and buggy racing which was a lot of fun. My sister managed to flip the buggy and it caught fire! She was thankfully ok.”
So are you up for the challenge? Leave the wedding planning to the groom and plan a hen party which will be exciting, seriously fun, and which challenges your mind and body! Whether it’s archery you’re after or you fancy roaming the countryside on a quad bike, Mad Max has an activity to suit you.
- Filed Under: Hen Parties
