One of the duties of a bridesmaid generally seems to involve hen party organising of some sort. It is a path to tread (and I mean no offence whatsoever to either A or T who might read this!) which involves a great deal of guess work, a decent amount of research, a juggling of diaries of a fair number of people - some of which you might know and some of which you definitely don't - which may include different ages/stages of life and wealth and a limited window. But when the bride-to-be turns up, has a wonderful weekend with her closest friends and everyone enjoys themselves, it makes the organising well worth it.
{Images by hen party guests; food, crockery and decorations by
Iced}
My biggest advice in the earliest stages of planning is communication. Make sure the researcher and the bride-to-be are on the same page in terms of a basic outline. I spent time researching yurts today and fell in love with the idea of a glamping, yurting, meadow based hen party. Turns out bride-to-be saw it more of a cottage on the beach type affair. Sounds wonderful, I just misread it. Communication people. Always remember the communication. But in the interests of my research being useful to someone, I thought I'd post what I found.
So I can get on with researching coastal cottages. Unless anyone has any recommendations?
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Somerset
The Yurt Retreat - this is a new-ish venture from brother's Andrew and Paul and sounds lovely. Andrew was especially helpful when I spoke to him over the telephone. 4 yurts sleeping 4 people surrounding a communal kitchen/lounge/shower area. Based within driving distance of the Jurassic Coast as well as The Wild Garlic restaurant and the River Cottage Canteen. (Crewkerne)
Cornwall
Photos by either Botelet or me
Botelet Smaller yurts of 2 so less good for hen parties per se but I couldn't leave these from the list as this is where we spent our honeymoon (Herodsfoot, Liskeard)
Cornish Tipi Holidays A village of different sized tipis. I personally of 2 different hen parties which have taken place here, both sounded lots of fun. (St Kew, Nr Wadebridge, Cornwall)
Pencuke Farm Yurts 3 yurts looking over meadowland to the North Atlantic with a guest barn with communal kitchen etc (St Gennys, Bude)
Yurt Works (Cornish Yurt Holidays) 2 yurts in more separate fields (St Breward, Bodmin)
North Wales
I also found surf shacks, lots of lovely campsites and vans, so if you want to know, let me know.
