The Importance of a Playlist

For me, music is a massively important part of my life. For many of my friends this is also the case, and so whenever I am planning an event I will always, always, plan a playlist to go with it. I am actually quite annoying with it, as I get massive rage-eyes if someone tries to skip a track or play their own music. Sure it's irritating to some (most), but I know best on this one. One of my most-fondly remembered playlists is the one I created for a friend's wedding. They had decided to not have an overly fancy day, and for the reception had hired a local restaurant. As they weren't having a DJ or band I offered to make them a couple of playlists (one for during dinner and one for after) and they both went down a storm - the dinner one in particular. The difficulty with this was that it needed to be about five hours long, and so I added favourite songs of both of them, some non-cheesy love songs, as well as a few nostalgic numbers to suit the various ages of the guests. After the couple's first dance I got the second playlist started - starting with Kiss by Prince this definitely got the party going!

I am of the opinion that the music played can make or break a party, and so here are a few of the stories behind some of my favourite playlists (with handy spotify links!)

Christmas

I am not a fan of Christmas music. I think it really stems back from when I used to work in a hotel events team and so for a solid 6-weeks every year we would hear the same songs night after night after night. So, for me, a Christmas playlist is less about those instantly recognisable cheese-filled numbers and more about classics, covers and Croce (Jim - a family favourite). I also had to include my actual favourite Christmas song - The Power of Love by Frankie Goes to Hollywood (yes, it counts). I made this for Christmas last year, but it will definitely be making a reappearance this time around!

Hen Do

Earlier this year I planned (and pulled off!) a hen-do in Stratford-Upon-Avon for my oldest friend. The whole weekend was a great success, but one of the things that people have mentioned to me since is how much they loved the playlist over the weekend. The main reason I created this was because we were having dinner in the house on the Saturday night and so would need some background music, but I actually loved it so much that I chucked it on at a couple of other points throughout the weekend. As a hen-do is all about celebrating the bride-to-be's single life, most of the songs I put on the playlist where ones that we used to listen to in our bedrooms when we were teenagers, with a couple of more modern ones. The hen loved it, especially as lots of the songs were ones we hadn't listened to in years. This is one I have downloaded to my phone so can listen to while I'm power-walking around!

Baby Shower

For a baby shower I organised last year I created a game of baby bingo. For this I put together a playlist of songs with the word baby in the title (foregoing a few - I'm looking at you, Baby Got Back). The bingo turned out to be a huge amount of fun, and the playlist was just the right level of classics and cheese to continue to be our soundtrack for the rest of the afternoon.

Love Songs

For my friend's wedding I made her a little playlist of love songs for her and hubby to listen to afterwards. I tried to pick songs that were a bit different (again leaning towards our teenage indie tendencies!) but still utterly utterly lovely, and I think I got it just about right with the ones I chose. Maybe I'll use this one at my own wedding if that day ever arises!

Anyone else with me on this one?

Planning the Perfect Hen Do

Planning a hen do can be tricky; it's hard to find the balance between recognising all the traditional elements of a hen do without it venturing into the land of tack. I recently planned a hen do, and here are my 4 top tips for trying to plan the perfect one...

Get Inside Your Hen's Brain

I was lucky with the recent hen do as I had known the bride-to-be since we were bubbas. However, it isn't always this easy and there will usually be people there that have known the hen at various stages of her life. Even though the bride has chosen you to do all the big arranging, don't be afraid to ask for help or advice from everyone else. She will have asked you not just because she thinks you'll arrange something awesome, but also because she isn't worried about you getting on with all her other friends, even if you've not met them before. If you think it would be nice to have something to remind her of her teenage years when you didn't know her, then just ask those who did. The best types of hen dos are always those that have managed to reflect the hen from all the best moments of her life.

Know Your Audience

Although the main purpose of a hen do is to ensure the bride-to-be has an amazing time, you have to also keep in mind who else is going to be attending. If you know the mother of the bride is going to feel uncomfortable drinking through a penis straw then you also know that this is only going to make the bride-to-be uncomfortable too. There are always ways to tone down (or up!) the activities you want to do without it meaning nobody has any fun - on our recent hen do we played Mr and Mrs but stuck to the 'first kiss' questions rather than the 'first hump' questions. Another important one is to remember if there are going to be any under-18s attending (pesky sisters!) - nobody is going to feel more awkward than you if you lead everyone to a bar only to find that not everyone can get in.

Personalise, Personalise, Personalise

The best hen dos are always the ones where the bride-to-be feels like the entire thing, non-stop, from start to finish has revolved around her. The smallest of touches can make this happen - whether it's putting together the best photos of her with all the other attendees, making a playlist of all her favourite songs or bringing a couple of her favourite films in case a pyjama party beckons - and will absolutely make her feel like the queen bee of the event.

Think Outside the Box

When I questioned my friend about the type of thing she wanted to do on her hen do she gave the very standard response - afternoon tea, exploring the town, dinner... All these things are popular hen do activities because they are brilliant things to do, however this doesn't mean that there's no room for a bit of imagination. We did afternoon tea on a river cruise, explored the area by geocaching and had caterers at the cottage rather than going out for dinner. None of these ideas are particularly revolutionary (let's not flatter ourselves here) but were all just different enough to the norm to make it feel like it was a personalised hen do that still ticked all the boxes of things she'd loved on other hen dos she'd been on.

Generally though, the best advice is always just going to be to relax! You've been chosen to organise it for a reason - just keep this in mind and everything will go swimmingly.

Weekending - Stratford-upon-Avon

I recently spent a weekend in Stratford-upon-Avon on a hen do, and although some of the bits and pieces we did were quite hen-specific other parts were definite must-dos for anyone visiting this lovely town for a couple of days. Here are some of my highlights.

* There are lots of choices for places to stay, ranging from budget guest houses to boutique hotels. As there were a few of us though we decided to rent a cottage for the weekend, and settled on the Unicorn Barns. The house was lovely and perfect for our group - the rooms (especially the communal areas) were lovely and spacious and the kitchen was fully-equipped with all the cooking utensils we would need. The house was about a 20-minute walk away from the centre of town which was really nice as well, it meant we really felt we were away from the centre of town in a relaxed setting. However, the communication from the owners beforehand was frustratingly slow and I'm now having problems getting our deposit back so do bear this in mind if you go down this route.

* Stratford-upon-Avon is well-known for it's cultural history, and this shouldn't go ignored when visiting. Our hen was keen on afternoon tea, so we did a river cruise with Bancroft Cruisers which included prosecco, tea and scones, as well as an informal guided tour of the area. This was perfect for us - our guide was the right balance of amusing and informative, and they were more than happy to accommodate any requests we had when booking. This is excellent value for money, and comes highly recommended from me. Post-cruising we continued our exploration on foot - stopping at the RSC (mainly in the gift shop) and also the church Shakespeare is buried in.

* In pretty much every area in the world you can find something a bit more unique to do if you search [google] enough. I wanted to find a museum that was a bit different to the norm for our trip, and found the perfect one in the form of The MAD Museum. We were't entirely sure what to expect before we visited as I couldn't get the website to load properly, however we needn't have worried as this was a fun and fascinating way to spend our time. With things that would enthral both kids and adults, this is placed firmly at the top of my list of recommendations.

* As popular as Stratford-upon-Avon is, it should go without saying that there are multiple dining and drinking options. We only ate out once during our trip (as we used Benson's Catering one night who were great - all the food tasted fab and they even washed up afterwards!) and chose The One Elm to do this. Everyone enjoyed their meals and it was very reasonably priced so I would visit again - even if one of our (two) waitresses seemed super grumpy!

* And finally, shopping. It seemed to me that Stratford-upon-Avon had just the right mix of high street shops and independent ones, with a few of us making some purchases during our visit...!

We were so lucky with the weather when we visited as it was generally really hot and sunny, and this really made the weekend just that little bit more special and it really seemed the ideal place for the hen do. I'd never visited the town before so I'm really glad that I now have, and also know a few places to visit again if I return!