HOW TO: throw a virtual hen party

We’ve all had to rethink how we socialise recently, and this extends to your hen do. The good news is it doesn’t need to be cancelled, just take a different form. Sherrie Higgins from How to Hen shares her gals-night-in gameplan

If your bride-to-be has had to call off the wedding, she will no doubt be feeling pretty blue right about now. So, it’s your duty as bridesmaids to lift her spirits and throw her the best virtual party you can. Here are some ideas on how:-

Me time

Get glammed up

Just because you can’t head out to a salon, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a makeover from the comforts of your own home. Get the Girl Power playlist on the go and get your glam on. Take your best selfie and send it to the other hens so they know you are ready for a party.

Pamper session

If dusting off your MUA skills sounds like far too much work, go the other way and get into your comfiest outfit, get out the sheet masks and put those slippered feet up. Sometimes all it takes to really transport yourself to the spa is the right music, and some simple, but relaxing, treatments. Get everyone to take some photos and videos of their home spa setup and decide who has put the most effort in.

Tutorial time

Many of us have fallen victim to the ‘easier than it looks’ YouTube tutorial. So what better way to harness that disappointment than turn it into a contest! Assign people one or more YouTube tutorials that they must try to replicate.

If you have a mixed group and a pretty large number, it’s a good idea to host it as a sort of league, with different levels of difficulty for those who apply a contour daily and those who think a highlighter is neon yellow. Here’s a list of the top 100 beauty vloggers on YouTube to get you started.

Group chat games ideas

Mad Abs

Otherwise known as ‘who spends the most time staring at celebs with their tops off?’ Save photos of famous male celebrities with their tops off – the obvious choice is to opt for hot, chiselled guys, but it’s equally fun to choose celebs with ‘dad bods’ too – and crop the heads out.

Ask each person to share their guesses as a list (1. Brad Pitt, 2. Channing Tatum etc). Keep track of each players score without revealing who they got right. Once all players have made their guesses, you can reveal the final scores and the correct names.

Open Wide

This one is more for hilarious blackmail footage than anything else. Tie a strong string or twine between two objects that will hold it firmly in place. Then tie peeled bananas (or hotdogs), so that they hang down from this string.

To play the game, players must use only their mouth (one hand behind their back and one hand recording themselves) to eat the entire banana/hot dog from the string. The person who eats it in the shortest time (as evidenced by their video) wins!

What age was the bride?

This a nice nostalgic game to play. Find photos of the bride at different ages either through her parents (they would love to scan or snap some of the old album ones) or through Facebook and send them to the group labelled 1 – 10.

Ask each person to send their guesses for each number and the person closest to the real age wins a point. You can also break this up a little bit by incorporating statements or stories relating to the B2B and ask people to guess the age she was when they happened. This is a good way to make the game last longer if you struggle to get hold of photos.

Wedding moodboard contest

This is actually easier to do online than IRL. Each person must create a moodboard of what they think the B2B’s perfect wedding would look like. They can use apps like Layout or photo collage apps to help get the photos together in one image (or just screenshot a Pinterest board). Give everyone 15 minutes and then each person must present their board to everyone and explain their thought process. The bride decides whose board wins!

Let’s get streaming

These games require a bit more interactivity and participation so you need to use any app that will allow you all to chat together. Zoom is proving to be the most popular, with Houseparty, Skype and even Facebook and Snapchat group video chat options also available.

Lipstick-tionary

Pictionary, but not as you know it. The same rules apply, but you use a lipstick instead of a pen, your mouth instead of your hand, and the people screaming wrong answers at you aren’t actually in the room.

You need to ensure you’ve set up your device so everyone can see you properly, so try and set up your camera in whatever way makes it easiest for them to guess as you draw.

Beer/prosecco pong

You need a table, cups, a ping pong ball and some drinks. Set up the table with just a triangle of cups at the end you are scoring into. Place the device you are using to video call behind these cups, so you are looking at it as you shoot.

From the other end of the table, throw the ping pong ball. If you get it in one of the cups, everyone else drinks from their equivalent that they have set up in the same place and turns it over.

If they score, you drink from your cup and turn it over etc. continue until all cups are turned over. You can decide based on the skill level of the group how many turns each person gets before you move on to the next person.

Take it off

Step one: ask each person to gift wrap a box that has a pair of underwear inside it. Don’t tell them why. Step two: players must now race to unwrap the box, open the box, and get the underwear out, using only their mouth. Then they may use their hands to put them on. First one to wear their underwear wins. Or, if you’d rather go one at a time, fastest time wins. If you’re concerned about putting your mouth on wrapping paper, feel free to play with oven mitts instead. It’s equally hilarious.

Cold Feet

People might not thank you for this one. Each player has to fill a large serving bowl with ice-cold water then dump ten items that everyone has (think keys, large coins, jumbo paperclips etc) inside. Players must compete to be the first to get all of the items out of the bowl of freezing water using just their feet. If you want to keep it fair, make sure everyone has the same 10 items, also that all the bowls are roughly the same size.

Mr and Mrs

THE quintessential hen do game. I have created a handy document just for you with tons of questions, both PG and X-Rated. Get the answers in advance as always, and then ask the bride-to-be in the call. You can also ask the others to write down their answers as you go. If no one gets the answer right, then the bride has one drink. If she gets it wrong but other people get it right, she must drink for every person that got it right.

Movie Night

There are so many amazing movies that should be a staple in a hen weekend, and just because you aren’t together doesn’t mean you can’t watch them together. Netflix party is an excellent extension that allows you to sync up your computers and chat throughout the film. But not all titles I am recommending will be on Netflix, so you could also try Kast or these alternatives.

I have broken these movies down into categories. On my website, there’s also drinking games for each film.

Weddings

• Bridesmaids
• 27 Dresses
• Wedding Crashers
• The Proposal

Nostalgia/rom-coms

• 10 Things I Hate About You
• She’s All That
• A Cinderella Story
• Mean Girls
• Clueless
• 13 Going On 30
• Legally Blonde
• The Princess Diaries
• Ella Enchanted
• Freaky Friday
• Easy A
• Love Actually
• Bridget Jones’ Diary 1, 2 & 3
• The Notebook
• Titanic

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

• The Devil Wears Prada
• Sex and the City
• Girls Trip
• I Feel Pretty
• Magic Mike 1& 2

Musicals

• Mamma Mia 1 & 2
• Grease
• Dirty Dancing
• Moulin Rouge
• Pitch Perfect 1, 2 & 3

Feeling inspired? Check out more hen planning tips on How to Hen’s website or attend the How to Hen Online Launch Party on Facebook on Friday 10th April.

How to Hen is a global portal to find all the information you could possibly need for planning a personalised hen party. Founded by Scottish native Sherrie Higgins, the site allows visitors to easily browse ideas broken down into 12 types of bride and nine themes offering a helping hand with inspiration, ideas and activities to suit any type of bride-to-be. It works via a subscription-based model with different tiers of membership available depending on the services required. The basic package is priced from around £27 and covers access to the full site (including all printables and resources such as discounts for local event planners), while the top-end service allows for regular, personal consultations with ‘fairy hen mother’ Sherrie herself and bespoke stationery.