In Royal Matrimony S01E00 - The Original Pilot: How to Throw a Hen's Night

"We're all going to Hell, Dean. Might as well enjoy the ride."

—

Rachel:

So after Charlotte has posted her response to our a very successful hen's night, let me give you more insight on how we did it and what could've been better. Seriously, so much more we could have done but we are only working adults! *sighs*

Ladies and gentlemen, buckle up for the *ahem* ORIGINAL pilot post of: In Royal Matrimony.

In order to throw the best hen's night ever for Charlotte, you must first understand that she has SO MANY fandoms and it's just wiser to ask her what's her preference. So, after much discussion with my fellow bridesmaids, I decided to pop the question:

"Btw, as we're planning your hens night, can you give us a clue on which fandom you want? You get a choice of another fandom other than GoT."

And BAM, I felt like I was being hit by a truck cause she said "Final Fantasy" and I'm like "o_o" ... I have zero clue what it's about or where to even start. To be honest, I don't really have any fandoms so it's hard to fathom (note that rhyme man) how someone can have so many! Eventually, she was kind enough to give us a simpler list:

1. Supernatural (as in the TV show) 2. Final Fantasy 3. Game of Thrones 4. Batman + Justice League Extended Universe 5. Wonder Woman/Greek Mythology

So yes, of course, we chose Supernatural because Final Fantasy is just too difficult and Game of Thrones is already her wedding theme. Let's not even mention the rest that aren't in her top 3 cause really, why bother? Thus, I announced this to the bridesmaids team and here's what happened:

The Researcher

Waiyi: "I don't follow supernatural 😂 but OK will research"

The Wimp

Peggy: "What is supernatural omg. Find a long haired person to climb out of the bathtub?? Hahaha. I need to admit I'm a wimp cos I don't watch any horror shows at all..." The Easygoing One

Min-Er: "Ok sounds good! Haha I don't know any of these either but as long as someone knows, it's all good!"

The Expert

Rachel Choo: "Just honestly watch first five seasons. It's already good enough. After that it just becomes a spiral of diarrhoea."

The One That Got Away

Bea: Bea left

The Speechless One

Vanneza: "..."

Needless to say, I wasn't sure how it'll all turn out to be but I'm so glad we somehow managed to pull this crazy mission off.

Here are some very useful real tips for you if you decide to throw a hen's night for your best friend:

1. SPLIT THE WORK WISELY

After much (or little) discussion, I decided it's best that we split into 2 groups - The Game Masters & The Food Mistresses. Give someone a specific role you know they'll be good at (or at least not bad at it). Since 6/7 of us don't watch the show, it's easier for as little people as possible to be committed to spamming the series for the next 2 months i.e. Rachel (the Expert), Waiyi (the Researcher) and Me (the Planner). As for food, I was sure Vanneza, Peggy and Min-Er will do an awesome job since they were talking about high tea and getting customized cupcakes the other day. (Due to personal reasons, Bea had opted out of the discussion and can only participate nearer to the date itself.)

So tadaa, we've got the teams down and got down to business real quick! (to be honest, a month before the hen's night lol)

2. RESEARCH & MORE RESEARCH

If you're also delving into an unknown territory like me, please give yourself ample time to research on what you're dealing with. In my case, I had 12 seasons to catch up on but couldn't even get past half of it even though I've been spamming everyday for a month. SO YES. Save yourself and a lot of confusion by starting early! If not, you can use this pro tip: Just read the summary of each episode/season! Saved me so much time instead of watching episode after episode.

3. BE CREATIVE

Okay, I know that's a general tip but trust me, it pays to be creative. Instead of throwing the usual hen's night, use your creative juices to come up with something that is absolutely special and magical. After all, it's the only hen's night your best friend is gonna have (hopefully)! Other than coming up with a theme, it helps to come up with non-generic games and activities. Pro tip: your bff's favourite activity done in their style. For Charlotte, she loves staycations and enjoys escape room games. It was perfect to plan a escape room game in one of her favourite hotels and in her chosen theme!

PS: If you're interested to know more about the Supernatural Escape Game we designed for Charlotte, stay tuned. I'm gonna post it up real soon once we refined it!

4. PLAN WITH GOOGLE DOC.

Seriously, a lifesaver! In this day and age, I'm pretty sure you've heard of Google Documents and you should already have Google Drive. If you don't, you're really missing out on work efficiency man. Basically, I had this whole plan in my head and it was hard to keep track while we discussed via WhatsApp so I decided that we should all dump our ideas on Google Doc! It helps when 1) we have different working schedules, 2) we don't meet up to discuss cause of point 1) and 3) we don't reply immediately cause of point 1) again. It's so useful to have one document where we can compile and edit all at the same time. You can also dump images for inspiration and create tables etc. So please, create a Google Doc. to save your own asses!

5. GO SPLITWISE

It's easy to split bills between you and your partner but when it comes to a group of 7... yea, we went ahead with Min-Er's brilliant suggestion: Splitwise. Another lifesaver, I swear. Splitwise is basically an app/site that allows you to add the expenses you've made in behalf of the group and split it evenly amongst yourselves. This includes having a few different bills from different people! It's better than us manually counting who owes how much to whom and how much to even out etc. Splitwise does it so efficiently for you, you won't wanna skip on this!

All in all, so glad that I've got a pretty reliable bridesmaids team that surprised Charlotte and made her night. Even though it's not perfect, with lots of hiccups along the way (especially during the game), it's all about the company you spend your hen's night with, isn't it? So here's to another few more weeks to Charlotte's fabulous wedding! We honestly can't wait!