I'm getting married in late July and a few weeks ago sent an email to all my friends telling them to save the first Saturday in July for the hen party. I wasn't sure what it was going to be but to know that it wouldn't be a big weekend away and wouldn't involve traveling out of our town. Apart from 2 people who already had holidays booked, I got positive responses about the date from everyone.
A couple of weeks ago, I was having a drink with a few friends and we chatted about ideas and the consensus seemed to be that it would be great to hire a hot tub at my house and have a bit of a spa thing at home. I looked into it and it was going to either be quite pricey or affordable and shit.
Last week, after agonising for ages over what I should have that everyone would enjoy, I would enjoy and wouldn't be too expensive, I found a local hotel country club place that does a "champagne spa day" for £45 per head. This includes use of the pool, sauna, gym, jacuzzi, 2 course meal, champagne and strawberries, tea and coffee and a private lounge for the whole day. They obviously hope you'll order a massage or pedicure or something on top of that but it's not required. Considering it includes food and the place is well known for being really nice, I thought it was great value. Most other spa places I looked at were charging £60-70 and it didn't even include food.
The minimum number of people they require for this deal is 6. My mum already said yes, and considering I have one bridesmaid, I thought I'd only need another 3 people to agree to get the £45 per head deal. I've emailed 20 friends and pretty much all of them have replied, although interestingly I've not heard a peep out of my bridesmaid despite talking to her several times since and sending her info on Facebook as well. In my email I was clear I wouldn't be offended if a spa thing is not your idea of fun or if you don't have the money because I totally understand that, so I said we could have drinks and cakes at my house in the evening.
I guess I just expected out of 20 people that maybe 3 would be interested enough to come with me. I can hardly believe it, but apparently not. Only two people responded positively and definitely that they would like to come and one of those two retracted it the day after. General view from people is that it's too expensive.
I've had to cancel my provisional booking with the spa. I guess I could go on my own and still have a nice time.
Just last week I went on a hen do which was a meal out, fancy dress costume required, followed by drinks out on the town and taxi home. Everyone who went to that even chipped in to pay for the hen's meal. Pretty sure that all came to more than £45 for everyone considering what I ordered at the meal was £30. Makes me feel a bit of a fool for shelling out to go to other people's hen parties over the years. I've traveled all over the country for them in the past, bought costumes, paid for activities, paid for hotels, done stuff I didn't want to for the sake of the hen. Perhaps I was a bit of an idiot.
Sorry this is so long. I just feel quite down about it right now because I just sent out the cancellation email.